Calif Jury Awards $28M in Jehovah's Sex Abuse Case

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Calif Jury Awards $28M in Jehovah's Sex Abuse Case

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Calif Jury Awards $28M in Jehovah's Sex Abuse Case
OAKLAND, Calif.
abcnews.go.com
Article Source
Associated Press

Jury awards $28M to woman who said Jehovah's Witnesses allowed church member to molest her


A Northern California jury has awarded $28 million in damages to a woman who said the Jehovah's Witnesses allowed an adult member of a Fremont church to molest her when she was a child in the mid-1990s.

Alameda County jurors awarded $7 million in compensatory damages on Wednesday and another $21 million in punitive damages on Thursday to Candace Conti, her attorney, Rick Simons said.

"This is the largest jury verdict for a single victim in a religious child abuse case in the country," Simons told The Associated Press.

In her lawsuit, Conti, now 26, said from 1995-1996, when she was 9 and 10 years old and a member of the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, she was repeatedly molested by a fellow congregant, Jonathan Kendrick.

The Associated Press does not normally name victims of child sexual abuse but Conti has identified herself publicly to encourage other victims of sexual abuse to come forward, Simons said.

"Nothing can bring back my childhood," Conti told the Oakland Tribune. "But through this (verdict) and through, hopefully, a change in their policy, we can make something good come out of it."

Conti also claimed in her suit that the religion's national leaders formed a policy in 1989 that instructed the religion's elders to keep child sex abuse accusations secret. Congregation elders followed that policy when Kendrick was convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in Alameda County, according to Simons.

Kendrick was never criminally charged in the case involving Conti, but besides the 1994 conviction, he was later convicted in 2004 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child, records show.

Kendrick, 58, now lives in Oakley, Calif., according to California's sex offender registry. A message left with a person answering the phone at his home was not immediately returned.

Kendrick was ordered to pay 60 percent of the judgment, but Simons said there would be no attempt to collect any money from Kendrick, in part, because he would not be able to pay the judgment. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — the organization overseeing the Jehovah's Witnesses —would be responsible for 40 percent, Simons said.

Jim McCabe, an attorney for the congregation, said he planned to appeal the jury's decision.

"The Jehovah's Witnesses hate child abuse and believe it's a plague on humanity," McCabe told the Tribune. "Jonathan Kendrick was not a leader or a pastor, he was just a rank-and-file member. This is a tragic case where a member of a religious group has brought liability on the group for actions he alone may have taken."


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Re: Calif Jury Awards $28M in Jehovah's Sex Abuse Case

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Jehovah's Witnesses Ordered to Pay More Than $20 Million to Woman Who Said She Was Sexually Abused


By James Eng
Article Source
msnbc.com

Updated at 3:20 p.m. ET: In what both sides described as a momentous ruling, a jury in Oakland, Calif., has found that Jehovah’s Witnesses was partly responsible for the alleged sexual abuse of a girl by one of its members and must pay her more than $20 million.

The Alameda County Superior Court jury on Thursday awarded $21 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff, who is now 26 years old. That was on top of the $7 million in compensatory damages it awarded her on Wednesday.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ legal entity, is responsible for the entire punitive damages amount and 40 percent of the compensatory damages, said Rick Simons, attorney for the plaintiff. Sixty percent of the compensatory damages was assessed against Jonathan Kendrick, the man accused of abusing her.

Candace Conti sued Watchtower, the Fremont, Calif., congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Kendrick in 2011. It’s msnbc.com’s policy not to identify victims of sexual abuse, but Conti agreed to be identified so that any other victims would feel they could come forward too.

"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 told msnbc.com. "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."

Both her parents were Watchtower congregation members at the time of the abuse, she said.

"I was trying to be the best Jehovah’s Witness I could be at that time," she told msnbc.com.

Jim McCabe, attorney for the Fremont congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, said that he was “stunned” by the verdict and would appeal.

“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.com.

“Mr. Simons has his twist on the facts and we will see how a court of appeals views the trial court rulings and the evidence,” McCabe said.

The jury found that the elders who managed the Fremont congregation in the 1990s and who were under the supervision of Watchtower knew that Kendrick, a member, had recently been convicted of the sexual abuse of another child, but they kept his past record secret from the congregation, said Simons.

Kendrick went on to molest the plaintiff, who was a Jehovah's Witness member in Fremont, over a two-year period beginning when she was 9 years old, the lawsuit contended.

