A Montana jury has ruled that the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization must pay $34 million to a woman who says the church covered up her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member.

[Shiwiii]

Meanwhile in Montana:

 

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana jury has ruled that the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization must pay $34 million to a woman who says the church covered up her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member.

Neil Smith, an attorney representing the 32-year-old woman, says the jury’s verdict Wednesday in the lawsuit sends a message to the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New York headquarters to stop prioritizing church secrecy over children’s safety.

Jehovah’s Witness officials did not immediately respond to a call or email for comment. The monetary award must be reviewed by the trial judge.

The jury dismissed claims by a second woman who alleged abuse by the same man in Thompson Falls in the 1990s.

The jury concluded church elders did not receive notice of the second woman’s abuse and therefore did not have a duty to tell authorities.

 

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When will this one make the jw news feed? 

[JOHN BUTLER]

Breaking News: Montana Jury Awards Two Women $35 Million in Lawsuit Against Watchtower by Alexandra James

On Wednesday, September 27, 2018, a jury in northwestern Montana awarded two women $35 million in their lawsuit against local Jehovah’s Witnesses and the religion's worldwide headquarters.

Trial Background

This case took place in the Thompson Falls congregation, where it was alleged that a congregation member sexually assaulted, molested, and raped two young women, both family members, over a 13-year period, dating back to the 1990s.

The abuse began with one plaintiff, who alleges that her brother was also a victim of abuse. Elders in the congregation apparently disfellowshipped [excommunicated] the man in 2004, but allowed him back into the religion the very next year.

After he was reinstated, the man then began abusing the second plaintiff, a niece of his first victim.

The Trial and Judgment 

Leading up to the three-day trial, Watchtower's attorneys had requested that the state's Supreme Court overturn many of the judge's ruling and delay proceedings, but those requests were denied.

It was also reported in court filings that Jehovah's Witnesses didn't deny the abuse happened, but claimed that Montana law exempted the elders from reporting “internal ecclesiastical proceedings on a congregation member’s serious sin.”

The attorney for Jehovah's Witnesses also said in her arguments, “The Constitution bars the court from contradicting a religious organization on issues of religious beliefs, including canon law, church doctrine and established church practice."

It was also reported that Jehovah's Witness lawyers argued that too much time had passed for the women to sue, and the Watchtower Society claimed that they were not responsible for the actions of individual elders.

The trial itself only lasted three days, and the judgment was against both the Thompson Falls congregation and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in New York. Combined, they will pay $4 million in compensation and $31 million in punitive damages.

The judge also did not accept the attorney's argument that church practice was exempt from mandatory reporting laws, as one news report stated:

"Earlier in the case, Judge James Manley ruled that Reyes’ criminal acts were foreseeable to the church leadership when they allowed him to return and that the congregation’s elders were not exempt from Montana’s mandatory reporting law when they learned of the allegations against him and didn’t turn him over to law enforcement."

News reports have referenced what the Australian Royal Commission Inquiry Into Institutional Response to Child Sex Abuse revealed about Jehovah's Witnesses and their handling of child sex abuse claims; read more about that Inquiry and Jehovah's Witnesses at this post. See the Pedophilia category of this site for more information as well.

Also reference the handbook, "Jehovah's Witnesses and Child Sex Abuse," at this page.

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Please also see:

Jehovah’s Witnesses accused of mishandling abuse in Montana (AP)

Montana jury awards two women $35 M in sex abuse lawsuit against Jehovah's Witnesses (The Missoulian)

 

Luke 8 v 17 For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest, nor anything carefully concealed that will never become known and not come out in the open.

⁶  But whoever stumbles one of these little ones who have faith in me, it would be better for him to have hung around his neck a millstone that is turned by a donkey and to be sunk in the open sea.  Matthew 18 v 6. 

So the GB and their puppet Elders are still offering their children to Molek. For what though ? Do they really think that God cannot see ?  Do they think by their actions the JW Org will look clean ?

The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses has caused this problem by making rules that go completely against God's principles.

The Elders are 'murdering' people spiritually by stumbling them. And then the Org, so it seems, are saying that if a person is not one of the JW Org they will die at Armageddon. 

They think they have it 'sewn up'. They think that by blackmailing people with the threat of disfellowshipment if they go to the police or other outside authorities, that will keep people quiet.

In truth what are they doing ? BRINGING SHAME ON JEHOVAH'S NAME. 

 

[Guest Nicole]

A jury in northwestern Montana awarded two women $35 million Wednesday in their sex abuse lawsuit against the local Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation and its worldwide headquarters.

The decision came down after a three-day trial in Thompson Falls, the Missoulian reports. The Thompson Falls congregation and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the church’s institutional center in New York and Pennsylvania, will pay $4 million in compensation and $31 million in punitive damages to two women who sued the church in 2016.

The women said Max Reyes, a member of the Thompson Falls congregation, sexually assaulted, molested and raped them over a 13-year period in the 1990s and 2000s, both before he was severed from the congregation and after leadership reinstated him 14 months later.

https://www.montanabar.org/news/420205/Jury-awards-35M-in-Jehovahs-witness-sex-abuse-suit.htm

[Srecko Sostar]

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Hamlet (1.4), Marcellus to Horatio

[The Librarian]

Paragraph 6 of this week Watchtower:

“6 We need to be especially cautious when we come across reports regarding JehovahÂ’s people. Never forget that Satan is the accuser of GodÂ’s faithful servants. (Rev. 12:10) Therefore, Jesus warned that opposers would “lyingly say every sort of wicked thing” against us. (Matt. 5:11) If we take that warning seriously, we will not be shocked when we hear outrageous statements about JehovahÂ’s people.”

[JOHN BUTLER]

52 minutes ago, The Librarian said:

Paragraph 6 of this week Watchtower:

“6 We need to be especially cautious when we come across reports regarding JehovahÂ’s people. Never forget that Satan is the accuser of GodÂ’s faithful servants. (Rev. 12:10) Therefore, Jesus warned that opposers would “lyingly say every sort of wicked thing” against us. (Matt. 5:11) If we take that warning seriously, we will not be shocked when we hear outrageous statements about JehovahÂ’s people.”

Yes the GB of the JW Org are constantly calling the Victims of Child Abuse liars. 

The GB tell the Elders to use the Two Witness rule to pretend the Victims are liars. 

The GB though are the liars. They say it is ok for the Elders to tell lies as it is Spiritual warfare. 

Quite funny how they are trying to protect themselves here by pretending that everyone else is lying. 

However when these reports of Child Abuse / Pedophilia are Earthwide and in great quantity, it would be unwise to turn a blind eye to it all. If the GB and JW org are as innocent as they pretend why would they fear the congregants investigating it a litte.

[The Librarian]

Brothers .. in today's Watchtower we have spiritual food at the proper time.....PERFECT TIME.....

[JOHN BUTLER]

12 minutes ago, The Librarian said:

 

Be cautious and evaluate, yes of course. 

But not be blind or pretend not to see the truth about the JW Org. 

Unless you too are saying all the Child Abuse Victims are telling lies. Are you ? 

I agree with the Proverbs scripture, but the naive ones are the JW congregants that believe every word of the GB. 

[Jack Ryan]

Interesting comment I just read about the above case in another thread: