If you prefer to read instead of listen to a broadcast, Child sex abuse lawsuit filed against Vt . Jehovah's Witnesse .
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
Vermont Sisters Sue Jehovah's Witnesses For Child Sex Abuse
by Watchtower-Free 41 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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Sol Reform
Child sex abuse lawsuit filed against Vt. Jehovah's Witnesses
video
http://www.wcax.com/story/26665831/child-sex-abuse-lawsuit-filed-against-vt-jehovahs-witnesses
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OnTheWayOut
You know how some people will say that they are just bitter and after money. Despite knowing that Jehovah's Witnesses will say that, I don't get that kind of vibe at all from this. They reported it to the elders and eventually to police. They wanted something done. Nothing was done. They are sueing the right people.
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berrygerry
Candace Conti did more good than anyone could have imagined that she would have.
It shows that not only can you see justice actually done, you do not need to succumb to the insane pressure to coverup and/or settle for peanuts.
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Crazyguy
the problem the victims are going to have is the elder will be instructed to detroy all documents then they will just tell the other side that after 7 or 10 years all papers are thrown out. Case closed.
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Sol Reform
“The Jehovah's Witnesses have a policy - a policy that is grounded in a code of silence,” Zalkin said, describing a secretive organization that regards protecting its own image as paramount even to protecting its children.
But Zalkin said he has similar cases pending in other states, and will file a lawsuit in Connecticut on Wednesday against the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Reached by phone in Maine, True sounded surprised to hear from a reporter. “I have no comment to make,”
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Sol Reform
The lawsuits also claim True molested at least three other children prior to the abuse of the Lewis sisters, but the elders in the Bellows Falls congregation "chose not to warn ... congregation members of the danger defendant True posed to children."
Marina Lewis also said a family therapist notified the Vermont State Police about the abuse, and a worker for the state Social and Rehabilitation Services — since renamed the Department for Children and Families — looked into the allegations against True.
"The allegations were substantiated by SRS at one time, and then there was a reversal of that decision shortly after," she said.
Ken Schatz, the newly installed DCF commissioner, could not be reached for comment Tuesday about the past handling of the abuse claims. Miranda Lewis said she and his sister decided to file their lawsuits now against True and the Jehovah's Witnesses organization both to help themselves heal and to make sure similar conduct won't happen to others. "I think it's important that this stops," Miranda Lewis said. "This is one way of helping achieve that goal."
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Sol Reform
"Defendants Bellows Falls Congregation and Watchtower, by their actions and choices not to take action, ratified, authorized and approved of Defendant True's sexual molestation of children," the complaint said.
http://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/2-women-sue-jehovah-s-witnesses-congregation-1.9447691
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Balaamsass2
Vermonters Sue Jehovah's Witnesses for Alleged Sex Abuse
David Hodges
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09/30/2014 05:00 PM
09/30/2014 06:30 PM
BURLINGTON, Vt. - Two Vermont sisters are suing their former Jehovah's Witnesses congregation in Bellows Falls and the national chapter after they say they were sexually abused by a church leader.
Miranda Lewis was joined by her mom and her two attorneys in a Burlington law office Tuesday as she described the incidents that led her to file suit against the church.
Lewis, now 23 years-old, told reporters she was abused by Norton True, a ministerial servant at the time at the Bellows Falls congregation, when she was about five years old. True's position is similar to that of a deacon according to Lewis' attorney. The lawsuit also alleges that True abused Lewis' older sister Annessa when she was four.
Lewis and her mother say they reported the sexual abuse to church leaders and to state officials at the time but that nothing came of it.
"It felt like there were politics going on or something that I didn't even discover for years after," Lewis' mom said.
Now the family says it is taking action to keep this from happening again.
"I just hope it makes them pay attention and think about it a little bit more than they have," Miranda Lewis said.
Our calls to both the local and national chapter of Jehovah's Witnesses have not been returned.
The two suits were filed separately. Miranda Lewis' suit is in Vermont Superior Court in Windsor County While Annessa's suit is filed with US District Court in Burlington. Annessa currently lives in Texas.
The suit is against both Bellows Falls Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and the national governing body called Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
Lewis' attorney Irwin Zalkin says the victims acted courageously in coming forward to file a suit against the two bodies.
"They need to do something about what happened to them as children that has been kept silent by the Jehovah's Witnesses as they always do when it comes to what is an insidious and epidemic problem within the Jehovah's Witnesses organization," Zalkin said.
Zalkin has other lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by leaders in Jehovah's Witnesses in other states. In this case he is joined by Burlington attorney Jerome O'Neill who has been previously sued the Catholic church on behalf of victims of reported sexual abuse. -
punkofnice
She also says despite church teachings, she went to the police in 1996, but no charges were filed.
I cannot see the video on this PC. But I wonder why no charges were filed in '96? Some quirk of U.S.A. law? What have I missed?
David Hodges
BURLINGTON, Vt. - Two Vermont sisters are suing their former Jehovah's Witnesses congregation in Bellows Falls and the national chapter after they say they were sexually abused by a church leader.