WHEN DOES DATELINE AIR ?!

SHOW: Dateline
DATE: May 28, 2002
WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

Announcer: From our studios in New York, here is Jane Pauley.

JANE PAULEY: Good evening. At some point it may stop being news--each time

another person comes forward to say they were sexually abused as a child by a

trusted religious figure--but not yet, though tonight it's not priests under

fire. In fact, our story began long before the Catholic Church scandal broke

last January. The scenario of alleged abuse is much the same, but the

consequences of coming forward, for people whose faith was the center of their

lives, would be harsh and profound. Here's John Larson.

JOHN LARSON reporting:

In a small town like Othello, Washington, neighbors are often friends, and

friends like family. Which makes the story you're about to hear even more

painful. Because, for Erica Garza, who grew up here, there was no one closer,

no one she trusted more than her parents' best friend.

(Othello; homes; Othello city limit sign; Erica Garza; Manuel Beliz)

Ms. ERICA GARZA: You would have never known by looking at him, or by the way he

acted what he was doing on the side.

LARSON: (Voiceover) What that friend, Manuel Beliz, was doing was molesting

Erica, sexually abusing her. She says it started when she was just five years

old.

(Photo of Beliz; photo of Erica)

Ms. E. GARZA: I remember it just like it was yesterday.

LARSON: What was your reaction when he first started touching you?

Ms. E. GARZA: I didn't know any better.

(Voiceover) I just remember it hurt.

(Photo of Erica)

Ms. E. GARZA: Out of anything, I just remember the hurt.

(From home video) (Unintelligible)...my brother.

LARSON: (Voiceover) A hurt that grew, she says, because her molester pressured

her to keep it all a secret. And while that may not be surprising, this isn't

a story about a molester trying to stay in the shadows. This is a story about

others who may have played a role not only in Erica's abuse, but the abuse of

other victims as well.

(Home video; Beliz; shadow; photo of congregation singing; people holding

hymnals)

Ms. E. GARZA: They didn't care about what had happened. Everything they did

was trying to hide the facts.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Both Erica and her molester were members of the same

church, Jehovah's Witnesses.

(Church sign)

(Excerpt shown from Watchtower Society video)

LARSON: (Voiceover) Jehovah's Witnesses are evangelical Christians best-known

for going door-to-door handing out Awake! magazine. Jehovah's Witnesses have

six million members worldwide, and some controversial rules--no birthdays or

Christmas, no blood transfusions, no military service, no saluting the

flag--all of which separates them, sometimes even isolates them from mainstream

America. In fact, in the world of Jehovah's Witnesses, anyone outside the

church--most of you watching tonight--are considered part of Satan's world, a

world which, as depicted in the church's literature, will be destroyed by God.

True Jehovah's Witnesses, those who closely follow the church's rules, will

survive to live forever on a perfect earth.

But now there are accusations that the church, run out of its headquarters in

New York, called the Watchtower Society, is covering up cases of child

molestation, protecting molesters and keeping secrets that put children at

risk. Consider what happened to Erica Garza. By the time she was 16, Erica's

family had moved away from Othello to a new home and new Kingdom Hall in

California where one day she found the courage to tell her family her terrible

secret. And what did her father, Reuben Garza do?

Report it to the police?

(Excerpts from Watchtower Society video; congregation; members of congregation;

woman being baptized; boy being baptized; books; artist's drawings; New York

City; Watchtower building; photos of Erica and others; Kingdom Hall; photo of

Erica and family)

Mr. REUBEN GARZA: No. Never mentioned report it to the police.

(Voiceover) Take care of it in the congregation.

(Kingdom Hall)

LARSON: (Voiceover) Reuben Garza, who was one of the church's lay ministers, or

`elders,' says that's precisely what Jehovah's Witness leaders had taught him.

And so instead of going to the police, he and his wife, Alexandra, called the

elders back in Othello.

(Photo of Reuben Garza; photo of Garza family)

LARSON: But let me say the obvious. I mean, your daughter's been raped.

Didn't you think, `I've got to go to the cops?'

Ms. ALEXANDRA GARZA: That was my first reaction. But as a Witness, first

you've got to go to the elders when you have a problem.

LARSON: (Voiceover) But the elders didn't go to the police, either. Why? Well,

legally, they didn't have to. Only 16 states require clergy members to report

any and all suspected child abuse, and Washington state is not one of them.

Instead, church elders opened their own internal investigation. It's one of

the things that sets Jehovah's Witnesses apart from most other religious

groups. The church has its own judicial system.

