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	Lawsuit Settled in Sex-Abuse Case By Andrew Wolfe Nashua Telegraph March 15, 2008 http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080315/NEWS01/209430320/-1/news NASHUA The New Hampshire Conference United Church of Christ has settled a lawsuit by a Nashua-area man who claimed a church camp counselor sexually abused him, court records show. The lawsuit was filed anonymously against the church and the counselor, Jonathan Tanguay of North Conway, in the fall of 2006 in Hillsborough County Superior Court. Lawyers for both sides had been slinging paper, arguing over whether a judge should dismiss the case on legal grounds, when they reached a settlement March 7, court records show. The suit states that the man met Tanguay at the Horton Center, a UCC summer camp and year-round youth ministry on Pine Mountain in Gorham. The man met Tanguay after he began to attend camp in 1991, when he was 10 years old, and entered into a sexual relationship with Tanguay when he was 17, his lawyer claimed. Their relationship began at the camp and continued beyond camp afterwards. The man's suit charges that Tanguay seduced him into a sexual relationship after the teen confided feelings of insecurity, depression and self-loathing. The man claims the relationship further scarred him, causing mental anguish that he tried to smother with alcohol and drugs before turning to therapy. The man claims that church and camp officials ignored previous complaints of inappropriate behavior by Tanguay until 2003, when they made some report concerning him to the state Division of Children Youth and Families. The man's lawyer, David Pinsonneault of Nashua, charged that church officials tried to keep their concerns about Tanguay quiet because they feared that airing the allegations would also expose other, heterosexual relationships between staff and campers over the years. The church's lawyer, Dona Feeney of Bedford, argued the case should be thrown out because the statute of limitations had run out long before and argued church and camp officials had no reason to suspect Tanguay of inappropriate behavior at that time. Feeney also accused Pinsonneault of sensationalizing his claims. Notice of the settlement had not yet been filed in court this week, but court staff said that the lawyers had verbally notified the court of the settlement, and a handwritten note was placed in the file to that effect. The terms of such settlements are confidential, and typically include an agreement that neither side will comment on the case and that no one admits to any fault or wrongdoing. Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.
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