Kendrick was eventually convicted in 2004 of the sexual abuse of another girl, and is now a registered sex offender in California, Simons said. He has not been criminally charged with abusing the plaintiff, but Simons said the case is under investigation by law enforcement.

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Kendrick was not in court for the trial and msnbc.com could not immediately find a contact number for him.

The California sex offender registry lists two convictions for him: lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age and sexual battery involving a restrained person.

The lawsuit alleged that Watchtower had a policy that instructed elders in its Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations to keep reports of child sex abusers within the religious group secret to avoid lawsuits.

“The verdict is significant because the policy of hiding sex abusers within the congregation was out in this case,” Simons said.

He also said the judgment was “one of the largest in the country for a child sex abuse single victim in a religious institution molestation case.”

Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination noted for its nontraditional interpretation of the Bible. Members are best known for their door-to-door preaching, distributing literature such as The Watchtower and Awake! magazines.

Conti filed the lawsuit after trying, without success, to get Jehovah’s Witnesses in Southern California and in Fremont to change the secrecy policy, Simons said.

“There was no settlement demand from her because she felt the only way to expose this policy and make it change was to bring this case to trial and make it public,” he said.

“The money is the only way left for her to force Jehovah’s Witnesses to stop keep hiding known sex offenders within their congregation.”

McCabe denied Jehovah’s Witnesses has a secrecy policy concerning child sex abuse. He called the verdict "unprecedented."

“We’re stunned by the verdict. We hate child abuse and everything to do with it.”

McCabe said he was not aware of any other case in which a religious organization has been found liable for wrongdoing by a member who was not in an official position of responsibility.

“We’ve got a long ways to go yet before this one is resolved,” he said of the planned appeal.

Simons said Jehovah’s Witnesses has sufficient resources, including valuable real estate, to cover the judgment but an appeal could drag out for years.


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Re: Calif Jury Awards $28M in Jehovah's Sex Abuse Case

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Woman Molested By Jehovah's Witnesses Member at Age NINE Wins $28 million in America's BIGGEST Religious Sex Abuse Payout


By Snejana Farberov
Article Source
PUBLISHED: 09:34 EST, 17 June 2012 | UPDATED: 09:52 EST, 17 June 2012

In a landmark ruling, a California jury has awarded record $28million in damages to a woman who had accused the Jehovah’s Witnesses of allowing one of its adult members to molest her as a child.

Alameda County jurors awarded $7million in compensatory damages last Wednesday and another $21million in punitive damages the following day to 26-year-old Candace Conti, her attorney, Rick Simons, said.

'This is the largest jury verdict for a single victim in a religious child abuse case in the country,’ Simons added.
Image
Victim: Candace Conti, 26, sued Jehovah's Witnesses for failing to address her sexual abuse at the hands of one of the congregants.
In her lawsuit, Conti said that between 1995 and 1996, when she was nine and ten years old, and a member of the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, she was repeatedly molested by a fellow congregant, Jonathan Kendrick.

Both her parents were Jehovah’s Witnesses at the time of the abuse, Conti said.

‘I was trying to be the best Jehovah’s Witness I could be at that time,’ she told msnbc.com.

While it is unusual for victims of sexual abuse to be identified in the press, Conti has decided to go public with her allegations to encourage other victims of sexual abuse to come forward, Simons said.

A Facebook page dedicated to Conti has been created where nearly 500 supporters have expressed their gratitude to the 26-year-old for coming forward.
Image
Predator: Johnathan Kendrick was convicted of misdemeanor child molestation in 1994 and lewd acts with a minor in 2004.
‘Nothing can bring back my childhood,’ Conti told the Oakland Tribune. ‘But through this (verdict) and through, hopefully, a change in their policy, we can make something good come out of it.’

Conti also claimed in her suit that the religion’s national leaders formed a policy in 1989 that instructed the religion’s elders to keep child sex abuse accusations within the group secret to avoid lawsuits.

Fremont elders followed that policy when they chose to conceal the fact that Kendrick had been convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in Alameda County from the congregation, according to Simons.

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES BELIEFS REVEALED

  • There is one God Almighty--a Spirit Being with a body but not a human body. There is one God and no Trinity.

    God created the heavens and earth in six days, but each ‘day’ is equal to thousands of years. God created and controls all processes and events.

    Christ is Lord and Savior, but not God (Jehovah) incarnate, not a God-man but inferior to God.

    No soul remains after death.

    The original sin caused humans to inherit death and sin.

    Abortion is wrong. Homosexuality is a serious sin. Gender roles are defined: Men are the head of the household and women are loving caretakers.

    Service in the armed forces or any form of allegiance to government is prohibited.

    Blood transfusions are considered wrong, as God said the soul is in the blood. Bone marrow transplants are left to the individual conscience.


Kendrick was never criminally charged in the case involving Conti, but besides the 1994 conviction, he was convicted in 2004 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child younger than 14 years and sexual battery involving a restrained person, records show.

Kendrick, aged 58, has been registered as a sex offender in California. He currently resides in Oakley.

Kendrick was ordered to pay 60 per cent of the judgment, but Simons said there would be no attempt to collect any money from him, in part, because he would not be able to pay the judgment.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — the organization overseeing the Jehovah’s Witnesses —would be responsible for 40 per cent, according to Conti’s lawyer.

‘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 told msnbc.com.

‘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, an attorney for the congregation, said he was ‘stunned’ by the verdict and planned to appeal it. He denied Jehovah’s Witnesses has a secrecy policy concerning child sex abuse and accused Conti’s lawyer of twisting the facts of the case.

‘The Jehovah’s Witnesses hate child abuse and believe it’s a plague on humanity,’ McCabe told the Tribune. ‘Jonathan Kendrick was not a leader or a pastor, he was just a rank-and-file member. This is a tragic case where a member of a religious group has brought liability on the group for actions he alone may have taken.’
Image
Accountable: The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, which oversees the Jehovah's Witnesses, would have to pay 40 per cent of the damages.
Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination noted for its non-traditional interpretation of the Bible. Members are best known for preaching door-to-door, and distributing religious literature such as The Watchtower and Awake! magazines.

Simons said his client sued the church in 2011 after trying and failing to get Jehovah’s Witnesses in Southern California and in Fremont to change the secrecy policy.

‘The money is the only way left for her to force Jehovah’s Witnesses to stop keep hiding known sex offenders within their congregation,’ Simons said.


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Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
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Re: Calif Jury Awards $28M in Jehovah's Sex Abuse Case

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Landmark U.S. Verdict Against Jehovah’s Witnesses May Prompt Canadian Sex Abuse Lawsuits


Published on Monday July 02, 2012
Article Source
TheStar.com
Wendy Gillis
Staff Reporter
Image
Candace Conti, 26, recently won a huge court battle against the world headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York.
Candace Conti says the abuse began when she was 9 years old, distributing Bibles door to door with a fellow churchgoer, a loud, hulking man named Jonathan Kendrick.

It was the mid-1990s in Fremont, Calif. Conti’s parents were having marital problems, her mother was sick and distracted. So the little girl found family in her tight-knit Jehovah’s Witness congregation — and Kendrick found a victim.

For two years, Conti says, Kendrick repeatedly molested her, most frequently when she went out with him to proselytize. When he hugged her, she was afraid of being crushed.

“I was very scared,” Conti, now 26, told the Star from California.

She later learned she was not Kendrick’s first victim, that he had been convicted in 1994 of child molesting. That led to her suing the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc. — the corporation that oversees Jehovah’s Witnesses — on the grounds that the elders of her congregation knew of Kendrick’s record and did nothing to protect her.

Last month, in a landmark ruling, a California jury sided with Conti, ordering the Watchtower to pay nearly $25 million in damages and Kendrick to pay about $3 million.

“This was about telling the Watchtower … that they gotta change,” said Conti’s lawyer, Rick Simons. “They’re the last ones to be keeping this secret.”

In the wake of this legal victory, some observers predict similar suits might be filed in Canada, where there are more than 110,000 practising Jehovah’s Witnesses and numerous former members.

Unlike sex abuse cases involving the Catholic Church, which have received wide public attention in recent years, Conti’s case shines a rare spotlight on sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Conti, who as a sex abuse victim had the right to have her name kept out of the media, chose instead to go public with her case. She deliberately wanted to focus public attention on what she sees as church’s extreme secrecy: elders hushing up victims, abused children having to produce independent witnesses, victims being made to confront their abusers face to face.

She also alleged the Watchtower had a policy, since 1989, of instructing elders to keep accusations of child sex abuse secret.

Lawyers for the Watchtower are appealing last month’s verdict, but observers say the church’s defeat in court could lead to more lawsuits, some of them in Canada.

“They’re sure getting a bloody nose over this one,” said retired University of Lethbridge professor James Penton, himself a former Jehovah’s Witness and the author of three books on the denomination. “This will cause many people to have nothing to do with them, and many people within the movement to question what’s going on.”

