The Suspected Victims Filed Suit Too Late, They Say
By Paul Pinkham
Times-Union
December 11, 2007
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/121107/met_224453112.shtml
Judges have thrown out two of six lawsuits against Trinity Baptist Church, saying claims stemming from child molestation charges against the Jacksonville church's late pastor were filed far too late.
Similar decisions are pending in three of the other cases, filed by women who say they were sexually abused as children by former pastor Robert Gray in the late '70s and early '80s.
The women's lawyer vowed Monday to appeal.
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| The Rev. Robert Gray, former Trinity Baptist Church leader, was accused of child molestation. He died in November. |
Gray was charged in May 2006 with six counts of capital sexual battery involving four women. He died last month before the cases went to trial. He was 81.
All of the civil lawsuits were filed after Gray was charged last year. Attorney Adam Horowitz of Miami accused Trinity of concealing from his clients the molestation of other children and said the church's failure to take action against Gray contributed to their abuse.
"Trinity purposely concealed information that was pertinent ... to bring civil claims," Horowitz said in the suit.
But Circuit Judges Peter Fryefield and Charles Mitchell ruled in the cases before them that the women failed to meet a four-year statute of limitations and that each knew her abuser and for whom he worked. Neither woman claimed to have repressed memories of the abuse.
"Nothing Trinity Baptist Church is alleged to have done concealed these facts," Mitchell wrote. "As awful as her allegations are, there is no legal basis to resurrect her ... claims."
He said even if the statute of limitations didn't begin running until the woman in the case turned 18, she would had to have filed her lawsuit by 1994.
Mitchell ruled Oct. 23; Fryefield's order was filed Thursday. The women are referred to in court documents as Jane Does No. 4 and No. 5.
Trinity attorney Edward Trent said he has similar motions pending with three other Jacksonville judges. The sixth case was more recently filed and hasn't progressed as far, Trent said.
Gray led the church and its Trinity Christian Academy, when his accusers were elementary students or parishioners.
Jane Doe No. 5 testified in August that she met with Trinity leadership in 2000 and was told the church didn't know about other molestations.
"Facts about Trinity's knowledge about Rev. Robert Gray were misrepresented to me, which prevented me from knowing in 2000 that I might have a legal claim against Trinity," she said in a sworn statement. "... It is only within the past two years that I began to learn that the church leadership at Trinity was aware of prior allegations of sexual abuse involving Rev. Gray before I spoke with them."
Because of that, Horowitz argued, his clients couldn't have known to sue the church for failing to stop Gray.
"We intend to appeal the decision and aggressively move forward with the remainder of the cases, including taking the depositions of Trinity church officials," Horowitz said. "I also intend to file more lawsuits on behalf of some additional courageous victims."
Contact: paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4107.
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