The Candace Conti Case Is Now In The New York Times!
by DT 15 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
-
-
-
Balaamsass
Slow for the NYT.
-
sf
says it was ten minutes ago the story was picked up:
New York Times - 10 minutes ago Maybe in the am, we will see tv news. maybe.
-
sf
SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE FOR 811 COMMENTS THUS FAR ON MSNBC:
-
Balaamsass
I am helping out a tad by forwarding the article to smaller local papers, and active JWs. For those still in the JW "closet", this would be a good time to set up a new gmail account and email the story to your JW family and friends.
-
talesin
woo hoo!
-
Band on the Run
I was very disappointed in the article. It reads as though they are just putting together news releases. McCabe's quote ignores the two-witness policy. If one read the NYT article, one would assume that the only issue in the case was that Kendrick was a JW and was found liable. The article does not proble what facts may have swayed a jury to find the WT liable, a very unusual ruling that was called novel in other news accounts.
The Times usually has decent legal analysis, stating what the general rule is and how cases are novel. The Times did not even mention that similar cases have been brought against the Roman Catholic Church and other churches. What events do legal scholars believe warrant imposing liability on a non-perpetrator. Clearly, notice to the KH elders was present in this case. Important First Amedments issues will be raised on appeal. If the facts were as McCabe suggested, I would not feel that the WT should be liable.
This reads so much like my local press. Perhaps when the regular staff returns t'mw, there will be a better article. Certainly, appellate issues should have been mentioned as well as the history of such suits. This case could serve as a spring board to a long NYT mag piece on the role of churches and whether they are autonomous.
-
DT
We may want to like and tweet this article so they will be more likely to do a longer follow up article.
-
Scott77
June 17, 2012Jehovah’s Witnesses Told to Pay in Abuse Case
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — 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, Calif., church to molest her when she was a child.
Alameda County jurors awarded $7 million in compensatory damages on Wednesday and an additional $21 million in punitive damages on Thursday to the plaintiff, Candace Conti, said Rick Simons, her lawyer.
“This is the largest jury verdict for a single victim in a religious child abuse case in the country,” Mr. Simons said.
In her lawsuit, Ms. Conti, 26, said that in 1995 and 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.
Ms. Conti has identified herself publicly to encourage other victims of sexual abuse to come forward, Mr. Simons said.
“Nothing can bring back my childhood,” Ms. Conti told The Oakland Tribune. “But through this and through, hopefully, a change in their policy, we can make something good come out of it.”
Ms. Conti also said in her lawsuit that the Christian denomination’s national leaders formed a policy in 1989 that instructed the church’s elders to keep child sex abuse accusations secret. Congregation elders followed that policy when Mr. Kendrick was convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in Alameda County, according to Mr. Simons.
Mr. Kendrick was never criminally charged in the case involving Ms. Conti, but he was also convicted in 2004 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child, records show.
Mr. Kendrick, 58, now lives in Oakley, Calif., according to the state’s sex offender registry. He was ordered to pay 60 percent of the judgment, but Mr. Simons said there would be no attempt to collect any money from Mr. Kendrick, in part because he would not be able to pay. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — the organization overseeing the Jehovah’s Witnesses — would be responsible for 40 percent, Mr. Simons said.
Jim McCabe, a lawyer 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,” Mr. McCabe said. “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.”
