Another Million dollar verdict against Jehovah's Witnesses

by Tenacious 14 Replies latest watchtower scandals

  • Tenacious
  • Phizzy
    Phizzy

    Clicked on Link and got this : "This content is not available in your area".

    I am in the U.K, could you post the full story, or a Link that works for us here ?

    Many Thanks.

  • The Fall Guy
    The Fall Guy

    Ditto!

    Not even with Opera's VPN switched on!

  • fulano
    fulano

    Same here

  • ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara
    ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara

    Here is the story from TENACIOUS 'S link.wherever there is gibberish it is supposed to be photos, sorry dont know how to upload photos from there.

    Silent No More: The Verdicts

    Two multi-million dollar verdicts deliver legal blow to Jehovah’s Witnesses;‘everybody agreed they were guilty’

    Mark Albert

    Chief National Investigative Correspondent

    WASHINGTON —

    Inside a courthouse in Thompson Falls, Montana, the Jehovah's Witnesses organization in September suffered its greatest court defeat in a U.S. childsex abuse case.

    Dan Stinnett helped bring down Lady Justice's hammer.

    "Everybody agreed they were guilty,” Stinnett recalled recently from his home. Stinnett, in his first interview about the case, explained how he and eight other Sanders County jurors found the Jehovah's Witnesses governing organizations negligent and "guilty of malice" in the child sexual abuse of Alexis Nunez, awarding her $35 million.

    Through her Texas-based attorney, Neil Smith, Nunez declined an interview request because the church has appealed to the state’s highest court. "I believe they were trying to cover [abuse] up, yes. I have no doubt about that, ” Stinnett said. When asked if he was trying to send a message with his jury vote, Stinnett responded, “Why, absolutely. We as jurors and as society really don't condone… any of this.”

    Dan Stinnett, a juror who participated in the largest&#x20

    civil verdict against the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, 

    interviewed by Chief National Investigative Correspondent Mark 

    Albert

    Hearst Television

    Dan Stinnett, a juror who participated in the largest civil verdict against theJehovah’s Witnesses organization, interviewed by Chief National Investigative

    Correspondent Mark Albert

    Investigation finds new allegations

    The Nunez case is one of dozens tallied by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit as part of a yearlong investigation that uncovered new allegations of child sexual abuse and decadeslong cover-ups inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization in the United States. As reported Monday by Hearst Television, the allegations span congregations, states and generations. The findings are contained in a three-part Hearst Television series of reports called “Silent No More” and shed new light on the growing number of people

    accusing the religious organization of systemic shortcomings in the protection of children. The Jehovah's Witnesses organization, which goes by several names including Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and the Christian Congregation and is headquartered northwest of New York City, has fought and settled cases coast to coast. ‘I’m a Survivor’ One of the longest-running court battles involved Candace Conti.

    "I'm a survivor,” Conti declared during a joint television interview with 12 other people who grew up in the religion and allege they were abused as children, many of whom were sharing their accusations publicly for the first time.

    Conti refused to initially settle her case seeking damages against Watchtower, her congregation, and a fellow Jehovah's Witness for sexual abuse and negligence.

    The case went to trial. In a headline-making decision, a California jury awarded her $28 million, the largest verdict against the organization at the time. "There's a strange validation that came from that. Having the jury not only say that they believe you, that they know that this happened, but that the organization was in the wrong in the first place,” Conti said. Growing emotional, Conti continued: “And I am so sorry to everyone behind me

    and to everybody who's fighting right now… I wish – I wish above all else – that they could have that same validation that I did. I really do.”

    Thirteen people who grew up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion speak to Chief National Investigative Correspondent Mark Albert in a group interview in Sacramento, Calif. Conti says she went to the elders – the typically six to eight men who compose each congregation's leadership – a decade ago to urge them to set "Megan's law" alerts for automatic notices when convicted child molesters move into a new congregation, which would give leadership in the new Kingdom Hall a photo of the person. "What I wanted was to help fill this gap in their policies and their procedures to help ensure that this is not going to happen to somebody else,” Conti recalled. “They wouldn't even listen to my idea.”

