'Dateline' to feature Othello sex abuse case
This story was published 5/28/2002
By Shirley Wentworth
Herald Basin bureau
OTHELLO -- This rural Basin town will be prominently featured tonight in a Dateline NBC segment investigating allegations that elders in the Jehovah's Witness church have covered up cases of child molestation.
Producer Rich Greenberg said a civil lawsuit brought against the elders in the Othello Spanish Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York are a key part of correspondent John Larson's report, which airs at 10 p.m.
The lawsuit was filed by a former Othello woman, Erica Rodriguez, 23, who was raped weekly by a former elder of that church from the time she was four until she moved from the area at 11.
Judge Edward Shea, U.S. District Court Judge in Richland, last week granted the Watchtower's motion to dismiss the case, ruling that it doesn't fall within federal jurisdiction.
Watchtower spokesman J.R. Brown said the church has a strict policy about sex abuse and advises congregation leaders to follow state law about reporting abuse. He maintains all accusations made by church detractors are false. But Rodriguez's attorney, Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., said the case still has merit and he plans to file a new suit in state court.
Rodriguez was the second person in the nation to have filed a suit against the religious group for allegedly failing to properly respond to accusations of sexual abuse by its members.
Manuel Beliz was declared guilty by two separate juries and is serving an 11-year sentence for abusing Rodriquez.
Her civil suit alleged that Beliz repeatedly threatened her with disfellowshipment from the Jehovah's Witnesses if she told police about the abuse, a threat she said was reiterated by elders in Sacramento, Calif.
Disfellowshipment means being cast out of the church and shunned by family and friends.
The lawsuit also stated that elders in the Othello church violated state law by not reporting the sex abuse, instead allowing the abuse to continue while giving Beliz positions as ministerial servant and elder.
Rodriguez also alleged that church policy tolerates child abuse, blames and humiliates victims and fails to report abuse to appropriate authorites.
The story has been drawing national attention along with the deluge of stories about abuse within the Catholic Church.
Two former church members in Kentucky said they were excommunicated for cooperating with the Dateline investigation.