WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By SHEILA B. LALWANI
slalwani@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 26, 2005
A year after a convicted child molester was sentenced to prison again for molesting two girls that he met through a church, the victims have filed a lawsuit, claiming the crime could have been prevented by the church, its pastor and members of its board of directors.
In a case that could turn the legal focus on the responsibilities churches have to protect members, Apostolic Faith Church in Caledonia is accused of failing to warn congregants that former Sunday school teacher assistant Timothy P. Gregory was a convicted child molester. The lawsuit says Gregory helped his wife, Kimberley A. Gregory, teach Sunday school at the church, where the plaintiff were members.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Gregory is serving a 150-year prison sentence at the Green Bay Correctional Institute for molesting two sisters. Apostolic Faith disputes the claims of the lawsuit and says the parents failed to supervise their children. The lawsuit filed in the Racine County Circuit Court alleges members of Apostolic Faith first met Gregory as part of the church's prison ministries around 1990 when he was serving time in the Racine Correctional Institute. Members of the church continued to minister to Gregory until he was released in 1993 and helped him lease an apartment.
The lawsuit alleges that some members of the church knew of Gregory's past but failed to inform the congregation that Gregory was convicted in 1987 for molesting a girl in Outagamie County.