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  • Jehovah’s Witnesses Get Only Partial Dismissal in Child Molesting Case

    The Jehovah’s Witness church was handed a partial victory in court. The organization is locked in another in a long string of legal battles that tests the ugly assertion that the group allows pedophiles and child molesters to run loose in its ranks.

    In this particular case, two women charge that they were molested by a church leader when they were younger. Annessa Lewis and her sister Miranda allege that they were members of the Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Bellows Falls, Vermont in the early 1990s when they encountered Norton True. They allege that while Norton True was in the position of “ministerial servant” in the congregation, he fondled both sisters on several occasions. Both girls were minors at the time.

    The sisters are now suing the Bellows Falls congregations, as well as the legal entity that heads the Jehovah’s Witnesses — The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. They say that both entities ignored their reports of abuse.

    “These very courageous and brave young women have decided that they need to do something about what happened to them as children that has been kept silent by the Jehovah’s Witnesses,” San Diego attorney Irwin Zalkin said when the lawsuit was filed in 2014.

    In the course of the court battle, Annessa Lewis’ attorneys introduced certain legal theories, including breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, ratification, and fraud by omission.

    But the case received a setback recently when U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha dismissed some of the positions the Lewis case was standing on.

    Attorney for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, one Pietro Lynn, of Lynn, Lynn & Blackman in Burlington spoke of the dismissal.

    “We are very pleased with the court’s ruling,” Lynn said. “We expect that once the facts of the case are known that the court will dismiss the rest of the case.”

    “We will vigorously defend my clients [the Jehovah’s Witnesses] in this case,” he said. “We believe the evidence will support the defense and, ultimately, we will prevail.”

    As for Norton True, the man at the center of the case, he has his own attorney. But rather than seeking to win on the merits of his defense, his attorneys are also trying to have the case dismissed on the technicality that the two sisters may have waited too long to file a legal complaint. If they waited longer than six years past their 18th birthday, they may not be able to seek legal relief.

  • Michelle Rodriguez: Jehovah’s Witnesses Scarred Me for Life

    Michelle Rodriguez is a tough woman. She is known for her roles as a fighter, sometimes literally. She has duked it out in The Fast and the Furious, Machete, Resident Evil, Avatar, and her first film Girlfight.

    In a recent issue of Interview Magazine, Rodriguez was queried by Milla Jovovich. She revealed that she is a very spiritual person. But says the thing that scarred her the most was the religion she was raised in.

    “Sometimes I wake up in awe that I’m alive. I can’t get over that part, so I guess it makes me kind of like an existentialist. I’m always researching ancient religions, and I was also raised Jehovah’s Witness, so that kind of scarred me for life.”

    Because of her spiritual leanings, Rodriguez has a tough time with the Hollywood excesses that surround her.

    “After Cannes every year, I end up going to some foreign country I’ve never been to before and introducing myself to a new religion—I’ll go to Bali and research Hinduism, or I’ll go to Thailand and get another tattoo from [Thai tattoo artist] Ajarn Noo [Kanpai].”

    Rodriguez points out that her upbringing put her in an odd position as a child, making her doubt what she was told at school.

    “The roughest thing was learning the realities of the world at such a young age. I was 10 or 11, going to church, hearing the adults standing on the podium talking about world affairs, about history, about war, and how America was founded. Then I go to school, and they’re teaching me the complete opposite. I already knew, from church, that this place was raped and pillaged by Spaniards and the Pilgrims. ‘Don’t sit here and try to tell me that they broke bread together, brother.’ [laughs] So I hated school right away. Religion had a lot to do with it because I felt like everybody was always lying to me.”

    Rodriguez echoes what many who leave the Witnesses after being raised in it say: She led a double life because she could not be herself.

    “Sometimes I’d knock on the door of somebody I was going to school with, so it was like living a double life. At school, I was this tomboy kid who just loved to hang out with her friends and learn curse words, trying to fit in with the cool kids and defending all the kids who got picked on.”

  • Jehovah’s Witnesses Hit with $13.5 Million Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Loss After Governing Body Member Refuses to Testify

    Jehovah’s Witnesses Hit with $13.5 Million Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Loss After Governing Body Member Refuses to Testify

    The news that another church has been called to account for the sexual abuse of children on their watch hit hard this week. The Jehovah’s Witness church saw their ruling organization, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, ordered to pay Jose Lopez $13.5 million.

    Lopez testified that he was sexually abused at the age of seven by a man in the Jehovah’s Witness congregation his mother attended, one Gonzalo Campos. He said that the man was assigned to mentor and teach him by local congregation elders because he was being raised only by his mother.

    Lopez testified that his mother had gone to the local congregation elders about the abuse, as she is told to do according to Witness judicial procedure, but the elders there told her not to report Campos to secular authorities. They would handle it themselves.

    During the course of the trial, decades of abuse coverup on many other cases was charged by the plaintiff’s attorneys, the Zalkin Law Firm, which has a history of pursuing relief in Jehovah’s Witnesses sexual abuse cases.