(Kingdom Hall; swings; Othello; Kingdom Hall)

LARSON: Whenever a church member is accused of doing something wrong--whether

it's breaking a church rule like smoking, committing a sin like adultery, or

even committing a crime like rape--the local church appoints a special

committee of elders to investigate the charge. Now, if the accused is found

guilty, they can be reprimanded or, in worst cases, kicked out of the church,

disfellowshipped, potentially cut off from their friends and family, losing

their chance, they believe, at everlasting life. For a Jehovah's Witness,

there can be no greater punishment.

(Voiceover) Erica Garza expected her molester would, at the very least, be

disfellowshipped. But after five months of waiting for the church in Othello

to act, she got angry and did the unthinkable.

Ms. E. GARZA: So I called my elders and I said, `Look, I'm taking it to the

police.'

LARSON: What did they say?

Ms. E. GARZA: `Don't. Or else.'

LARSON: Or else what?

Ms. E. GARZA: That's what I said. I said, `Or else what?' And he said, `Just

don't.' I said, `What? I'll be disfellowshipped if I take it to the police?

Is that what's going to happen to me?' And he said, `Yes. You will be

disfellowshipped.' And I was just, like, `What? You're going to disfellowship

me for being raped, yet they guy who raped me is still a Jehovah's Witness?'

And they said, `Don't. Don't take it to the police. You will be condemned by

God.'

LARSON: (Voiceover) It was October 1996, and Erica says she finally decided

whatever the penalty, she had to go to the police. Following an investigation,

Manuel Beliz was charged with molestation and rape.

And the church? Erica says her California Kingdom Hall not only shunned her,

but shunned her family as well.

(Erica; Beliz; Kingdom Hall)

LARSON: What happened?

Mr. GARZA: Was removed as an elder.

LARSON: So they kicked you out.

Mr. GARZA: Yes, they did.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Erica felt abused, abandoned by her church and alone. But

what she couldn't have known was that it would be four more years before

another Jehovah's Witness, this time, an elder 2,000 miles away, would take a

special interest in Erica's case. The elder had uncovered evidence, he says,

that there were many more victims like Erica within Witness Kingdom Halls. And

now he, too, was about to break with the church and go outside into what

Witnesses believe is the realm of Satan--the outside world--to expose the

church's secrets.

(Erica; Bill Bowen; meeting schedule)

LARSON: You talking to me right now, it's like you're talking to Satan.

Mr. BILL BOWEN: That's correct. I'm attacking God, is what they've said about

it.

LARSON: In the view of the church, sitting down with us right now.

Mr. BOWEN: Yes.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Bill Bowen is a candle maker in Kentucky, and a lifelong

Jehovah's Witness. It all began, he says, about two years ago when he was

filing confidential church records at the local Kingdom Hall and stumbled on

this letter. It described an admission dating back to the 1980s, a molestation

case that he says the church had swept under the rug.

(Bowen making candles; letter; excerpts from letter)

LARSON: About how old was this child that was involved in this case?

Mr. BOWEN: As I reviewed the material, it appeared to me she was about 11 years

of age.

LARSON: (Voiceover) And the admitted molester? A man Bowen knew well, a fellow

elder who got only a slap on the wrist from the church as was never reported to

police. Outraged, Bowen put a message on the Internet to see if there were

other similar cases. The response, he says, was an avalanche of pain and

frustration.

(Congregation singing; Bowen typing; responses on computer screen)

Mr. BOWEN: These were all Jehovah's Witnesses that had been molested and

silenced within the church.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Bill Bowen is not saying Jehovah's Witnesses have more

molesters than any other religious group. The problem, he says, is how the

church handles the cases that come to its attention. Like the case of Daniel

Fitzwater, a Jehovah's Witness elder in Nevada. Bowen discovered that

according to the church's own internal records, church officials knew of 17

girls who had accused Fitzwater of molesting them. But police say the church

never passed that information on to them.

Bowen also learned that in New Hampshire Paul Berry beat and sexually tortured

his step-daughter, Holly Brewer, from the time she was four. But Holly's

mother says that when she complained to church elders that Berry was beating

Holly and her other kids, the elders told her to be a better wife and to pray

more. She also says they never informed police as required by state law. The

church denies that, saying she never told them of the abuse. Holly later ran

away from home and says she disfigured herself with tattoos and piercings in

response to the abuse.

(Watchtower building; photo of Daniel Fitzwater; church records; excerpts from

records; photo of Paul Berry; photo of Holly Brewer; photo of family; Kingdom

Hall; photo of Holly)

Ms. HOLLY BREWER: It started out by me internalizing the pain. It really did.

