SGM-Mahaneygate: Sovereign Grace Ministries Accused of Covering Up Child Sexual Assaults

Co-Defendant, C.J. Mahaney

Radio interview with the Plaintiffs' attorney in SGM v. Sex Abuse Victims at:  http://www.janetmefferdpremium.com/2012/10/18/janet-mefferd-radio-show-20121018-hr-1/

Christian Post is posting this, as per below.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/sovereign-grace-ministries-accused-of-covering-up-child-sexual-assaults-83561/

Sovereign Grace Ministries Accused of Covering Up Child Sexual Assaults

 

 A class action lawsuit was filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries on Wednesday accusing the church of habitually covering up child sexual assault and abuse over an extended period of time.

 

 

The complaint, filed in Montgomery County, Md., claims the ministry led by C.J. Mahaney "cared more about protecting its financial and institutional standing than about protecting children, its most vulnerable members."

Founded in 1982 in Gaithersburg, Md., Sovereign Grace Ministries is a family of about 90 churches that are located primarily in the United States, but also in Australia, eastern Asia, Africa, Western Europe, Bolivia, Mexico and Canada. Mahaney is named as just one of the defendants in the lawsuit, along with other church leaders including Gary Ricucci, David Hinders, Louis Gallo, Frank Ecelbarger, John Loftness, Grant Layman and Lawrence Tomczak.

As far back as 1987, the church allegedly failed to report or discouraged others from reporting the sexual abuse of minors, forced victims to "forgive" those who abused them and prevented others from knowing how much abuse went on in the church, the suit claims.

"Essentially what has happened is that there has been a fairly widespread pattern on the part of this church of suppressing information about sexual assaults amongst the community. And the pastors have stepped in and made misrepresentations to secular authorities, to police, and have attempted to prevent parents and others from reporting things to secular authorities," Susan L. Burke, attorney for the plaintiffs, told The Christian Post on Thursday.

The alleged abuse described in the suit happened during the 1980s and 1990s in both Maryland and Virginia. Burke says the goal of the suit is to make sure no one else gets hurt.

 

"My clients are very concerned that it's still going on," she said.

Pseudonyms are used in the complaint to protect the identities of the plaintiffs (for the sake of clarity, these pseudonyms will also be used in this article). One of the women, Jane Doe, alleges she was just 3 years old when she was sexually assaulted and molested by a church member over the course of several months at one of the ministry's churches in Virginia.

The mother of Doe's predator told church leaders her son confessed to committing the crime, though church officials allegedly told Doe's parents not to alert other church members to the situation and allowed the perpetrator to continue interacting with children in the church community without supervision. The church also allegedly interfered in the legal process by falsely telling law enforcement officials that Doe's parents did not want to participate in the court proceedings surrounding their daughter's molestation.

The parents of Norma Noe, another plaintiff, found out that their then 2-year-old daughter had allegedly been abused by someone who served as a babysitter for one of the ministry's Home Groups in Maryland.

They called the police the day after the incident. They then called Loftness, who allegedly told them, "Do not call the police" and said it was an issue that should be handled by church leadership. The church also tried to arrange a meeting between Noe and her predator so they could be "reconciled" to one another, the complaint states, which further traumatized the girl.

The final of the three listed plaintiffs in the suit is Robin Roe, whose adopted father – named "Parental Pedophile" in the suit – is still a member of the church. He sexually abused Roe's older sister for three and a half years, the complaint states, and Roe's mother eventually reported him to Mays, who went on to report the incident to Ricucci and later to Loftness.

"The Church did not report the matter to the police or any other law enforcement authorities, as they were required to do," the suit states. "Instead, acting through Defendant Ricucci, the Church directed Robin Roe's mother to let them 'take care of everything.'"

Roe is a plaintiff in the suit because she was allegedly no longer accepted by the church after she told a friend and fellow church member about her sister's abuse.

As a result of being considered an outcast, the suit claims, Roe was not cared for properly as a child, and eventually wound up in a juvenile half-way house for young criminals. The church also allegedly helped Roe's father with his legal issues, and told Roe's mother to have sex with him more frequently to prevent him from "being tempted."

Those who might be included in the class action suit are those who were sexually assaulted or molested as a minor by Sovereign Grace Ministries church members between 1987 and the present. The church's neglect of the situation has allegedly led to multiple abuses over time.

According to a statement released Wednesday by Tommy Hill, Sovereign Grace's director of finance and administration, the church had not yet been served with a lawsuit and only heard of it through various media outlets.

"Sovereign Grace Ministries is not in a position to comment on the allegations of the reported lawsuit," said Hill. "Child abuse in any context is reprehensible and criminal. Sovereign Grace Ministries takes seriously the Biblical commands to pursue the protection and well being of all people, especially the most vulnerable in its midst, little children."

The abuse and cover-up allegations are just part of a string of issues Sovereign Grace Ministries has dealt with recently in view of the public.

In the summer of 2011, for example, Mahaney took a leave of absence as the church's leader after being accused by those in his church, and by former pastors, of having character flaws including "pride, unentreatability, deceit, sinful judgment, and hypocrisy." He returned to his role as the ministry's president in January after six months of leave.