    “Documents that go back decades and show the depth and the breadth of their knowledge of child predators and child molesters in their organization,” Irwin Zalkin said in a statement.

    Zalkin points out that there is a “judicial procedure” inherent in the Witness church organization that allows molesters to run free without fear of expulsion.

    “Due to church policy, sexual abuse is often ignored, and should an allegation be made, it is often either covered up or decried as unfounded. The Jehovah’s Witnesses practice what is known as a “two witness” rule – which is allegedly used to help work against the possibility of a false accusation. This rule is said to be based off the group’s interpretation of Deuteronomy 19:15 and 1 Timothy 5:19; it requires that an accusation of sexual abuse be backed by at least two witnesses. One of the witnesses may be from DNA or other scientific evidence.

    “If there is only one witness, however, the accused is to be placed under careful monitoring. They also might lose some of their privileges; however, no other steps are taken. Due to such policies as this, there have been many accusations over the years that have gone unreported. By mainly dealing with the accusations internally, they rarely turn over a sexual offender to law enforcement. This not only leaves victims vulnerable – it leaves the offender unpunished and essentially free to abuse again.”

    The court ordered the Witnesses to produce a key member of their worldwide Governing Body for testimony, Gerritt Losch. They refused to do so. The Court of Appeals affirmed the order. The California Supreme Court affirmed it and granted extenisons for Losch to appear. Still the Witness Governing Body refused to produce Gerritt Losch.

    “They refused to produce the longest standing member of their Governing Body (Gerrit Losch), who knew all about this stuff,” Zalkin said.

    Finally, given the Witnesses refusal, their defense was terminated by the court and the Lopez was awarded $13.5 million.

    The Watchtower Society’s attorneys vowed to appeal the ruling.

    “Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse and strive to protect children from such acts,” associate general counsel for Watchtower Society Mario Moreno said in a statement. ”The trial judge’s decision is a drastic action for any judge to take given the circumstances of this case. We will seek a full review of this case on appeal.”

    Moreno insisted that Campos was not in a position of authority within the Witness organization, implying that he acted on his own and that the Witness corporation should not be held liable for his actions.

    But Lopez’s attorneys beg to differ.

    During the trial, evidence emerged that Gonzalo Campos had already been accused of pedophilia by another family before he molested Lopez. The Witness elders declared that he was “repentant” and continued to use him to work with young boys, giving him the opportunity to molest again.

    Zalkin said, “For almost 14 years, from 1982 to 1995, the Watchtower and its agents, the elders of the local congregation, knew that they had a dangerous child sexual predator in their organization… [Campos] was actually elevated up the organizational ladder ultimately
    becoming an elder himself in 1993. During this time frame he has confessed to sexually abusing at
    least eight children.”

    During the trial, there was never a question of whether or not Campos actually molested Lopez. He already admitted to doing so in a video testimony. Campos is now free somewhere in Mexico, still a Jehovah’s Witness.

    “I just want him to be behind bars where he belongs,” Lopez said.

  • Jehovah’s Witnesses Ordered to Pay $13.5 Million in Child Molestation Case

    Jehovah’s Witnesses have been ordered to pay $13.5 million to a San Diego man who claims he was sexually abused by a bible teacher as a child.

    Jose Lopez, 36, filed the lawsuit four years ago against the organization that runs the church, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, saying he was molested in 1986.

    According to Lopez, he was seven years old when he was molested by church leader Gonzalo Campos while a member of the Spanish congregation in the Linda Vista section of San Diego.

    “It’s never going to be over for me,” Lopez told reporters during a press conference on Friday. “It was just a horrible thing and I want people to know what happened to me,” he said.

    Seven other people, six men and one woman, also claim they were molested by Campos and settled out of court.

    Mario Moreno, a lawyer for the church, called the decision by San Diego Superior Judge Joan Lewis “drastic” in a statement and said the church would appeal.

    “Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse and strive to protect children from such acts,” the statement said.

    Lopez’s lawyer, Irwin Zalkin, told reporters the Jehovah’s Witness church has a culture of secrecy.

    “These guys will deny and deny, they are belligerent, they are arrogant, they treat victims as adversaries,” he said.

    Zalkin said the church allowed Campos to work with Lopez even though it knew he admitted to molesting another boy in 1982. According to Zalkin, the church believed he was “repentant” of his actions and could once again be trusted with young boys.

  • Leah Remini Talks About Church Shunning

    Leah Remini Talks About Church Shunning

    Leah Remini and her family did a brave thing. They turned their backs on something that had been an integral part of their lives for decades, all because they felt that it was no longer the right thing to do.

    Ordinarily, this is the kind of choice and behavior that is applauded by almost everyone. But Leah Remini left the Church of Scientology. Why is that a big deal?

    When you are involved in an organization like that, which insulates itself from outside influence, it gets to the point where almost all of your friends are fellow believers — in this case, Scientologists. And the Church of Scientology has a shunning policy for anyone who leaves the Church. So leaving means doing so with the full knowledge that almost all the people you know will no longer even speak to you.

    On her new television show, Leah Remini: It’s All Relative, the family’s departure from Scientology is discussed in the very first episode.

