I have been shocked to read all of the stories about congregations hiding evidence of child molestation. Not just because of the tragedy of the situations, but also because my own experience has been exactly the opposite.
The elders in our congregation harbored a sister and her three children, who was wanted by police. She was on the run, because she did not have custody of her children, and she had taken them from their father and left the state. She had accused her ex-husband of child molestation. The police had investigated, but dismissed the accusations as being of her invention, a judge awarded custody to the father while calling her an unfit mother, and she left with the children.
My grandparents believed her story that her ex was abusing her children, and they gave her food and what money they could spare. Not very long afterwards, this sister accused my grandfather of molesting her daughter in an attempt to extort money. When that didn't work, she went to the elders. The elders in the congregation believed her, went to the police, and the police then questioned neighborhood children who suddenly remembered they were molested too. The jury, although two jurors actually fell asleep during the trial, believed the stories, failed to recognize the disturbing contradictions in the testimony (for instance, these two girls were sisters and they both had the exact same story: that each was molested while her sister was in the other room, she called for help and they both ran away and never came back), and returned a guilty verdict. Obviously our family believes he is innocent, but my grandfather went to jail. He was DF'd, even though he maintained his innocence (and still does).
Any criminal attorney will tell you, if the charge is sexual abuse, there's almost always going to be a conviction regardless of the quality of the testimony/evidence. This is a complete reversal from 25 years ago when you couldn't even get the case to trial. I've heard many times about how children never lie about sexual abuse, but it's been proven over and over again that isn't the case. Children do lie about sexual abuse, but not generally of their own volition. The McMartin preschool case is the most notorious example of this. Overzealous social workers/police/prosecutors can plant ideas in children's minds, especially very young children, and the result is they even start believing it actually happened. And sometimes it becomes a children's way of "punishing" an adult who has upset the child in some other way, as children are often told repeatedly that "if someone ever touches you... tell us and we'll make sure they go to jail."
As for the sister that made the accusation, she spent some time in jail for taking her children in violation of the custody order. She wasn't DF'd though. Later, after she was able to regain visitation rights, the daughter made another accusation against someone else. Depending on the jurisdiction, prior accusations are not admissible to impeach the character of an accuser. It wasn't permitted in our jurisdiction. But the prosecutor's office did not pursue the case for the third accusation, in light of the pattern of accusations. I don't know what became of the child, but I can't imagine she ended up a very stable individual with such a history.
All I do know is that the elders would pick and choose who they believed and who they didn't, for whom they broke the law and for whom they zealously sought justice. It isn't the place of the elders to determine when a crime should be reported or not. If they have a knowledge of a crime, or accusation has been made of a crime, it should be reported no matter what. They should never make the determination of whether an accusation or charge has merit themselves and not report it. Of course, in our case the only crime they chose to report was the child molestation, for which they zealously and aggresively sought "justice." Sadly, most elders do the opposite and choose to protect perpetrators of heinous crimes (while arbitrarily disfellowshipping others for minor violations of WT policies).
Because of my experiences, I don't automatically believe, or disbelieve, any accusation of sexual abuse. Everyone is entitled to a fair trial (a fair one, where the jury stays awake for it... although my legal training has taught me you can't regulate whether a jury pays attention or not), and it shouldn't be up to the elders to make the decision of whether or not an accusation is reported. For an organization that is supposed to follow the law and not be involved, they seem to have a problem doing either one. The tragedy is the lives they destroy in the process of ironically acting as judge and jury themselves.
Sorry for such a long diatribe, but I thought I would offer a different perspective on the topics at hand.