It started by me, `I want to mess myself up. I want to make myself look as

ugly I can ***(as spoken)***. I don't want any guys to hit on me. I don't

want to be attractive to people.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Both Paul Berry in New Hampshire and Daniel Fitzwater in

Nevada ultimately were convicted of sexual crimes and are now in prison. But

Bill Bowen says many others in the church accused of sexual abuse have never

been reported to police. It's a claim he says he's heard, though not verified,

from several hundred current and former church members. His conclusion:

disturbing to day the least.

(Photos of Berry and Fitzwater; Bowen talking to reporter; text on computer

screen)

Mr. BOWEN: It's a pedophile paradise within the organization. I believe that.

LARSON: What's the danger that you've been consumed by this to the point

that--that you've blown it all out of proportion? I mean pedophile paradise?

Come on.

Mr. BOWEN: I believe it with all my heart.

(Voiceover) There is a massive problem in the organization.

(Bowen)

LARSON: (Voiceover) But Bill Bowen is just one man in one congregation in

Kentucky. This woman, Barbara Anderson, worked for a decade inside Jehovah's

Witness headquarters. When Anderson saw Bowen's messages on the Internet, she

says she realized she had to tell him there was much more to the story,

involving children in many of the 11,000 congregations across the country.

(Bowen; Barbara Anderson; letter on computer screen; Anderson)

Ms. BARBARA ANDERSON: I don't believe that they're safe within their church.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Anderson was a researcher at the Watchtower Society in the

early 1990s when a senior official there asked her to look into the church's

handling of sexual abuse cases. What she found, she says, sickened her:

hundreds of molestation cases on record, all kept secret in church

files--secret not only from the outside world, but from the members themselves,

the families, the mothers and fathers and children who trust the church is

looking out for them.

(Watchtower building; Anderson; filing cabinets)

Ms. ANDERSON: I believe that if they asked to see the congregation records,

they will find that there are many envelopes with letters that discuss men--or

women--in the congregation that were accused of molesting a child.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Why would the church want to keep these cases secret and

in-house? Anderson agrees that part of the problem is the church's distrust of

the outside world, but she says it's not that simple. Anderson says when

church elders investigate crimes like child molestation, they follow

instructions that may prevent them from taking action--ancient instructions

taken from the Bible itself.

(Watchtower building; Bible)

Ms. ANDERSON: They basically use a scripture in I Timothy 5:19 that states

you're not to make an accusation against an older man unless there are two or

three witnesses.

LARSON: What are the odds that there are going to be two or three witnesses to

an older man molesting a eight-year-old girl?

Ms. ANDERSON: No molester is going to have any witnesses, that's for sure.

Mr. BOWEN: The sum and total of their investigation will be going to a

pedophile and saying, `Did you do it? Nope? Well, OK. Guess we'd better go

on then. Sorry we bothered you.'

(Talking on phone) Did he ask you any questions?

LARSON: (Voiceover) Bill Bowen says if you want to get an idea of how the

church sweeps cases under the rug...

(Bowen talking on phone; traffic on bridges)

Headquarters #1: (On phone) Good afternoon, Watchtower.

LARSON: (Voiceover) ...just listen to part of a conversation Bowen recorded a

little over a year ago with an official in the Jehovah's Witness legal

department.

(New York City)

Headquarters Receptionist: (On phone) Good afternoon, Legal Department.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Bowen calls seeking advice on how to handle a suspected

molestation case involving a young girl and her father. Instead of being told

to report it to the police, Bowen is told to confront the suspected abuser.

(New York City; Bowen talking on phone)

Headquarters #2: (On phone) You just ask him again, `Now is there anything to

this?' If he says `No,' then I would walk away from it.

Mr. BOWEN: (On phone) Yep.

Headquarters #2: (On phone) Leave it for Jehovah. He'll bring it out.

Mr. BOWEN: (On phone) Yep.

Headquarters #2: (On phone) But don't get yourself in a jam.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Again, there was no insistence that this matter be brought

to the authorities in the outside world. Bowen says he was so upset by the

whole case he resigned as a church elder and vowed to help abuse victims. He

didn't know that halfway across the country, Erica Garza as feeling the same

frustration as she prepared to face her molester in court.

(Bowen and woman; Erica and family)

LARSON: Did any of those elders, any of the people in the church stand up and

speak on your behalf?

Ms. E. GARZA: No.

LARSON: (Voiceover) But Erica Garza was about to find out that she wasn't

really all alone.