The church has also dealt with a number of internal conflicts, between the pastors at Covenant Life Church and the Sovereign Grace Ministries Interim Board/Leadership Team, which have not yet been resolved.

Barry Bowen contributed to this report
 

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/sovereign-grace-ministries-accused-of-covering-up-child-sexual-assaults-83561/#yQUGyd9Km8hwE0EH.99

SGM-Mahaneygate: Lawsuit Claims Sovereign Grace Church Hid Child Sex Abuse Claims

Brent Detwiler offers this intro:

"This article was carried by the Associated Press and published in newspapers throughout the US. I had no knowledge of these events while I was part of Sovereign Grace Ministries. All cases of child abuse (or spousal abuse) should be reported to civil authorities as a necessary means to prevent future abuse and protect past victims. That has always been my position. Perpetrators must face justice and pastors should never prevent this from happening. I trust this lawsuit will bring forth the truth and result in corrective and punitive measures where warranted."

Here's the AP article that went nationwide. 

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Lawsuit-claims-evangelical-church-hid-abuse-claims-3956791.php#ixzz29aJeivEk

 

Lawsuit claims evangelical church hid abuse claims

ERIC TUCKER, Associated PressCopyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

Updated 11:06 a.m., Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Page 1 of 1

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three female plaintiffs claim in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that an evangelical church group covered up allegations of sexual abuse against children, failed to report accusations of misconduct to the police and discouraged its members from cooperating with law enforcement.

 

The lawsuit was filed in Maryland state court against Sovereign Grace Ministries, a 30-year-old family of churches, with about 100 congregations. Most of its churches are in the U.S., but it also has planted churches in about 21 countries.

 

The plaintiffs allege a conspiracy spanning more than two decades to conceal sexual abuse committed by church members. The alleged abuse happened in Maryland and northern Virginia in the 1980s and 1990s. The lawsuit accuses church representatives of permitting suspected pedophiles to interact with children, supplying them with free legal advice to avoid prosecution and forcing victims to meet with and "forgive" the person that had molested them.

 

"The facts show that the Church cared more about protecting its financial and institutional standing than about protecting children, its most vulnerable members," the lawsuit claims.

 

The church did not immediately respond to a written message or to a phone message left on its general voicemail box. It wasn't immediately clear if the church had a lawyer. The suit names as defendants about a half-dozen pastors and church officials who plaintiffs say were alerted to the accusations but either failed to take action or actively covered them up. One official said he had not seen the suit and declined comment. Other defendants either did not immediately respond to phone messages or did not have publicly listed phone numbers.

 

In accusing church leaders of turning a blind eye to sexual molestation, the lawsuit bears parallels to the allegations of priest sex abuse and the resulting cover-up that have rocked the Roman Catholic church over the last decade. But while that scandal centered on sex abuse by priests, the accusations in this case involve molestation by church members instead of clergy.

 

Sovereign Grace Ministries grew from its mother church in Gaithersburg, Md., in 1982. It moved its headquarters this year to Louisville, Ky., where it's also planting a new church. The group has struggled in recent years with fractured leadership and criticism over its discipline methods, especially the church's emphasis on sins, discipline and repentance.

 

The suit only covers alleged abuse that occurred in Maryland in northern Virginia, but the church has faced scrutiny on other occasions for its handling of sexual abuse claims, and Susan Burke, a lawyer representing the three plaintiffs, said there are other alleged victims prepared to join a class-action suit.

 

For instance, an April report by a non-profit Lutheran mediation group that studied the church for nine months found that while church leaders showed "care and concern" about sex abuse allegations, a number of people interviewed felt the claims were handled irresponsibly and were left with "disappointments and hurts."

 

The lawsuit faults the church's "Home Group" structure, in which children are provided with day care so their parents can attend services, as fostering a poorly supervised environment that enabled the abuse to occur.

 

The lawsuit centers on allegations of three female plaintiffs, each identified by pseudonyms to protect their anonymity.

 

One of the three plaintiffs, a high school student in Virginia, alleges she was sexually assaulted when she was 3 years old and that the mother of the boy who abused her revealed the molestation to the church. But church officials discouraged her family from reporting the allegations to police and, instead, repeatedly interviewed the alleged abuser and worked with him and his mother to determine how best to prevent any prosecution and publicity regarding the abuse.

A second plaintiff, a college student in Maryland, says she was sexually abused as a toddler by a church member. She says the church pastor scolded her parents after they called the police and then tipped off the accused that he had been reported to the police. She says her parents were instructed to bring her to a meeting with her alleged abuser so they could be "reconciled," but that she was "visibly scared and crawled under the chair" after being brought into the same room with him.

 

The third plaintiff says her adoptive father, a member of the church, sexually abused her older sister for three and a half years. She says the church warned her mother not to pursue a prosecution, then kicked the family out of the church and denied the children reduced tuition to the school. The man was ultimately prosecuted and imprisoned, the lawsuit says.

 

"We view the case as an important step in holding SGM accountable for its misdeeds," said Burke, the lawyer who represents the three plaintiffs and is also suing the military on behalf of female service members who say they were raped. "No institution can put its own financial concerns above the needs of vulnerable children."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Lawsuit-claims-evangelical-church-hid-abuse-claims-3956791.php#ixzz29aSEWyIK