    “If you leave Scientology publicly, you, uh, have to be shunned… and that is the sad truth of it,” Remini explains on the show. “In the church of Scientology, it is, you are not allowed to speak to anyone who’s left the church in any way.”

    “You look through your phone [and] you’re like, ‘Oh I can’t call this person,’” she said.

    Remini’s split with Scientology began when she did something the Church frowns upon. She questioned church leader David Miscavige. This is the same David Miscavige who was Tom Cruise’s best man when he married Katie Holmes. Some of Miscavige’s own family have left Scientology.

    Remini specifically asked questions about the whereabouts of Miscavige’s wife, who has not been seen for some time. There are all sorts of rumors about Shelly Miscavige, and Remini wanted answers. She filed a missing persons report for Shelly. The blowback from the Church against Remini was swift. Leah left, and she hasn’t remained quiet since then.

    “I believe that people should be able to question things,” she said. “I believe that people should value family, and value friendships, and hold those things sacrosanct. That for me, that’s what I’m about. It wouldn’t matter what it was, simply because no one is going to tell me how I need to think, no one is going to tell me who I can, and cannot, talk to.”

    Leah’s experience with Scientology is similar to the experiences of others who leave certain churches. Some churches practice an aggressive form of shunning, whereby church members are not allowed to even speak to someone who has left or been forced out of the church.

    Jehovah’s Witnesses are one example. When a Witness leaves the church, their former friends are forbidden to have anything to do with them. This proscription even extends to any family not living with the outcast person.

    And the grounds for ouster from the Witness church includes such “infractions” as ongoing acceptance of blood transfusions or ongoing use of medical procedures that contain any blood fragments, such as treatments for hemophilia.

    This policy has been at the center of international legal battles for Witnesses, but their policy remains unchanged.

    Leah Remini — and anyone else who faces this challenge in life — has a hard road ahead of them, no matter how much money they make.

    Image via YouTube

  • Venus Williams ESPN Nude Religious Controversy

    Venus Williams is posing nude for the 2014 issue of ESPN Body. Usually an announcement like that would be pretty normal fare when it comes to sports celebrities. Williams joins dozens of other sports stars who have posed nude or semi-nude for the annual magazine, out since 2009.

    But Venus Williams’ appearance in the buff may warrant a closer look. The very first edition of Body, in 2009, featured her sister Serena, also nude. All the nudes for Body magazine are tastefully done. But the Williams sisters are raising eyebrows for their appearance for one simple reason.

    The Williams sisters are Jehovah’s Witnesses. To anyone familiar with the Witness belief structure, this will cause some raised eyebrows. Jehovah’s Witnesses have a strict in-house judicial structure that would bring sanctions, including expulsion and shunning, down upon rank and file members who did something like pose nude for a magazine.

    But Venus Williams doesn’t seem concerned. In fact, in this video feature about the nude appearance, she even mentions how her spirituality helps her in her life. She does not mention Jehovah’s Witnesses by name, but that is her affiliation.

    Williams has also spoken in interviews in the past about her sex life. But she is unmarried. This is also something that would ordinarily result in the expulsion of a Witness member.

    Are the Witnesses giving celebrities like Venus and Serena Williams a pass for their infractions? The answer may lie in how the Jehovah’s Witness structure works.

    The Witnesses were formed in Pennsylvania in the late 1800’s by a religious writer named Charles Russell. He wrote books that claimed to interpret prophetic passages in the Bible, including using occult pyramidology practices in combination with Bible verses to predict the future.

    Russell recruited people from among his readers into study groups and organized them into sales teams to promote his books. To this day, individual members of Jehovah’s Witnesses are still called “publishers”, hearkening back to this setup.

    When Russell died, a large organization called the Watchtower Society continued to handle distribution of his many books, magazines, and tracts. The group used volunteer labor from among the faithful to do the printing, and still do to this day.

    The company elected a new president who changed many things about the fledgling religion, including doing away with birthday celebrations, holidays, voting and military service, and instituting a top-down authority structure that still exists. Many people left. But the group survived, and that is what Jehovah’s Witnesses are today.

    But one tenet of the Witness faith that comes to bear in the Williams sisters’ situation is that Witnesses are only beholden to the Watchtower organization once they have been baptized into the church. At the baptism ceremony, they vow loyalty to the Governing Body of the corporation.

    The Witness Governing Body is a council of seven men who rule from Witness Headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. This Governing Body is the source of all doctrine and judicial direction for the church. Its members are appointed for life, though three men have resigned over the years, some of whom went on to write tell-all books about the secret meetings of the council.

    Apparently, the Williams sisters, although they self-identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses, have never been baptized. Therefore, they are not, technically, members. And, therefore can not be put out according to traditional Witness judicial procedures.

    So, Venus and Serena Williams are free to do whatever they like, just like the rest of the world. And they can claim to be Jehovah’s Witnesses. Many Witnesses like to point out that they count the Williams sisters among their number, as well as other celebs like Prince, bassist Larry Graham, and singer/guitarist George Benson.

    But the Williams have a loophole.

    Image via YouTube