(Announcements)

Announcer: DATELINE NBC, winner of 10 Headliner awards for excellence in

journalism. America's most watched, most honored news magazine, DATELINE, will

be right back.

(Announcements)

Announcer: From our studios in Rockefeller Center, here is Stone Phillips.

STONE PHILLIPS: She was just five years old when she says she was first

molested by a respected member of her Jehovah's Witnesses congregation. Now a

young woman, Erica Garza wants justice. She says church leaders threatened to

expel her if she went to the police, but she went anyway and now her alleged

attacker is on trial for molestation and rape. Here with the conclusion to our

story, John Larson.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Erica Garza's accused molester, Manuel Beliz, showed up in

court with plenty of support.

(Courthouse; empty court room)

Ms. GARZA: (Voiceover) His side was full of Jehovah's Witnesses.

(Empty court room)

Ms. GARZA: People I thought were my friends, but they were there to support

him. And on my side was my family.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Even though Beliz had apparently confessed his crimes

before church elders, it appeared to make little difference. He was expelled

from the church, but only temporarily. Elders allowed him to rejoin the church

before the trial. John White, the congregation's top elder, explained at a

court hearing.

(Beliz and man; entering courthouse; John White)

Mr. JOHN WHITE: (From audio tape) We're satisfied that he was repentant and

could be admitted to the congregation again. To us, we don't see a problem.

LARSON: (Voiceover) White also told the court that when a church member is

called before the elders and admits to a crime, they consider it a religious

confession and that, just like a priest or rabbi, he and other elders have good

reason not to testify about it in court.

(Empty court room)

Mr. WHITE: (From audio tape) Jehovah's Witnesses do not want to harbor

criminals or dangerous people. But we want the confidentiality because if

that's taken away from us, why should a person ever confess anything?

LARSON: Did anybody say, `We understand the pain that this girl has gone

through?'

Ms. E. GARZA: They say we--they feel sorry for me.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Even without the church's help or the testimony of elders

who, Erica says, knew what had happened, in August of 1998 Manuel Beliz was

convicted, guilty on two counts of rape and two counts of child molestation. He

was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison, but two years into his term, his

conviction was overturned on a technicality over how the jury had been

selected. Erica had stood up, faced her abuser, even challenged her church,

but now he was being let out of prison.

(Kingdom Hall; photo of Beliz; jail; empty court room; Erica)

Ms. E. GARZA: I was so disappointed, I was sad, I was heartbroken and I didn't

know what to do.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Manuel Beliz was released from prison to await a new trial.

Last summer DATELINE found him back at the Kingdom Hall, about to join others

going door-to-door, evangelizing for the church.

(Beliz)

Ms. E. GARZA: It just makes me so sad because I was raped and I was--I'm being

shunned, and he raped me and--and he's being loved. It just--it--it gives me

chills up my spine just to think about it.

LARSON: (Voiceover) How do Jehovah's Witness leaders respond to complaints that

they're trying to bury cases like Erica's? They declined a request for an

on-camera interview, but spoke to us off camera, and provided us with a

videotaped policy statement by spokesman J.R. Brown.

(Watchtower building; excerpt from videotape)

Mr. J.R. BROWN: (From videotape) Jehovah's Witnesses feel child abuse is an

evil. It's an evil of our time, it's an evil in our society and so we abhor

it.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Church officials say they publish articles like this,

educating members and training elders how to help abuse victims. The church

also says elders are required to investigate any allegations of abuse, and

steps are taken to protect alleged victims from further abuse. And while

officials acknowledge that molesters who repent are readmitted to church, they

say known molesters are not allowed to hold a position of responsibility within

the church. They also insist that the church complies with all laws on

reporting abuse in those states where it's required, even when there's only one

witness to the crimes. But in states where churches are not required to

report, they say they do not discourage victims from reporting abuse to

authorities.

(Magazine articles; church name on building; congregation singing)

Mr. BROWN: (From videotape) When it comes to the matter of reporting, then

that's something the parents can decide. We certainly never tell them not to

report a case of child molestation.

LARSON: (Voiceover) In a letter to DATELINE, the church's general council adds

that "it is possible that a few of the 77,799 elders of Jehovah's Witnesses

have not followed the direction that they have been given regarding

investigating and reporting child abuse."

(Letters; excerpts from letters)

LARSON: What remains unanswered, though, is why the church gets involved at all

with investigating what are criminal matters. And just how often do they turn

one of their own into authorities? We asked the church for some examples,

proof that they're as tough as they say they are on members who abuse children.