    ‘Abhor Child Abuse’

    The state’s appeals court later slashed Conti's award amount dramatically after finding that, under state law, the Jehovah's Witnesses had no "duty to warn" a congregation about confessed or convicted child molesters. Both sides reached a confidential agreement after the case reached the state’s Supreme Court.

    Through its Office of Public Information, the organization’s governing body leaders and its spokesperson declined to do an on-camera interview about the Conti case or the organization’s policies in general and did not address any of a detailed list of 22 questions submitted to it.

     A statement to Hearst Television 

    said the Jehovah’s Witnesses “abh

    or child abuse.”

    Hearst Television

    A statement to Hearst Television said the Jehovah’s Witnesses “abhor child abuse.” Instead, in a statement, they said, "Jehovah's Witnesses abhor child abuse as a sin and crime. Our policies on child protection comply with the law, including any requirements for elders to report allegations of child abuse to authorities. Our organization will continue to promote child protection education for parents." Efforts to obtain comment by a television crew that visited three of the Jehovah’s Witnesses nationwide administrative sites in New York state were rebuffed.

    In addition, letters sent to all of the individual congregations named by the group interview participants – a total of 20 – were either returned unopened or did not elicit a response.

    A Jehovah’s Witnesses pamphlet on 

    display near a subway station in 

    downtown Washington, D.C.

    Mark Albert

    A Jehovah’s Witnesses pamphlet on display near a subway station in downtown Washington, D.C. Scrutiny Increasing The scrutiny on the organization is increasing. The National Investigative Unit has learned Attorneys General offices in three states – California, Pennsylvania, and Delaware – have been looking into allegations of child sexual abuse in the Jehovah's Witness organization.

    Map of clergy reporting laws in the&

    #x20;US

    Hearst Television

    These states have tougher laws requiring clergy of all faiths to report allegations of child sexual abuse to law enforcement. Lawmakers are taking notice, moving bills forward in New York, Pennsylvania, California and other states that would require clergy of all faiths to report allegations of abuse, add training or extend the statute of limitations for victims to come forward.

    For Dan Stinnett, the juror in Montana who helped find the Jehovah's Witnesses negligent for failing to protect Alexis Nunez, justice may be blind – but he says his Creator is not.

    "I believe [the Jehovah’s Witnesses] are going to be judged, and I believe it's going to be harsh. Judgment's coming, and it's coming on people just like the people that violated these girls,” Stinnett warned.

    Travis Sherwin, April Chunko, Patricia Nieberg, Noah Broder and Beccah

    Hendrickson contributed to this report.

    On Wednesday, our ‘Silent No More’ series continues with ‘The Reckoning: hear from two former Jehovah’s Witnesses victims on the day a window in New York’s statute of limitations opens, providing an opportunity for lawsuits under the Child Victims Act.

    Survivors speak with reporter about abuse Silent No More: The Survivors

    Zing

  • ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara
    ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara

    It is long but worth reading.

    Zing

  • ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara
    ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara

    Thank you Tenacious for sharing.

    Zing

  • ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara
    ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara

    I copied as is coz I do not believe in taking anything away from such news' so did not give gist or cut out stuff to make it short.

    Zing

  • Diogenesister
    Diogenesister

    Thank you so much Zing

    TLDR: it's a brief interview with one of the Montana case jurors who found Watchtower guilty of negligence and malice, in covering up child abuse.

    Further there's a brief round up of part 1 of the recent Hearst TV 3-part series " Silent No More", where 12 victims are interviewed. Part 2 will go into the New York statute of limitations year-long moratorium and what that means for many victims.

  • eyeuse2badub
    eyeuse2badub

    Tithing will be coming soon for jw's so they can recover from Satan's evil attacks on god's loving organization. Money will sooth the pain! And yet the wt is going to start another big remodel and construction project at the Patterson, N.Y. facility!

    Again thousands of 'volunteers" will be donating hundreds of thousands of hours to upgrade and beautify the real estate of the wt organization. Another sign that the 'elite' eight aren't expecting Armageddon any time sooon.

    just saying!

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