The 70-year-old West Milton woman told police she knocked on a door to a home at 12:30 p.m. April 12 in the 700 block of Hunters Chase Drive. The resident opened the entry door and said he wasn't interested. His dog came charging down the hall, forcing the storm door open. The dog, an 8-year-old black Labrador retriever named Ace, got out and bit the woman on the right buttock and thigh area, according to a police report.

The dog's owner was able to show Ace was current on his vaccinations through My Favorite Pet veterinary clinic, according to the report.

The resident's fence in front of the home had a 'Beware of Dog" sign, the report noted.

20

Former Jehovah’s Witness jailed for child sex crimes

by Tahoe in

jw
friends

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/former-jehovahs-witness-jailed-for-child-sex-crimes-ng-b88859067z.

a former jehovah’s witness who sexually assaulted three young boys says his homosexual inclinations were repressed by his religion and manifested in his crimes.. gavin andrew lamont, 46, was jailed for four years today for assaulting two vulnerable teenagers in the early to mid-90s and another boy about 20 years later.. lamont encouraged the teens to give him massages and suggested he needed help checking for testicular cancer.. district court judge linda petrusa said lamont, who knew he was homosexual from about age 13, had significant cognitive distortions around sex because of his religious beliefs.. .

she said the victims, who were aged between 14 and 16, were vulnerable because of their youth and lack of sophistication.. judge petrusa sentenced lamont to four years behind bars for indecently dealing with a child and four counts of indecent assault.. lamont was kicked out of the mundaring congregation in 1997 after one of his victims complained to other members, but was reinstated after doing counselling with elders.. he was kicked out of the congregation for a second time in 2014 after another victim made a complaint.. lamont’s crimes came to the attention of police last year through the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.. defence lawyer seamus rafferty described the case as complex, saying lamont struggled with his sexuality because his religion told him it was a sin.. he told the court the church was the essence of lamont’s being and said his client tried to repress his sexuality and ended up behaving in “naïve, unsophisticated and pathetic ways”.. lamont’s parents and sister are all living with complicated health issues and rely heavily on his help and care.. mr rafferty asked judge petrusa to give lamont a conditional suspended jail term, saying he was the glue that was holding his family together.. “this is a case for the exercise of mercy, its mercy towards them (his family) and nobody else,” he said.. judge petrusa accepted a prison term would be tough on lamont’s family but said an immediate jail term was the only appropriate punishment.. in a statement to the court, one of the victims said he felt that he was “forever stained” by lamont’s crime.. he said the abuse had made him self-conscious in his dealings with his own child.. lamont will be eligible for parole after spending two years behind bars.. .

Tahoe

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/former-jehovahs-witness-jailed-for-child-sex-crimes-ng-b88859067z

A FORMER Jehovah’s Witness who sexually assaulted three young boys says his homosexual inclinations were repressed by his religion and manifested in his crimes.

Gavin Andrew Lamont, 46, was jailed for four years today for assaulting two vulnerable teenagers in the early to mid-90s and another boy about 20 years later.

Lamont encouraged the teens to give him massages and suggested he needed help checking for testicular cancer.

District Court Judge Linda Petrusa said Lamont, who knew he was homosexual from about age 13, had significant cognitive distortions around sex because of his religious beliefs.

She said the victims, who were aged between 14 and 16, were vulnerable because of their youth and lack of sophistication.

Judge Petrusa sentenced Lamont to four years behind bars for indecently dealing with a child and four counts of indecent assault.

Lamont was kicked out of the Mundaring congregation in 1997 after one of his victims complained to other members, but was reinstated after doing counselling with elders.

He was kicked out of the congregation for a second time in 2014 after another victim made a complaint.

Lamont’s crimes came to the attention of police last year through the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Defence lawyer Seamus Rafferty described the case as complex, saying Lamont struggled with his sexuality because his religion told him it was a sin.

He told the court the church was the essence of Lamont’s being and said his client tried to repress his sexuality and ended up behaving in “naïve, unsophisticated and pathetic ways”.

