by yesidid 42 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
"Jehovah's Witnesses abhor child abuse," McCabe said. "They've been at the forefront in exposing it."
More correctly,
"Jehovah's Witnesses abhor victims of child abuse, they've been at the forefront in punishing victims and their family who exposing it."
BLONDIE - Thanks for posting the S.F. Chronicle article ! And YESIDID for posting the link and the thread ! This WT attorney 's comments are dumb as a rock. His comments may be designed to work on rank & file JW's but won't work on non-Witness jurors who haven't been mind controlled and can see through his exploitive comments. What a tool.
Kudos and props to Candace Conti for having the courage to step forward with the motive to help other victims by exposing the WT society's faulty child abuse policies. Right on. This woman is a modern day hero.
We could do with a separate 'news reports' thread.
USA Today
Jun 16, 2012
By Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAYUpdated 26m ago
A jury in Oakland, Calif. has ordered Jehovah's Witnesses to pay more than $20 million to a woman who was allegedly sexually abused by one of its members, MSNBC reports.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the Jehovah's Witnesses' legal entity, is responsible for paying Candace Conti, who sued Watchtower, the Fremont, Calif., congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and Jonathan Kendrick, the man accused of abusing her.
The jury found that the elders who managed the Fremont congregation in the 1990s knew that Kendrick, a member, had recently been convicted of sexually abusing another child, but kept his past record secret from the congregation, MSNBC reports.
Kendrick went on to molest Conti, who was a Jehovah's Witness member in Fremont, over a two-year period beginning when she was 9 years old, according to Conti's lawsuit.
Kendrick was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing another girl but has not been criminally charged with abusing Conti. He is now a registered sex offender.
"The ultimate goal of the lawsuit was to have a change in policy, to be able to ID these people, child molesters, to the congregation to protect children," Conti, now 26, told MSNBC. "Secondarily, to have silent ones come forward and tell their stories and to bring to light that overall issue of violence and the hush-hush policy."
Jim McCabe, attorney for the Fremont congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, said that he was stunned by the verdict and would appeal. He denies the church had a policy of secrecy.
"This is the first case I know of where a church has been hit with liability involving a rank-and-file member," he told MSNBC. "We've got a long ways to go yet before this one is resolved."
i've always respected all you guys, but today i am really really proud of the entire ex-jw community. this validates so much of the work everyone has put in fighting watchtower. it almost feels like that first burst in a dam. this is just incredible.
Well spotted AnnOMaly - I've included the USA Today link on my blog article. This now takes us to 7 external media sources, and counting!
It's definitely going viral.
Cedars
I'm glued to Google and keep hitting 'refresh'
omg,
This is taking off!!!! :D :D :D
Life is To(o) Short has been speechless. Probably suffering from her internet explorer. We're here for you, LITS.
You all might have heard I was going to wean myself off of JWN, then this huge story hits. I can't leave now. Keep putting out those news links.
"This is the first case I know of where a church has been hit with liability involving a rank-and-file member,"
This glosses over the point that written policies from WTBTS headquarters tell the BOE report to the lawyers at Bethel first, rather than to the legal authorities, and to do as little as possible to comply with the "mandatory reporting" laws (use a pay phone, don't give a name, etc.) rather than cooperating fully with the investigators. The direct consequence of that written policy was that Kendrick was able to continue his crimes, leading to further harm to plaintiff and other victims. That WTBS policy of negligence is what the case is about, and the jury agreed with the claim.
Besides, don't they say that all baptized publishers are "ordained ministers", and that they don't have any special "clergy class?"