Penton, 80, doesn’t think child abuse is any more common in Jehovah’s Witness congregations than in any other religion or group.

He also said many elders obey laws on informing authorities of suspected child abuse. (The Watchtower’s policy on child protection explicitly states elders should take this step.) But he said there’s substance to allegations that the Watchtower simultaneously encourages secrecy when dealing with child abuse matters.

“They keep sending out various messages to the local elders, telling them to keep this sub rosa … the terrible, nasty aspect to this whole thing is the coverup,” Penton said.

According to Simons, documents presented as evidence in the Conti lawsuit proved that elders had been encouraged by the Watchtower not to raise Kendrick’s abusive past. The lawsuit alleged that this silence allowed Kendrick to abuse Conti.

The Watchtower did not return a request for comment from the Star. But Jim McCabe, a lawyer for the organization, said in a statement following the Conti verdict that Jehovah’s Witnesses “respectfully disagree with the jury’s decision.”

“We are very sorry for whatever harm this young lady may have suffered. However, the organization is not responsible,” said McCabe, noting the lawsuit was based on “the alleged misdeeds of a member who held no position of leadership or authority.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses “abhor child abuse and strive to protect children from such acts,” he said. They also reject allegations that the church has a secrecy policy concerning child sex abuse.

Critics of the church believe there could be Canadian followers whose claims of sexual abuse were swept under the rug in the past who may now file their own suits, having seen Conti defeat the Watchtower and its lawyers in court.

Barbara Anderson, a former Jehovah’s Witness who worked at the Watchtower, runs a website called WatchtowerDocuments.com from her Tennessee home. She told the Star that since the Conti ruling, her 10,000-member discussion board, which includes many Canadians, has lit up with people telling their own stories of abuse and wanting to know how to pursue action.

Conti’s lawyer Simons said he’s had calls from people around the world saying they went through a similar experience in their Jehovah’s Witness congregations.

All this publicity is precisely what Conti had hoped her suit would achieve. “Nothing was going to get accomplished if it was kept silent,” she said, defending her decision to go public with her story. “In my mind it’s a good start to obtaining a goal to protect children in the future.”
Image
Vicki Boer sued the Canadian Jehovah's Witnesses over 10 years ago over the way they handled her complaint of sexual abuse. She won but was burdened with heavy legal costs. She was pleased to hear of the landmark verdict in the U.S. last month.
Here in Canada, Vicki Boer had hoped to shine a light on abuse within Jehovah’s Witness communities when she filed a civil suit against the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada and the elders of her congregation more than a decade ago over how her complaint of sexual abuse had been handled.

Boer told the court how in the 1980s, between the age of 12 and 16, she was abused by her father. They belonged to a Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Shelburne, Ont. and when she told church elders, she was forced go over her allegations in detail in front of her father.

“It was the process that was damaging … them putting me in a room, making me sit in front of my father when I was explaining the abuse, when I went to them first because I was suffering,” she said from Fredericton, where she now lives.

The Jehovah Witnesses have a strict rule that the accused produce an independent witness of the alleged wrongdoing. As well, Watchtower policy states that when a Jehovah’s Witness is accused of abusing a child, elders must meet with both the accused and the accuser — individually and then together.

“If during that meeting the accused still denies the charges and there are no others who can substantiate them, the elders cannot take action within the congregation at that time,” says the Watchtower’s online child-protection statement. “Why not? As a Bible-based organization, we must adhere to what the Scriptures say, namely, ‘No single witness should rise up against a man respecting any error or any sin …’ ”

According to former members, elders have told children and their families that if there are no witnesses to the alleged abuse then they should not speak about it as that would be slanderous. To do so can be grounds for “shunning” — whereby the outcast follower is cut off from friends, family, his or her former way of life.

Boer eventually won the high-profile case, heard in Toronto, but was then ordered to pay the legal costs for all parties.

The church eventually relented on making her cover its costs, but the judge’s decision was not the victory she had been after.

News of Conti’s favourable verdict left her “extremely happy,” Boer said. “I applaud her that she did it, too, because it takes an extreme amount of belief in yourself and what you’re doing. These (acts of abuse) just have to stop.”

Conti’s fight, however, may not be over. The verdict is being appealed, and there’s a chance the damages awarded to Conti could be reduced.

Her lawyer, Simons, acknowledges the case is an important win, but more verdicts are needed to ensure no more cases of abuse occur or are hidden within the church.

“This is only the first step,” he said.


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Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
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