Lamont’s parents and sister are all living with complicated health issues and rely heavily on his help and care.

Mr Rafferty asked Judge Petrusa to give Lamont a conditional suspended jail term, saying he was the glue that was holding his family together.

“This is a case for the exercise of mercy, its mercy towards them (his family) and nobody else,” he said.

Judge Petrusa accepted a prison term would be tough on Lamont’s family but said an immediate jail term was the only appropriate punishment.

In a statement to the court, one of the victims said he felt that he was “forever stained” by Lamont’s crime.

He said the abuse had made him self-conscious in his dealings with his own child.

Lamont will be eligible for parole after spending two years behind bars.

11

JW elders told abused girl’s parents not to report sex offender (another one)

by Tahoe in

jw
friends

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/jehovahs-witness-elders-told-abused-1636907.

a bradford man's sex offence against a little girl was kept quiet for 23 years because elders of the jehovah's witnesses church persuaded her parents not to report him, a court was told.. robert lee's crime in the forest of dean was not revealed until the victim had grown up and went to the police, gloucester crown court heard on friday.. .

both the victim's family and lee were jehovah's witnesses at that time, said prosecutor kerry barker.. he told the court that having avoided justice, lee, formerly of coleford, but now of alexandra road, bradford, went on to commit further child sex offences in 2008 and 2016.. lee, who used the surname howarth at that time, admitted indecent assault of the girl in march 1995 in coleford when he was aged just 17.. sentencing lee to two years jail suspended for two years and ordering him to sign the sex offender register for 10 years judge ian lawrie qc said he was 'concerned' at the church's advice to the mother not to report him.. he also placed lee under a 10 year sexual harm prevention order.. “i've raised concerns about how this came to the attention of your church authorities and was not reported.

Tahoe

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/jehovahs-witness-elders-told-abused-1636907.

A Bradford man's sex offence against a little girl was kept quiet for 23 years because elders of the Jehovah's Witnesses church persuaded her parents not to report him, a court was told.

Robert Lee's crime in the Forest of Dean was not revealed until the victim had grown up and went to the police, Gloucester Crown Court heard on Friday.

Both the victim's family and Lee were Jehovah's Witnesses at that time, said prosecutor Kerry Barker.

He told the court that having avoided justice, Lee, formerly of Coleford, but now of Alexandra Road, Bradford, went on to commit further child sex offences in 2008 and 2016.

Lee, who used the surname Howarth at that time, admitted indecent assault of the girl in March 1995 in Coleford when he was aged just 17.

Sentencing Lee to two years jail suspended for two years and ordering him to sign the sex offender register for 10 years Judge Ian Lawrie QC said he was 'concerned' at the Church's advice to the mother not to report him.

He also placed Lee under a 10 year sexual harm prevention order.

“I've raised concerns about how this came to the attention of your church authorities and was not reported. I hope that has now changed," said Judge Lawrie.

“That meant it did not come to light for some time."

The prosecutor had told the judge: “When the matter was referred to the Elders in 1995, her mother was invited not to report it to the police and she remained silent."

Mr Barker said the girl told her mother about the incident, who spoke with the church elders, and following that conversation decided to do nothing more.

He said the Howarth family left the area but the victim heard in adulthood that they were returning and that 'caused her fear and panic' which led to her reporting his offence to the police.

“She was not to know that in Essex in 2008 he had been cautioned for possessing indecent images, and then in 2016 he was convicted of making and possessing indecent images of children," said Mr Barker.

“It demonstrates a long standing and continued interest in sex with children,” he said.

He read from the victim's statement in which she said she was 'angry with her mother for being a Jehovah's Witness and not reporting it to the police'.

She said: “Twenty years later I am still trying to come to terms with it.

“I often feel dirty and tainted. I was rebellious as a teenager and dropped out of school.

“I feel robbed of my education. I felt I was to blame, and I self harmed to cope.

“I find it hard to trust members of the opposite sex. It has made my relationship with my husband very difficult and my pregnancy was difficult.

“He took my childhood away from me."

Giles Nelson, representing Lee, accepted that his credit for pleading guilty was minimal because he had not admitted his offence until the morning of a scheduled trial.

