PORTLAND (OR)
Portland Tribune
BY Todd Murphy Issue date: 06/29/05
The Tribune
The pastor of a St. Johns church ignored evidence of sexual abuse by one of the church’s employees, then fired two other church employees who had told him of the alleged abuse, according to a civil lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah Circuit Court.
The two church employees were fired and evicted from their church-owned house after they waited in vain for the pastor of the First Baptist Church of St. Johns to report the abuse to police, then filed a police report themselves, the lawsuit complaint says. The church employees’ two daughters, then ages 14 and 17, were among four girls alleged to have been sexually abused by the church employee in 2003.
The lawsuit complaint outlines what it asserts was a litany of actions that Pastor Daniel Pulliam did not do to properly report and investigate the alleged abuse — and what he did do to punish the two church employees and their daughters for bringing the charges forward. Portland police now are investigating the abuse; no charges have been filed against the church employee, who left his job and Portland after being accused of abusing the four girls.