Jury awards $28M in Jehovah's sex abuse case

(AP) OAKLAND, Calif. - A Northern California jury has awarded $28 million in damages to a woman who said the Jehovah's Witnesses allowed an adult member of a Fremont church to molest her when she was a child in the mid-1990s.

Alameda County jurors awarded $7 million in compensatory damages on Wednesday and another $21 million in punitive damages on Thursday to Candace Conti, her attorney, Rick Simons said.

"This is the largest jury verdict for a single victim in a religious child abuse case in the country," Simons told The Associated Press.

In her lawsuit, Conti, now 26, said from 1995-1996, when she was 9 and 10 years old and a member of the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, she was repeatedly molested by a fellow congregant, Jonathan Kendrick.

The Associated Press does not normally name victims of child sexual abuse but Conti has identified herself publicly to encourage other victims of sexual abuse to come forward, Simons said.

"Nothing can bring back my childhood," Conti told the Oakland Tribune. "But through this (verdict) and through, hopefully, a change in their policy, we can make something good come out of it."

Conti also claimed in her suit that the religion's national leaders formed a policy in 1989 that instructed the religion's elders to keep child sex abuse accusations secret. Congregation elders followed that policy when Kendrick was convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in Alameda County, according to Simons.

Kendrick was never criminally charged in the case involving Conti, but besides the 1994 conviction, he was later convicted in 2004 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child, records show.

Kendrick, 58, now lives in Oakley, Calif., according to California's sex offender registry. A message left with a person answering the phone at his home was not immediately returned.

Kendrick was ordered to pay 60 percent of the judgment, but Simons said there would be no attempt to collect any money from Kendrick, in part, because he would not be able to pay the judgment. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — the organization overseeing the Jehovah's Witnesses -would be responsible for 40 percent, Simons said.

Jim McCabe, an attorney for the congregation, said he planned to appeal the jury's decision.

"The Jehovah's Witnesses hate child abuse and believe it's a plague on humanity," McCabe told the Tribune. "Jonathan Kendrick was not a leader or a pastor, he was just a rank-and-file member. This is a tragic case where a member of a religious group has brought liability on the group for actions he alone may have taken."

[Magusknight1974]

I was once a member of the organization and I can give you first hand knowledge. I reported a pedophile in the church acting weird around children often and because I did have some respect from others he was put on questionable status for a short time. He was reinstated several months later after no new evidence emerged. I had a sister and others i knew molested by an elder that moved around once discovered. He later apologized in a letter which my father could not believe. It was covered over and he never got in trouble for his actions. He moved and moved doing this to dozens of victims. He is known by Earl Ferguson and he ruined many youths lives. I was to young to track this man down but rumor had it that he fled the state to Nevada but that list of crimes by members was held at headquarters which was well aware of the matter. A discovery of sexual abuse by church leaders or members is a crime that is unforgivable. The church was well aware of his record and should have taken all precautions to protect the children by informing all members of this potential to harm young ones. Zero tolerance is not the case here for members. I studied the law at the University level and I say lets charge them on Conspiracy to hide sexual abuse to their members by registered or law breakers from within their churches. This young woman was given an amount according to the law allowed for such a matter. We have no right to judge what dollar amount her pain is worth. All of their victims should get compensation but only a few will. I left for many reasons but abuse was one of the highest reasons I never came back. Yes the Catholic Church was no better but the truth eventually does stick its head out of all the lies and deceit. Don't worry Jehovah will punish him but just forget about it and Jehovah will heal your pain. Typical psychological crap fed to children in some cases. Do not trust my view find out for yourself and talk to your local JW to find out their distorted take on this case.

[MarkDavis100]

Jehovah's Witnesses have many issues with sexual molestation of children.The religion and its members are more concerned about protecting the group image than the victims.

The ordained Jehovah's Witness Kendrick IS a registered sex offender.

The jury was able to award damages due to the fact that the Watchtower covered up his history of sexual abuse and did not report it to the police so that it could be investigated. Basically, they obstructed justice in a way. The damages go to Candace because her molestation was a direct result of this man not being properly investigated and punished by the authorities.

If the Watchtower Society had not had the *two witness policy* in place as well as the policy to report cases of sexual abuse to the Legal Department and do nothing else, then Candace would have never been molested in the first place.

Therefore, she deserves every red cent of that money because she ended up being hurt due to their negligence.

[Idiotsareeverywhere]

Yeah how biased does it have to be
idiots will always sterotype because they closed minded

how long as islam been trafficking children for sexual intentions? how long have they been trafficking children to turn them into suicide bombers?
How long has the catholic priests been buggering children and when found out they get moved to a new church somewhere else??

how long has all the other religions been killing, raping, murduring and stealing?

yet the child abused here was abused because the parent where to dumb to be aware of their child
not being funny but if a child is being sexually abused you can see it in the childs happiness and mental state. They wont be happy they will be quiet down and wont want to do anything because of the traumor

if your a parent and dont see this you ened shooting
secondly if you have a child why do they not check the sex offenders list huh??