But he reminded the judge that the starting point in the sentencing guidelines for his offence was two years.

“He's been subject to a community order for some time,” Mr Nelson continued. “There has been a significant amount of progress.

“He has an array of problems,” the barrister said.

The judge interjected: “He's got some rather dark shadows he must deal with.”

Mr Nelson agreed: “He does. He has been alcohol dependent, but is now in work with accommodation.

“An immediate custodial sentence would make the work come to an end.

Judge Lawrie asked Mr Nelson what he knew of the Jehovah's Witnesses intervention in the case.

“What I have read concerns me - that in this day and age, that was the approach. That is a matter for the church. That was the advice given at the time?”

“So, I understand,” the barrister replied.

Judge Lawrie told Lee it was clear from this and subsequent offences that he had 'a fixation or interest in children'.

“There are some very dark shadows in your soul. Looking at your history, I think you pose a risk," said Judge Lawrie.

“I will impose a sexual harm prevention order.

“There must be a balance between punishment, and the prospect of you not committing these sort of offences ever again.

“It is not in the interest of any potential further victims to interrupt the progress you are making on the current order."

Referring to Lee's 'late guilty plea' the judge said to him: “You are a coward. You subjected the victim to the concern she might have to attend court.

“I am taking a slight gamble with you. You have got a lot of work to do. If you fail to comply, I can consider imposing custody.”

Tacoma Dome renovations displace 26,000 JW convention goers

by Tahoe in

jw
friends

http://www.thenewstribune.com/living/religion/article212294849.html.

by meredith spelbring.

jehovah’s witnesses conventions stretching over four weekends in the south sound isn't rare.. holding gatherings over 15 weeks is.. church members usually assemble for a series of three-day conventions at the tacoma dome.

Tahoe

http://www.thenewstribune.com/living/religion/article212294849.html

BY MEREDITH SPELBRING

Jehovah’s Witnesses conventions stretching over four weekends in the South Sound isn't rare.

Holding gatherings over 15 weeks is.

Church members usually assemble for a series of three-day conventions at the Tacoma Dome. This year, because of renovations at the Dome beginning June 18, the event has been moved to the Puyallup Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Puyallup hall at 11515 62nd Ave. E. can hold up to 2,000 people. The Dome, by contrast, can handle 23,000.

Because of the smaller size of the Puyallup facility, the conventions — expected to draw 26,000 people from across the state — will be spread out weekends starting Friday (June 1) and continuing until Sept. 9. Of the 15 conventions, 12 will be in English and three in Spanish.

Despite the influx of thousands of visitors, traffic and parking at the new venue is not expected to be an issue, convention spokesman Dale Hudson said.

“People need to carpool, but we will have plenty of parking," he said. "It will be crowded but we will have enough.”

The change in location might help the event run smoother because of added audio and video capabilities, Hudson said.

The new location also comes with the benefit of permanence. Hudson said that in past years at the Dome, organizers had to take down the convention stage to make room for other incoming groups and then set up the space again a few days later.

The Pierce County gatherings are among many taking place in 180 countries across the globe by the Christian-based group, which believes the Bible is the word of God and takes it for truth. The theme of year’s convention is “Be Courageous!”

"It takes courage for people of all ages to face pressures in life that produce fear and anxiety," Hudson said. "We welcome everyone to this year's convention to benefit from the practical advice that's contained in the Bible."

This is one of the few years the annual conventions will not be held at the Dome. Last year's gatherings marked the Witnesses' 34th year in the Tacoma facility.

Regardless of location, Hudson said, he is confident this year's event will run smoothly.

“Wherever we go, huge venues to small venues, whatever we own, they all run pretty smooth,” he said. “We make great efforts to make sure that regardless of what building we are in or where we are at, the quality is still the same.”

24

EXJW Tattoo

by blownaway in

jw
friends

if anyone has any ideas or pictures of a tattoo that would sum up being an ex jw please share.