The church waited six months, but finally offered us two cases. And right away

we noticed something. In both cases, the victims were Jehovah's Witnesses, but

their alleged molesters were not. They were non-believers from outside the

church.

(Voiceover) In fact, we could only find two cases where the church took an

active role in turning in one of its own, including the case of this man,

Clement Pandello.

(Clement Pandello)

Offscreen Voice: Mr. Pandello...

LARSON: (Voiceover) Pandello, seen here in family videos...

(Excerpts from family videos)

Unidentified Girl: (From home video) ...in the middle.

LARSON: (Voiceover) ..confessed to church elders he'd molested his own

granddaughter.

(Excerpts from family videos)

Mr. CLEMENT PANDELLO: (From video) Have to kick you out of school if they put

one in your head.

LARSON: (Voiceover) How did the church handle it? The parents of the young

victim, Pandello's own son and daughter-in-law, also Jehovah's Witnesses, told

DATELINE the church pressured to agree to a deal in which Pandello pled guilty

to criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. He was

given only probation, no jail time. And what did the church elders tell

Barbara and Carl Pandello?

(Excerpts from family videos; Carl and Barbara Pandello walking on beach;

excerpts from family video)

Mr. CARL PANDELLO: We should just let it go, that it's not Jehovah's time to

deal with it.

LARSON: (Voiceover) The church says that's not true, and the church apparently

did disfellowship Clement Pandello two separate times. But each time they

welcomed him back. So where is this convicted child molester today, a man who,

according to court records, has admitted molesting girls all his life?

DATELINE found him going door-to-door, a Jehovah's Witness in good standing,

evangelizing to people who know nothing about his record. His own son, Carl,

says the church should know better.

(Clement)

Mr. CARL PANDELLO: He's a sexual predator. When he goes door-to-door, he has a

craving for young, juvenile girls, as he puts it. He's looking at that child,

having those immoral thoughts in his mind while he's there.

LARSON: You know the church now says they don't have a special problem. It's a

societal problem and they do everything they can to stop pedophiles from

hurting children within the Jehovah's Witness church. What do you say to them?

Ms. E. GARZA: Liars.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Even though her accused rapist had been freed on a

technicality, Erica Garza was not about to let him off the hook. Last summer,

nearly five years after she first came forward, Erica headed back to court.

Once again, not one Jehovah's Witness from her former church came to support

her. But this time, she wasn't alone.

(Beliz; Erica and others)

Mr. BOWEN: ...comments we've made from all over the country...

LARSON: (Voiceover) That out-spoken elder from Kentucky, Bill Bowen, was there.

(Erica talking to Bowen)

Mr. BOWEN: Just to even things.

LARSON: (Voiceover) And Bowen had set up a new support group for sexually

abused Jehovah's Witnesses. And more than 20 people who had heard about the

case through his Web site were there to support Erica.

Ms. GARZA: Thank you, everybody, for being here.

These are people who don't know me, who flew from all over the place for me, to

be there for me because they realize, `Hey, you didn't do anything wrong.' And

it was so encouraging to see people there for me...

(Voiceover) ...as opposed for him.

(People entering court house)

LARSON: (Voiceover) In court, Manuel Beliz took the stand. He denied molesting

Erica, but did admit touching her inappropriately. Once again, Beliz was found

guilty.

(Empty court room; photo of Beliz)

Ms. E. GARZA: Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Erica Garza says she has found justice in spite of her

church.

(Erica, Reuben and Alexandra coming out of courthouse)

Ms. E. GARZA: Oh, I can't believe it. On all four counts.

Mr. GARZA: Just a little bit of justice. You deserve it.

Ms. E. GARZA: Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord.

LARSON: (Voiceover) Her molester has been sent to prison for 11 1/2 years.

Ms. E. GARZA: Thank you for all your help, Bill.

Mr. BOWEN: Everything's over.

Ms. ANDERSON: You'll sleep well tonight, won't you?

Ms. E. GARZA: Yeah.

LARSON: (Voiceover) All Erica wants now, she says, is for the church to change

its policy and give molestation victims simple advice.

Ms. E. GARZA: `Take it to the police.' Hey, encourage me to take it to the

police. Don't tell me not to.

PHILLIPS: Erica Garza and Holly Brewer are both suing the Watchtower Society

and their local congregations. The church is fighting the lawsuits. The

church also told DATELINE that while some known pedophiles still go

door-to-door, they are not allowed to do alone.

Finally, four of the people DATELINE interviewed--former Elder Bill Bowen,

Barbara Anderson and Carl and Barbara Pandello--are facing possible expulsion

from their congregations.

[email protected]

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