Lawsuit accuses church of hiding sexual abuse

Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 | 11:12 a.m.

The Jehovah's Witnesses are not reporting allegations of sexual abuse to authorities in a timely fashion, according to a lawsuit filed in Las Vegas.

The issue was spotlighted by a protest held outside one of the religion's local congregations Thursday.

The suit and the protest center on the case of Daniel Steven Fitzwater, a member of a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation in Yerington accused of sexually molesting four young women in the congregation from 1974 to the mid-1990s.

Fitzwater was arrested in 1997 and found guilty of two counts of sexual lewdness. He is in prison at Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City and eligible for parole in 2005.

A nonprofit group called Silentlambs is behind the lawsuit and the protest.

Founded in May 2001 by Bill Bowen, who said he is a former church leader, the group gives psychological and legal help to alleged victims of abuse, Bowen said.

The group alleges that a pattern of abuse exists within the church, and that its policies inhibit authorities from investigating the cases.

At issue is the practice of internally investigating allegations of abuse before reporting them to authorities, and related practices such as the church requiring two witnesses to any incident in order to establish guilt.

A spokesman at the church's New York headquarters declined to comment on the Las Vegas lawsuit and other allegations, offering a copy of a statement sent to the organization's 11,500 congregations nationwide in May 2002.

The statement said the church's "Bible-based position" included having elders investigate any allegations, but that they "are not authorized ... to take congregational action unless there is a confession or there are two credible witnesses."

The statement also said that elders -- those in a position of leadership in the church -- are instructed to report allegations of abuse to the authorities where required by law to do so, but it does not address the timeline in which they must do the reporting.

"What civil authorities do is outside what the church does -- they are two different things," said J.R. Brown, national spokesman for the church. "The Bible is our authority."

The Las Vegas lawsuit filed in District Court seeks unspecified damages, said Hartley Hampton, a Houston-based attorney representing the plaintiffs. "Our intent is to obtain compensation for these victims for the agony they suffered at the hands of the abuser ... and the church," he said.

Lawsuits seeking damages for alleged victims of abuse have also been filed in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Washington and California. With four plaintiffs, Nevada's is the largest.

Bowen said 5,000 alleged victims of abuse from Jehovah's Witnesses have contacted his group from more than 30 countries. He said he is not encouraging lawsuits against the religion, but hopes to "win support for the victims to such an extent that the church opens its eyes to the fact that it has a problem and needs to change its policies."

He said he became aware of the issue when he was an elder in a congregation near Paducah, Ky., and uncovered allegations of abuse against a member in February 2000.

"I called the national office and was told to ask the man if he was guilty. If he said he wasn't, I was told to leave the issue in God's hands," Bowen said.

This put him in violation of Kentucky state law, which requires religious organizations to report alleged cases of abuse.

The church would not comment on Bowen's allegations, but its spokesman said that individual congregations might violate its policy on reporting.

"I can't vouch for every elder following policy," he said. "These events are allowing us to tighten up our policy."

After questioning the church's handling of the case, Bowen was excommunicated in August 2000 "for causing dissension," Bowen said.

Phil Benson, a former church member at Thursday's protest, said the organization had "dropped the ball" on the issue of child abuse.

"These situations are never communicated to the outside world ... and a lot of innocent people get hurt," Benson said.