If you cannot protect your child because your to busy to even get close to your child your not the best of parents are you?

why is it sex offenders only get 1-3 years in jail when they should be given life?????

grow up people
dont judge an organisation of people based of 1 person

no matter where you go, who you turn to or what ever organisation you join you will always find a b a s t a r d who will do evil things
technically 1/3 of angels went against god in the bible
so what chnace do any of us have huh?

as for it being a cult. JW is anything but
a cult is secret
them people knock on your doors
and they will tell you of all the procedures within the organisation
aswell as all their beliefs

free masonary and the clu clux clan and cults because you must be invited personally and join the ranks before you find any true infomration
where as all the information need to be known about JWs is always readily on hand


many people here need to grow up. You all shout out about it but no1 here has the balls to do anything about any of injustices that happens in this world

i eman people supported hitler for gods sake
you rally think things will chnage by human hands??

[Molly-Pchr]

No one is immune from the weaknesses of man. Look after your children, even at church functions.

[knewsteerrrrr]

""Nothing can bring back my childhood," Conti told the Oakland Tribune. "But "

BUT $28 million bucks will make it ALLLLLL go away LOL, good to see this cult church slammed in the pocket book though!

[carolhill814]

All the money in the world won't erase what happened to this child and that is a fact but it will help to get the proper help she really needs.

The sad thing is these kind of things continue and continue no matter how much these churches have to pay out because in my view rape is not really looked at as crime in the real world other than religious sad but true.

[MarkDavis100]

Depending on who commits the offense, Jehovah's Witnesses have several avenues by which they can cover up anything.

If a person commits a crime that is also coincidentally a sin/offense that they do not want the congregation or outsiders to know about,they announce to the congregation and notify the Watchtower society (WTBS) that the offender was disfellowshipped for "conduct unbecoming a Christian." This is a buzz phrase that was originated during WW II so that the Elders could disfellowship someone for entering the military or supporting the government in other ways without the Disfellowshipping Committee having to specifically say so and opening themselves up to criminal charges of sedition.

Today, if it appears that a law suit or some other action will result from not reporting the criminal to the authorities, the WTBS first states that the "unpaid volunteers," the Elders on the Disfellowshipping Committee, are not paid employees of the Corporation, and that the Corporation is not responsible for their actions.
Besides that, to further distance themselves from the criminal and their actions, they will produce documents containing the same cryptic phrase to prove that they had no knowledge of the offense.
It also enables the Disfellowshipping Committee to Reinstate a popular Elder or benevolent member of the congregation after a short period of shunning by announcing that the person has exhibited sincere repentance.

Since the congregation has no way of knowing what the offense was, seldom is there any objection to accepting the errant one back into the flock. Witnesses are so terrified of offending the "Faithful and Discrete Slave that there are seldom any public disclosures of such activities.

[MarkDavis100]

Jehovah's Witness church is *apocalyptic* meaning they believe Armageddon ( the end of the world) is coming any moment to *fix* their internal crimes.
So they play down scandals like child abuse.
Involving serious issues of a moral or even criminal nature (as well as everyday matters like back-stabbing by fellow JWs) I would be told,"Danny just wait on Jehovah,any day we are going to be in the new system".
So,they let problems fester without dealing with them,this is what makes JW crimes unique to other groups.
--
Danny Haszard

[MarkDavis100]

Jehovah's Witness religion is known as the "pedophiles paradise" FOR A REASON.

The Jehovah's Witnesses religion requires TWO WITNESSES to a crime before they will consider it to have happened. How often are there two witnesses of an act of pedophilia? Not only this, but Jehovah's Witnesses generally speaking trust other members COMPLETELY despite knowing nothing about one anothers past - it is enough that you are "one of Jehovah's Witnesses".

Finally, the leaders of this religion care about only one thing in instances of child molestation, and that is maintaining the white-washed appearance of the religion. For this reason, every settlement with victims of child abuse have required the victim to sign a gag order as documented by NBC.

Jehovah's Witness parents, please protect your children.
--
Danny Haszard *tell the truth don't be afraid* FMI http://www.dannyhaszard.com/sexabuse/index.htm

[vielmann]

You're such a liar. Jehovah's Witnesses don't promote child molestors in any way. They disfellowship for that and turn the offenders over to police. Not only that, but they won't even allow anyone with such a history any privileges in their church. Finally, this whole case stinks because the man in question was already convicted so that was public knowledge before the girl was molested. So the issue is why should the church be held responsible for someone who was nothing more than a rank and file member? You anti-Witnesses want any opportunity to get back at them because you were probably disfellowshipped for some pretty nasty stuff yourselves.

[staytrueblue]

@ vielmann "Jehovah's Witnesses don't promote child molestors in any way. They disfellowship for that and turn the offenders over to police. Not only that, but they won't even allow anyone with such a history any privileges in their church."
You are so off base with this statement. You can't point fingers at MarkDavis100 as a liar when you clearly don't embrace the whole "truth". The JW Organization is responsible for keeping these predators among them and allowing them to continue to be part of their "community".. they should pay for their acts of crime.

[1stlttightwad]

On another note..Where is CBS's, MSNBC, CNN, etc., coverage of AG Eric Holders pending contempt of congress charge regarding the Fast and Furious operation that sent guns to the Mexican cartels...No AG in history has been held in contempt of congress. EVER!

[KPeters_from_UK]

Wait, I thought the article was about Jehovah's sex abuse case? Are the Jehovah Witnesses part of the Mexican cartel? Gosh, this is bigger scandal than I thought.