Tahoe

14

Suspect in Jehovah's Witness child sex abuse case arrested

by Tahoe in

by david gambacorta, staff writer @dgambacorta | [email protected].

martin haugh rolled out of bed one morning earlier this month, shuffled into his kitchen, and turned on his coffee maker.

while the machine gurgled to life, he glanced at his phone.

Tahoe

Thank you Barbara Anderson for all you do.

Will be setting the dvr to record 20/20 on May 29. Elizabeth Vargas’ “Cults and Extreme Belief” on Jehovah’s Witnesses as well.

14

Suspect in Jehovah's Witness child sex abuse case arrested

by Tahoe in

by david gambacorta, staff writer @dgambacorta | [email protected].

martin haugh rolled out of bed one morning earlier this month, shuffled into his kitchen, and turned on his coffee maker.

while the machine gurgled to life, he glanced at his phone.

Tahoe

by David Gambacorta, Staff Writer @dgambacorta | [email protected]

Martin Haugh rolled out of bed one morning earlier this month, shuffled into his kitchen, and turned on his coffee maker. While the machine gurgled to life, he glanced at his phone. A new voice message was waiting.

He filled up a mug and hit play, and heard the voice of a cop from the York Area Regional Police Department deliver some long-awaited news: The man who allegedly sexually molested Haugh’s then-4-year-old daughter in 2005 at the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall that his family belonged to in Red Lion, York County, had finally been arrested.

“I had to listen to it three times to make sure I was not having a dream,” Haugh said. After a final replay, he ran upstairs and told his wife, Jennifer, and their children about the arrest.

His daughter, now 16, was overjoyed. “Her response,” he said, “was, ‘Holy s—, dude!”

The man was arraigned Wednesday in York County district court.

The story of what happened to Haugh’s daughter all those years ago has been layered with frustration and pain. The identity of her alleged abuser was never a mystery; he was an adopted relative named John Logan Haugh. But Martin and Jennifer had waited years to report the incident to police because their congregation elders — the Witnesses’ equivalent of parish priests — had instructed them to not contact law enforcement, in keeping with the organization’s well-practiced efforts to keep the lid on child sex abuse allegations across the country and around the world.

Police issued an arrest warrant for John Logan Haugh on misdemeanor charges of indecent assault in October, but only recently caught a break in the case. Martin said investigators told him that an elder contacted police and provided an address for the 26-year-old after reading about the molestation last month in an Inquirer and Daily News report on the culture of secrecy that pervades the Witnesses.

John Logan Haugh was arrested on May 3 by police in Dagsboro, a small town in southern Delaware. A court official there said Haugh was released after posting 10 percent of $2,000 bail — and with orders to surrender to authorities in York County.

He finally complied on Wednesday afternoon, when he appeared in court before Magisterial District Judge John Fishel. His father posted bail, which was set at $20,000 this time, according to court records. Haugh’s attorney, Jeffrey Marshall, declined to comment.

Jennifer Haugh was “beyond happy” when she found out about the arrest. “I truly feel that wouldn’t have happened if the article hadn’t run,” she said.

Jennifer and Martin left the religion in 2016, fed up with the way they’d been manipulated and intimidated by an organization that had once been a main pillar in their lives. Witnesses who disobey elders’ orders or reject some of the religion’s teachings can be disfellowshipped or shunned, cut off from their relatives and closest friends — a particularly devastating consequence, since followers often have few close relationships outside of the religion.

Witness officials previously declined to discuss the Haugh case, and instead issued a statement that noted the organization abhors child abuse.

But a growing number of ex-Witnesses continue to go public with their experiences — 267 allegations of sexual abuse were reported in the Netherlands last month — and the organization now finds itself battling litigation on a near-constant basis. (More than 50 women and men have contacted the Inquirer and Daily News through this form to share their stories.)

York Area Regional Police Chief Timothy Damon encouraged survivors to report their abuse to their local police departments. His officers, meanwhile, are trying to determine if elders at the Red Lion Kingdom Hall violated a state law that requires clergy, school employees and health officials to report suspected child abuse.

But the Haugh case isn’t the only potential new legal headache for the religion.

