A granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network
founders Jan and Paul Crouch filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that
she was plied with alcohol and raped by a TBN employee when she was just 13 —
and that her family covered up the incident, rather than report it to
authorities, to protect TBN’s reputation.
Carra Crouch, now 19, was distraught after the 2006
assault by a 30-year-old man, and told her grandmother what had happened. “Jan
(Crouch) became furious and began screaming at Ms. Crouch, a thirteen year old
girl, and began telling her ‘it is your fault,’” according to the suit.
Carra Crouch then told John Casoria, TBN’s
in-house counsel and her second cousin; he became agitated and told her that he
didn’t believe her, it says. “He elaborated by stating he further believed she
was already sexually active ‘so it did not really matter’ and he ‘believed she
may have propositioned him,’ ” the suit alleges.
“Ms. Crouch, a thirteen year old girl, had not been
sexually active and was absolutely devastated about what happened and about how
John and Jan responded to her.”
Both Jan Crouch
and John Casoria are ordained ministers, and as such, are legally required to
report suspected child abuse to authorities under the Child
Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, the suit says. No report was made, and TBN
“deliberately covered up the incident to protect Trinity Broadcasting from
negative publicity,” it alleges.
Carra Crouch was not permitted to talk to the police
about the incident, and was not permitted to seek the counsel of any third
parties or sex abuse counselors at the time, and has suffered severe emotional
distress as a result, according to the suit.
We at The Watchdog corresponded with Trinity’s
attorney, Colby May, about Crouch’s allegations before the suit was
filed.
“Trinity is stunned to learn of the latest allegations
being made by Carra, coming more than six years after her initial report,” May
said by email. “And we have confirmed that Carra’s parents are similarly just
now learning of her latest accusations. If your email accurately depicts Carra’
cupertino of events, be advised this is completely at odds with what she
reported to her mother in 2006. Had Trinity been apprised of this then, it
would have immediately reported it to authorities. Trinity categorically denies
any wrong doing and will, of course, fully cooperate with law enforcement in
investigating Carra’s latest allegations.”
Carra and Brittany Crouch, circa 2000
May said Wednesday that the complaint has not yet been
served on Trinity, but that Trinity vehemently denies the allegations and
believes them to be frivolous. Details of the incident provided by Crouch, and
details in the suit, are “materially different,” May said, and “(m)oreover, Ms.
Crouch’s allegations are completely at odds with what she told her mother.
These multiple versions undermine her credibility and support our position that
Trinity has certainly done nothing wrong. Unfortunately, such meritless
lawsuits have become commonplace in our society, and accordingly, Trinity will
fully and vigorously defend itself.”
Carra Crouch’s lawyer is Michael Koper, Brittany
Koper’s husband, who is himself the target of several TBN lawsuits claiming
financial improprieties from when he worked at Trinity.
The Register does not usually identify victims of sexual
assault, but Carra Crouch wants to tell her story so justice can be done, she
said.
She didn’t cry when recounting the sequence of events
that night, but she did cry when she recounted the aftermath. “I definitely
feel angry,” she said. “Nobody once asked me, ‘Carra are you O.K.?’ Why didn’t
anybody care? If I saw something like that happen to a little girl, even if I
didn’t know her, I would do something. And I’m their granddaughter.
How could you just not care all?”
ATLANTA TELETHON
In the spring of 2006, Trinity held its spring
fund-raising telethon at its Atlanta studios. Carra Crouch accompanied
her grandmother to Georgia for the event, according to the suit. Trinity
paid for Crouch’s airline ticket, as well as a hotel room that she had all to
herself.
The 30-year-old
TBN employee, who Crouch had known for years, wound up in her room and ordered
a bottle of wine from room service on Trinity’s account (“Trinity Broadcasting
makes a regular practice of providing alcohol to its employees during business
meetings”), the suit alleges. He coerced her to drink it “in an attempt to get
her intoxicated,” and she did, it says. She asked him to leave her room, and he
responded by giving her a glass of water to “help her feel better.”
Carra Crouch drank the glass of water and passed out
immediately, according to the suit. When she awoke the next morning, the man
was lying next to her, there was blood on the bed sheets, and she had “severe
pain and soreness in her body in places which indicated she had been molested and
raped,” it alleges. She locked herself in the bathroom and screamed at the man
to leave her room, and returned to California that day.
That glass of water, Crouch now believes, contained a
date rape drug which caused her to pass out.
FALLOUT
Despite whatever doubts officials may have had, Trinity
soon fired the man that Carra Crouch accused of the assault, according to the
suit.
Casoria
Casoria, TBN’s in-house attorney, fired him over the
telephone, saying Trinity had gathered enough evidence to terminate him with
cause, that the evidence was “most probably sufficient to bring criminal
charges” against him, and that Trinity would not disclose the evidence to the
police if he would not file for unemployment, worker’s compensation or an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
claim, the suit alleges.
“The actions and statements of the Participating
Individuals were outrageous, intentional, unreasonable, and malicious. The
Participating Individuals not only undertook these actions with, at the very
minimum, reckless disregard of the fact that they would certainly cause Ms.
Crouch to suffer severe emotional distress; the Participating Individuals
undertook these actions with the intent and purpose to cause that harm to Ms.
Crouch so she would not report the incident to the police or news media.
“As adults, family members, and ordained ministers, the
Participating Individuals were in a position of actual or apparent power over
Ms. Crouch, and the Participating Individuals abused that position of trust and
that relationship to protect Trinity Broadcasting’s interests.”
Crouch’s best friend, Brooke Davidson, told us she
learned of the incident after the two became friends about a year after it
happened. Crouch carries tremendous guilt, Davidson said, internalizing that it
was somehow her fault, and is only beginning to deal with things. Davidson has
been telling Crouch for years that it could not have been her fault — she was a
13 year-old girl, and this was a 30-year-old man, Davidson said.
Brandon, Tawny, Carra, Paul Jr. and Brittany Crouch
Brittany Koper, Carra’s older sister, was already off to
college in 2006. When she returned, she noticed her sister had become more
withdrawn, but didn’t find out the details until May of 2011, when Carra Crouch
ran away. “My sister has been down dark and dangerous paths,” said Koper.
“She’s doing better, taking first steps of healing and recovery.”
Crouch was working part-time at the Trinity gift shop
until she was recently let go — part of the sweep of those close to her big
sister Brittany, which included their father, Paul Crouch Jr., Koper
maintains. Crouch is now in cosmetology school, following in her best friend’s
footsteps, and trying to move forward with her life.
We’ll keep you posted on how things progress.
Staff writer Larry Welborn contributed to this
report.
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