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	Jefferson County Pastor Still Ministering Despite Molestation Charges United Methodist Reverend, Awaiting Trial since August 2007, Serves at Two Churches By Ann Rodgers Pittsburgh Post-Gazette March 22, 2009 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09081/957181-455.stm A United Methodist pastor has continued to minister at two Jefferson County churches even though he has been awaiting trial since August 2007 on charges that he molested two women at a mental health center. The Rev. Michael Clair Garvey, 59, of Worthville, also faces a lawsuit filed by one of those women. He serves the Coolspring United Methodist Church in Coolspring and Ramseytown United Methodist Church, Knoxdale. No church members are involved in the cases pending against him. He was arrested for molesting two clients and a counselor at Brookville Behavioral Health, where, according to court records, he also was a counselor until July 2007. Charges from one of the clients, who said he repeatedly offered to pay her to disrobe and pose nude so he could draw her, were dismissed because she refused and couldn't prove he wasn't an artist, according to court records. The Post-Gazette does not identify victims of sexual abuse. The Rev. Garvey was charged with institutional sexual assault, disorderly conduct and harassment. According to Brookville police, after a summons was mailed to his home, he turned himself in and was released on bond. The Rev. Robert Higginbotham, assistant to Bishop Thomas Bickerton, of the United Methodist Conference of Western Pennsylvania, knew of the charges. But he said no one had complained to church officials about the Rev. Garvey and that the conference was waiting for the matter to be resolved in court. "There is a presumption of innocence until guilt is proved," he said. "The fact that this has gone on for a year and a half gives some indication to the seriousness of the allegations. I would think that if there was some hard evidence, this would not drag on." But a court order issued Feb. 6 by Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge John Henry Foradora said the pastor's trial has been delayed because "[the Rev.] Garvey has requested numerous motions for extensions of time." The Rev. Sharon Schwab, the church district superintendent who is his immediate supervisor, said the Rev. Harvey told her in 2007 he was facing criminal charges. She said the information she knows about the matter has come from the Rev. Garvey, a pastor who mentors him and a brief newspaper story. Neither she nor the Rev. Higginbotham contacted the police or district attorney, they said. "They have set court dates again and again and the folks who made the allegations never show up," the Rev. Schwab said. "We are just waiting to see if there is any truth to the allegation." But according to the judge's summary, two accusers testified at a hearing in December 2007 and the third in January. The counselor testified that in November 2006, when she tried to give the Rev. Garvey a friendly hug because his wife had cancer, he put his tongue in her mouth. Later she said she was bending over a file drawer when he "pressed his groin into her backside," the judge wrote. The counselor told the Post-Gazette that she found both incidents disturbing and told friends immediately. But she doubted her bosses would believe her, and did not tell them until the Rev. Garvey resigned in July 2007, she said. A police detective came to interview her soon afterward, she said. That woman no longer works at Brookville Behavioral. Glenn Tetro, director of the health center, declined to discuss the Rev. Garvey. The other charges involve a health center client who said the Rev. Garvey told her in 2005 that he could detect heart problems by looking for veins on her chest, according to court records. She pulled her shirt down and he touched her just above her breasts, court records state. At her next session, she said he lifted her shirt and touched her breast. She said she left and never returned, but in 2006 told her physician, who said he would "call somebody." Shortly after that, the woman said, the Rev. Garvey came to her home, pounded on the door, repeatedly tried to call her and, when she didn't answer, returned to her house and walked around it. The woman didn't tell police "until learning approximately two years later that he was preaching at a church -- a fact that bothered her given her previous encounters with him," the judge wrote. Benjamin Vrobel, a Brookville attorney, said he has filed a lawsuit on that woman's behalf against the Rev. Garvey and Brookville Behavioral Health. The Rev. Garvey's attorney, Blair Hindman, said his client is innocent of the charges. "We're dealing with two women ... who, a year and a half after these actions allegedly occur, come forward to make accusations," he said. If it was true, "you would think someone would have complained about it earlier." No trial date has been set. At United Methodist conference headquarters in Mars, the Rev. Higginbotham said in order for the bishop to consider changing the Rev. Garvey's status, someone must present a formal, written complaint about him. No one has done so, the Rev. Higginbotham said. "Part of that process would require him to consider suspending the pastor. But that suspension, by our policy, can only be for 90 days, at which time the person is either terminated or reinstated," he said. "I can assure you that if there is a [criminal] finding of guilt in this matter, that will be a no-brainer for the bishop in terms of removing the pastor." But victim advocates said the Methodist conference should have acted as soon as officials learned of the charges. "The appropriate church reaction would have been to immediately suspend him, and for the bishop to go to each church and ... at a bare minimum say that anyone who has any information that could prove or disprove the allegations has a moral duty to speak up," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which responds to victims from all denominations. The fact that no complaints have come from the Rev. Garvey's churches proves nothing because victims are reluctant to accuse pastors, he said. When it comes to assessing the credibility of allegations, "you really can't get much more objective than the independent professionals in the police and the prosecutor's office," he said. Ann Rodgers can be reached at arodgers@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416.
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