Ruling gives church chance to turn over disputed documents
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/14/jehovahs-witness-lopez-sex-abuse-appeal/
$13.5M award vacated in Jehovah’s Witness abuse case
by StephaneLaliberte 11 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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OneEyedJoe
I'm having trouble deciding what would be more expensive for them: set a precident that all a lawyer has to do to win is get a court order for them to produce their child abuse records, or producing said records and making thousands of child abuse suits slam-dunk cases for hungry lawyers.
I guess if zalkin is saying that the goal has always been to get the documents, that will probably be the more expensive route for them. I'd love to see them refuse again only to get raided by the authorities to confiscate the documents.
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elderINewton
I agree oneeyedjoe.
Just think of the bad press alone if they produced the documents. Protecting the money train will likely mean a larger default judgement. And a another appeal.
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AudeSapere
From Page2 of the article linked in the OP: ... However, the appeals court disagreed with the judge’s order for Losch’s deposition, saying Lopez’s lawyers did not prove that he was key to the case as a leader in the governing body...
It's like a shell game - trying to find a responsible person within that organization.
First it's tough to know which of the many legal entities of the WT org to go after. THEN you have to try to pin down the responsible person(s). Nearly impossible as each one says "not my department", "not my area of oversight", "I was just doing what I was told on the phone by the (anonymous) rep at WT HQ Legal".
Watching the Australian Commission hearings was infuriating, yet so insightful. It allowed us to clearly see the shell game perpetrated by the men in charge within the organization. The local elders, the WT Legal Counselor for Australian Branch, Geoffrey Jackson - a GB from HQ. They all just came across as weasels.
The prosecuting lawyers in these cases are going to have to go after Jehovah himself to find the party responsible for the abhorrent practices relating to child sex abuse. Either that, or the local elders.
It's likely that the most damning documents are shredder-bound. Or have already gone missing.
So HAPPY to be out of that organization. Some of just seems so incredibly criminal. All masquerading as an odd but docile religion.
-Aude Sapere. (meaning: Dare to Know; Dare to Have Wisdom/Understanding; Dare to Think for Yourself.)
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TheOldHippie
I have just a small, "technical" question: In some of these cases, the newspapers and/or court reports write that this or that person had as a special task to instruct children, or that the elders gave Brother so-and-so the task of guiding the sister's son or daughter, that a brother was frequently in the d-t-d work with a little boy or girl etc.
In all the congregations I have been, I have never experienced that someone had as a special task to teach or guide children, and I can 100 % thruthfully say that if a member of the congregation had frequently been out in the service or doing other acitivties with boys or girls, then others in the congregation would have reacted and started asking questions about what was going on. So why not in these cases? Why no warning lights?
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sir82
In all the congregations I have been, I have never experienced that someone had as a special task to teach or guide children
That language is probably an attempt to explain, to non-JW readers, the very very frequent procedure of having a "respected older man" conduct a Bible, er, JW literature, study with a child.
That happens very very frequently, especially if the child has a single mother or a non-JW father.
My best guess is that the BOE assigned Campos to "study" with Lopez, perhaps at the request of his mother who may have asked for "a fine brother to study with my son", and the unspeakable happened as a result.
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TheOldHippie
OK. Thank you. Perhaps that has changed lately, but when that is done here, the spouse is either together with the study conductor or at least always in the house. But perhaps it varies from country to country. -
StephaneLaliberte
I have seen brothers (Including myself), act as big brothers when studying with young boys. Invite them to social activities, small work, spiritual activities. This is actually a really good thing as it can provide a sort of responsible "father figure" to otherwise, lost kids. But it is totally disastrous if the big brother is a pedophile. -
NVR2L8
Like StephaneL I studied with boys who's fathers weren't a JW and it was something encouraged and viewed by the elders as a sign that I was reaching out to become an elder. In my wife's family a relative studied with his nefiew and abused him in the boy's house until one day when the boy's mother walked in and caught him in the act. Of course all was swept under the rug and nothing was done to help the boy who has since been struggling emotionally. In my area an elder abused young boys when they accompanied him to KHall builds. I personally recall hundreds of occasions when I spent days in service alone with an adult that wasn't a parent...The false feeling of security provides a perfect environment for abusers.
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OneEyedJoe
Yup, there were at least 3 cases in my former congregation (all going on at the same time when I left) where an elder or MS was assigned to study with a so-called "fatherless boy" (i.e. he had a father but he was either not a JW or was DFed). I know for sure that in one case they were often studying alone, just the two of them, and have no reason to suspect that this was in any way unusual. In fact, I think the boy's mother appreciated it and viewed it sort of like free babysitting that let her get some errands done. When you think about the difficulties of a single mother raising kids, I can't imagine this is unique.
In this particular case, I remember an interview with the lawyer in which he stated that this was essentially what was happening - lopez was viewed as a fatherless boy because his father was not a JW, and Campos was assigned by the elders to study with him.