Here are some very interesting comments made to me by an active JW friend in North NJ:
I just went to the website that you sent in your e-mail about the Pandelos! Wow! Yea, this whole thing is really major -it's been a hot topic in our area, and now across the country. There will be a Dateline 2 hour special with the Pandelos in it and a few other family's across the country and the Bowen from the article. It is supposed to be airing within the next 2 weeks. I keep checking the NBC.com Dateline tv schedule to find the air date. It actually should have aired over a year ago...so some of the interviews may be old...I'm sure they'll give updated information.I was actually good friends with Cori Pandelo at the time she told her parents she had been molested by her grandfather her entire life! Some things probably were mishandled by the elders involved at the time...not having experience with handling such major matters...or whatever the reason...but apparently her Grandfather molested like probably like at least 20 people over 40 years. He also abused a few other friends of mine. I was present at one of the grandfather's trials a couple of years ago, to support Cori and some other friends. I heard the grandfather describe in detail some instances of abuse...he is a very sick man and shows no remorse. He admitted to abusing other grandchildren who think he didn't ( some have blocked it out of their memory and their parents are protecting them from what really happened.) . The purpose of this trial was to get money for all of the years of therapy Cori has had to go through to deal with this. They barely won a percentage of what they asked for and the jury actually gave them some of the blame for letting Cori go to her Grandfathers house, when they may have known of him abusing others. He even raped his sister in law, and tried to molest neighbor's kids. He is in the Hawthorne Congregation now , and has been reinstated after being disfellowshipped a couple of times for some of his victims. Anyway, I guess we'll see how the show is presented. Oh-yea the Pandelos are originally from Maywood and their son Justin is our age. He is married now too, to a girl from I think New York. Cori got Married in 2000 and I haven't seen her since the wedding. She lives in Spring Lake Heights-South Jersey.
I'll let you know if I hear of the air date!
I expressed disbelief that active witnesses were actually talking about it and questioned whether maybe she was inactive like me. Subsequently got this reply...
Oh, the reason why everyone is talking about it (Pandelo case)amidst the congregation is because when the trial took place at an open court room to the public, it became public knowledge, anyone could have gone to the trial, so anyone could have found out the information, and talking about it in general would no longer be viewed as "slander" or "gossip". Even the victims for the first time were able to talk about it freely to anyone.The people in the organization are definitely changing and starting to think for themselves a little more! Bravo!I am active as a Witness. I do believe brothers made mistakes and mishandled the circumstances within this case, however the grandfather had been disfellowshipped and , has faced legal consequences. So, I'm not sure what the issues are why the Pandelos have become inactive, but I am interested in hearing their story on Dateline. Barabara has also appeared on some radio shows this weeks addressing the matter, but I didn't hear any of them.
Obie
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