Upcoming Postings: Okay folks, I have found some really good information, such as the Court rulings that I will post, and also the petition by the Society's attorneys to protect their Judicial Committees ... you can see first hand how they tried to save themselves. I will be posting this over the next few days.
Notes:
- I will be blocking out names and locations in some cases as I feel the need.
- Mr. Schnack is the non-JW attorney from California who conducted the deposition on behalf of the Watchtower Society. he is also the attorney whose name you will see on the petitions to the courts as legal counsel for the Watchtower.
- In all cases I am the "Witness" and the one giving Answers.
- The names of former bethelites that I gave were individuals who had long ago left there, as those are the ones I recalled. So, no current names I knew at the time were given as I did not know any specific names other than what is openly published. But they were looking and digging, and I do not blame them for this, as they are trying to plug leaks.
I found my Deposition from 2007: I have taken topical excerpts because they switch around and come back to topics. So, here is where they grilled me about Ray Franz:
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18 Q. Have you met Raymond Franz face to
19 face?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Where?
22 A. At his home.
23 Q. Where does he live?
24 A. He lives in the State of xxxxxxxxxxx.
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1 Q. And you were there 18 months ago?
2 A. At his home 18 months ago, no.
3 Q. Okay. I had understood you met him
4 in his home. I misheard or misunderstood. I
5 apologize.
6 MR. LOVE: I think you asked him the
7 last time he had communication with him.
8 THE WITNESS: Yes.
9 MR. SCHNACK: Okay.
10 THE WITNESS: The communication was
11 18 months ago. Then you asked have I ever
12 met him face to face, but you didn't
13 specify what time.
14 MR. SCHNACK: Okay.
15 THE WITNESS: And I just said yes.
16 MR. SCHNACK: Okay. Well, I make
17 assumptions sometimes.
18 THE WITNESS: Okay.
19 MR. SCHNACK: So I apologize.
20 THE WITNESS: That's okay.
21 MR. SCHNACK Q. When have you met
22 Raymond Franz face to face?
23 THE WITNESS A. In, that would be --
24 it should have been in June of '93, I believe.
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1 No, I don't recall if it was June of '93 or not,
2 but it was somewhere between 1992 and 1993.
3 Q. What were the circumstances?
4 A. I took a business trip to xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
5 and when the weekend arrived and my business
6 activities were over I was scheduled to stay over
7 a couple of days, so I drove to his home to meet
8 with him.
9 Q. What was the purpose of your driving
10 to his home to meet with him?
11 A. I wanted to meet with the man who
12 wrote the book The Crisis of Conscience and his
13 other book, In Search of Christian Freedom.
14 I wanted to discuss those issues
15 related to Jehovah's Witnesses with him.
16 Q. Did you have those discussions?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Tell me the gist of the discussions.
19 A. We discussed -- oh, my goodness -- a
20 large number of items. I don't -- man, oh man, we
21 discussed doctrine, both his views after leaving
22 Jehovah's Witnesses as well as my views and a
23 large number of things.
24 I don't -- I don't know how to give
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1 you the gist, because they were primarily just all
2 over the board.
3 Q. Have you met with him any other times
4 face to face?
5 A. Not face to face.
6 Q. When is the last time you
7 communicated with him? You said 18 months ago?
8 A. About 18 months ago.
9 Q. What was the purpose of that
10 communication?
11 A. To ask him a question.
12 Q. To ask what?
13 A. Ask him a question.
14 Q. What was the question?
15 A. The question was whether he supported
16 Watchtower policy to wards child abusers and what
17 his historical knowledge was of that issue.
18 Q. How did he respond?
19 A. His response is that he did not
20 support the society's policy and that his
21 historical knowledge was limited, because as a
22 member of the Governing Body he just never dealt
23 with that issue a great deal, to his recollection.
24 Q. When was he on the Governing Body?
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1 A. I believe up until 1980, and he --
2 and if memory serves me correctly he said in his
3 book nine years, so do the math, I guess.
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23 Q. What is Bethel?
24 A. Bethel? That's a term used for the
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1 workers and their organization at the Watchtower
2 Society in New York.
3 Q. Have you ever served at Bethel?
4 A. No.
5 Q. Do you know anyone that has?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Who?
8 A. Well, I believe xxxxxxxxxxxxx served
9 there. I believe Tom Cabeen, who I mentioned
10 earlier, served there.
11 I believe xxxxxxxxxx served there. I
12 mentioned him. Ray Franz, he served there. xxxxxx
13 xxxxxxxxxx served there, and there are others I've
14 met.
15 I can't think of all their names.
16 Q. Did your son-in-law serve there for a
17 short time?
18 A. Yes, he did.
19 Q. What did he do?
20 A. He worked at the Patterson
21 Construction Project.
22 Q. Anyone else that you can think of
23 that served at Bethel?
24 A. Some congregation members I knew in
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1 the distant past. I'm trying to think. I can't
2 recall.
3 It's been so long, I can't recall all
4 their names.
5 Q. What was Cabeen's position at Bethel?
6 A. I understood the term factory
7 overseer, and since I did not serve there I don't
8 know all the implications of that.
9 Q. How about xxxxxxxxxxxx?
10 A. I don't know what he did.
11 Q. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl?
12 A. I understood he worked with -- more
13 closely with the Governing Body in some kind of
14 support staff.
Yes, there is more to come and you will see first hand what things interested the Watchtower's legal team in defending themselves with respect to their responsibility in child abuse cases. - Stay tuned ...