On May 18, Barbara Anderson, an ex-Witness-turned-whistleblower who worked for a decade at the religion’s onetime headquarters in Brooklyn, filed a complaint with the New York State Attorney General’s Office that accused top Witness officials of “covering up criminal activities committed by up to 775” pedophiles who lurked within the organization.

Anderson, 77, spent much of the last year compiling the 113-page complaint, leveraging a trove of internal records and memos that she amassed while she worked in the 1980s and ’90s for the Witnesses’ leadership, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York.

The complaint compares the zero-tolerance policy the religion publicly claims to have regarding child abuse with steps its leaders took behind the scenes to gather and protect damaging information, beginning with a March 1997 letter from the Watchtower, which instructed elders to send information about suspected pedophiles in specially-marked blue envelopes to its Brooklyn headquarters.

A second letter in 1998 reminded elders of the need for confidentiality, and warned that court officials could hold the Watchtower responsible for appointing known child molesters to positions of authority, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News.

At least 775 blue envelopes were mailed to the Watchtower, a figure Anderson derived from the 2017 testimony of an attorney who was hired by the organization to defend it against a lawsuit that was filed in California by Jose Lopez, a San Diego man who was molested as a child by an alleged serial predator. In that case, the Watchtower incurred more than $2 million worth of fines for refusing to share its internal list of accused.

Anderson’s complaint also mentions a letter she received in 1997 from Harry Peloyan, a former editor of a Witness magazine, Awake! Peloyan told her that the organization’s leaders had been slow to understand that child predators are likely to reoffend, and had little interest in publishing information about child abuse. “Had we continued on a blind course,” he wrote, “we would have had more megabuck lawsuits against the Society.”

In an interview earlier this week, Anderson said submitting the complaint felt like a “momentous” development in her life. “I said to myself, ‘If this doesn’t do anything, then I don’t know what will.’ We have to get justice for the victims.”

The millenarian religion was founded in Pittsburgh in the 1870s, and teaches followers that only they will survive a fast-approaching Armageddon. Its members are very much out in the world — going to school, working, trying to attract new recruits through door-to-door missionary work — but their personal lives can revolve almost entirely around the organization.

Some former members told me they weren’t allowed to play sports or have friends outside of the religion as children. Others were instructed to avoid news coverage and entertainment that wasn’t produced by the Witnesses’ online TV network. Ironically, the organization is facing greater scrutiny from the mainstream media than ever before.

Actress Leah Remini is reportedly working on a project for the A&E Network about the Witnesses, following in the footsteps of her three-season show “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”

And former “20/20” coanchor Elizabeth Vargas is devoting the May 29 episode of her new A&E series, “Cults and Extreme Belief,” to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Vargas said she knew little about the Witnesses before she began working on the series, but was struck by some of the religion’s cultural quirks — followers aren’t allowed to celebrate holidays or birthdays, and are discouraged from attending college — and was disturbed by a rule that required sex abuse victims to produce two eye witnesses to support their claims.

“I’m not a cult expert,” she said, “but we have cult experts who believe, without a doubt, that Jehovah’s Witnesses is a cult.”

The organization has long insisted that it is not a cult, even devoting a section of its website to refuting the idea. But Vargas noted that all of the groups she’s examined share a common trait of cutting its members off from the rest of society and discouraging any dissent.

“You start to lose your perspective,” she said.

9

Leah Remini Returning to A&E to Investigate JWs

by AMNESIANO in

“the first episode will be about jehovah witnesses and another episode will be about nxivm, a controversial self-empowerment group, according to the source.”.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/leah-remini-returning-to-ae-to-investigate-other-cult-like-religions/amp/.

amnesian.

Tahoe

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/05/22/leah-remini-to-tackle-jehovahs-witnesses-in-new-special-following-kevin-can-wait-cancellation.html

Leah Remini to tackle Jehovah's Witnesses in new special following 'Kevin Can Wait' cancellation

Tahoe

Posts by Tahoe

Leah Remini to tackle Jehovah's Witnesses in new special following 'Kevin Can Wait' cancellation