PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
ANNE SAKER
A young woman who accused the Rev. Roy Tate of raping her in 1989 when she was 16 has opened her $10-million civil lawsuit against the national denomination for Tate's North Portland church, saying he inflicted a lifetime of pain on her.
But a lawyer for the Church of God in Christ Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., argued that the church is not responsible for Tate's actions and cannot control him. As proof, the lawyer said Tate still preaches at Christ Memorial Church, on North Killingsworth Street, even though the denomination suspended him in 2003 for misconduct.
The first evidence was presented Tuesday to a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury in a trial that is expected to go into next week. The Church of God in Christ Inc. is the second-largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States with an estimated 4 million members, according to its Web site.
Posted by kshaw at June 8, 2005 12:23 PM