Just stumbled across this record of a child abuse case in Ohio which apparently went to the Ohio Supreme court:
http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/9/2016/2016-Ohio-5462.pdf
McFarland Fx W. Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, Lorain Ohio, 2016
by dropoffyourkeylee 7 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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smiddy3
I cannot view the link here in Oz.Maybe that`s why nobody else has responded ?
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My Name is of No Consequence
Interesting...I don't live too far from there.
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dropoffyourkeylee
The original complaint was reported on earlier:
a brief excerpt from the original complaint (points to another reason the book study was eliminated):
34. Plaintiff is informed and believes and on that basis alleges that the Perpetrator informed the elders of Defendant West of his molestation of the minor female, as well as the reason for his divorce, and the pendency of the criminal grand jury well before the molestation of Plaintiff. 35. Plaintiff and her parents met Perpetrator at Defendant West. Plaintiff and her parents attended the same meetings at the same Kingdom Hall as Perpetrator twice per week. Plaintiff and her parents also attended a third weekly meeting sponsored by the Congregation with Perpetrator, called Book Study, at the home of another member of West. Plaintiff also went with Perpetrator in door-to-door preaching activities referred to in the Jehovah’s Witness faith as “field service.”
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careful
DOYKL, thanks for the post and link.
This case is a good example of one judge finding that the clergy-penitant privilege outweighs laying all the cards on the table on a CSA case. As long as there is not unity within the US courts on this matter, and as long as some judges side with the WTS because of this legal principle, the WTS lawyers will continue to milk it for all it is worth. There is currently no standard on this issue in the US courts. What will eventually have to occur is that the higher courts (appellate and supreme courts) will have to decide on this matter, something that they do not appear eager to do.
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DNCall
This was an appeal not to the Ohio State Supreme Court but to the State Court of Appeals. It did not concern the case as a whole but rather as to whether the lower court erred when it ordered Watchtower to produce a number of documents. The Court of Appeals ruled against Watchtower's claim of clergy-penitent privilege with the exception of four documents, which it ruled did not have to be produced by Watchtower. It ordered that the majority of the documents requested by McFarland be produced.
From the child abuse cases against Watchtower that I have read, Watchtower's appeals based on clergy-penitent privilege have failed for the most part. The differences between the states and even between the U.S. and Canada with respect to this privilege do not differ to a great degree.
Due to the way Watchtower handles these matters by involving elders, judicial committees, the service and legal departments, they rarely stay within the bounds of the clergy-penitent privilege.
I don't know what became of this 2016 case. I suspect the parties settled because I haven't heard of this case until today. If anyone has an update, I'm sure we would all appreciate hearing more about it.
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smiddy3
Due to the way Watchtower handles these matters by involving elders, judicial committees, the service and legal departments, they rarely stay within the bounds of the clergy-penitent privilege.
And are the rank and file members of Jehovah`s witnesses even aware that the governing Body / Legal department resort to claiming Clergy-Penitent privilege in a court of law ?,when they proclaim to their congregations they do not have a Clergy class within there religion ? Thereby separating themselves from Christendom`s religions ?
Are they not Hypocrites ? Liars ? Deceivers ? of what is true ?