Montana jury awards two women $35M in sex abuse lawsuit against Jehovah's Witnesses

by AndersonsInfo 92 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  AndersonsInfo

  
  https://missoulian.com/news/local/montana-jury-awards-two-women-m-in-sex-abuse-lawsuit/article_1bcabb7c-7381-574b-a2ba-e011cc0250a6.html

  Montana jury awards two women $35M in sex abuse lawsuit against Jehovah's Witnesses

  A jury in northwestern Montana awarded two women $35 million Wednesday in their lawsuit against the local Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation and its worldwide headquarters.

  The decision came down after a three-day trial. The Thompson Falls congregation and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the church’s institutional center in New York and Pennsylvania, will pay $4 million in compensation and $31 million in punitive damages to two women who sued the church in 2016.

  The women said Max Reyes, a member of the Thompson Falls congregation, sexually assaulted, molested and raped them over a 13-year period in the 1990s and 2000s, both before he was severed from the congregation and after leadership reinstated him 14 months later.

  Watchtower, the church’s worldwide center, is the headquarters for the religious leadership and the church's institutional operations, such as policy making and financing. Each congregation is legally connected to Watchtower as one entity.

  READ MORE: https://missoulian.com/news/local/montana-jury-awards-two-women-m-in-sex-abuse-lawsuit/article_1bcabb7c-7381-574b-a2ba-e011cc0250a6.html
  
  
  
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  neat blue dog

  Awesome!! Keep 'em coming, bled em dry where it hurts.
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  dubstepped

  I hate that these people were so hurt, but I am happy to see the organization that fosters so much of the hurt get punished. Hit 'em in the only place they truly care about, their money and power.
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  Tech49

  The remainder of the article, if you don't want to go to the website:

  Earlier in the case, Judge James Manley ruled that Reyes’ criminal acts were foreseeable to the church leadership when they allowed him to return and that the congregation’s elders were not exempt from Montana’s mandatory reporting law when they learned of the allegations against him and didn’t turn him over to law enforcement.

  In the weeks before the trial, Watchtower’s attorneys asked the Montana Supreme Court to consider overturning Manley’s rulings and stalling the trial, but the request was denied.

  
  

  Media reports and testimony from a comprehensive investigation into the church by the Australian Royal Commission have criticized the Jehovah’s Witnesses for policies that direct elders in local congregations to handle matters internally, rather than alerting authorities or congregation members about known sexual predators. The policies from Watchtower leadership also require accusers to have two witnesses to the sexual abuse for proceedings to begin against the accused.

  
  
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  AndersonsInfo

  More Information:
  

  https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2018/09/27/montana-jury-jehovahs-witnesses-must-pay-34-m-abuse-survivor/1443995002/

  Montana jury: Jehovah's Witnesses must pay $34M to abuse survivor

  AP
  

  HELENA — A Montana jury has ruled that the Jehovah's Witnesses organization must pay $34 million to a woman who says the church covered up her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member.

  Neil Smith, an attorney representing the 32-year-old woman, says the jury's verdict Wednesday in the lawsuit sends a message to the Jehovah's Witnesses' New York headquarters to stop prioritizing church secrecy over children's safety.

  Jehovah's Witness officials did not immediately respond to a call or email for comment.

  The monetary award must be reviewed by the trial judge.

  The jury dismissed claims by a second woman who alleged abuse by the same man in Thompson Falls in the 1990s.

  The jury concluded church elders did not receive notice of the second woman's abuse and therefore did not have a duty to tell authorities.
  
  
  
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  Simon

  The women said Max Reyes, a member of the Thompson Falls congregation, sexually assaulted, molested and raped them over a 13-year period in the 1990s and 2000s, both before he was severed from the congregation and after leadership reinstated him 14 months later.

  It's almost as though their "spirit directed" decision making is really just pure guesswork and easily fooled by some hand-wringing act. Surely not?
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  DesirousOfChange

  
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  Dagney

  WOW!!!!
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  cobweb

  also briefly covered by the Washington Post although they say its 34 million.

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/jury-jehovahs-witnesses-must-pay-34m-to-abuse-survivor/2018/09/27/5dc84a7a-c277-11e8-9451-e878f96be19b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.005d262895ba
  
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  AndersonsInfo

  The first report was incorrect. The jury awarded $34M to one woman, not $35M to two women.

  
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/jury-jehovahs-witnesses-must-pay-34m-to-abuse-survivor/2018/09/27/5dc84a7a-c277-11e8-9451-e878f96be19b_story.html?utm_term=.6475dc5e243b
  
  https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/montana/articles/2018-09-27/jury-jehovahs-witnesses-must-pay-34m-to-abuse-survivor