I was able to create the following OP-ED submission using Cedars (with his permission) own script. Recall his great Youtube presentation with Nugget as the charming voice. I hope to submit this in the morning to our Democra-Gazette as soon as it's vetted here. I want to present nothing that can't be substantiated. Please check it out and make your constructive suggestions.
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A dramatic episode is unfolding that may affect your view of those who knock on your door. In a recent check, Google News pointed to some 898 articles that tell the remarkable story about an otherwise unremarkable young woman - a Goliath meets David story.
In a historic legal precedent, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. (Jehovah's Witnesses) lost its attempt to keep the ever-accelerating episodes of pedophilia behind closed doors. A jury found Watchtower behavior regarding its handling matters of child abuse to be unlawful in the aftermath of sexual abuse of a 9 year old girl.
California woman Candace Conti, now 26, was not interested in the traditional Watchtower settlement -- money. She only wanted the truth of her experience to be made public - justice to be done. That meant painfully recounting her experience on the witness stand in front of a jury of strangers.
But why make a large corporation, which directs the actions of some 7 million mostly law-abiding Jehovah's Witnesses, responsible? Conti was molested by a fellow congregation member in Fremont North congregation, California. This happened in the mid-1990s when Candace was only nine years old. What about the perpetrator, a Jonathan Kendrick? This JW - who ironically remains in good membership standing -- is now on the Sex Offenders Register, having been convicted of sexually molesting yet another child in 2004. Why penalize a corporation known by its followers as The Society, to pay up to 2.8 million dollars in compensatory damages, and as much as 21 million dollars in punitive damages (if their planned appeal fails)?
First, there is their two witness rule. This virtually shields the monster who simply makes sure that his dastardly act is private - between him and his prey. If that child molester denies the wrongdoing then local congregation elders will acknowledge that horrific event only if someone other than the child witnessed it. Otherwise, they are instructed by the Society's privately issued elder's manual to "leave the matter in Jehovah's hands" -- simply stated, do nothing. Worse, victims and their families are often intimidated and coerced into not sharing their hideous experience under threat that such action would be slanderous and grounds for disfellowshipping (translation: mandatory shunning by family members not within the same household).
Second, the local elders are instructed to always contact the branch office when they hear allegations of child abuse. This is, in effect, unlawful since law enforcement should always be the first ones to know when a crime has been committed. The Society has wrongly insisted that the victim take a back seat, that the branch office should be first to know in order to properly control damage to its own reputation.
It should be here noted that no encouragement is given the victim that she (or he) submit to a "Physical Evidence Recovery Kit," or PERK. With such kit, experts collect among other things, DNA evidence. This silent witness has proved far superior when compared to testimony by some human witnesses. The terms PERK and rape kit are absent in Watchtower's massive library of public literature since 1950 and in its private instructions to elders, "Pay Attention To Yourselves And To All The Flock".
Thanks to her bravery, Candace Conti may unwittingly be the recipient of financial wealth she never imagined. Thanks to her bravery Goliath may be forced to retreat, rewriting its decades-old policy. More important, some of the many thousands of other victims may be inspired to come forward with their own story, knowing that Goliath has been felled.
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Len