Girl Says Minister Abused Her for Years

Courthouse News Service
December 31, 2012

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/12/31/53512.htm

New Wine Ministries pastor Matthias Anderson sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and continued molesting her for three years, the girl claims in court.

Jane Doe sued Anderson, New Wine Ministries, the Life Project Community & Family Transformation Center, and three other people: Marc Anderson, Matthias' brother and also a pastor at New Wine; Matthias Anderson's wife, and New Wine administrator Debra Flores.

Matthias Flores was sentenced to nine years in state prison for sexually assaulting her, the girl says in the complaint.

Doe says she met Matthias Flores in 2008, when she was 12. He became her pastor, and her mother "came to be employed by New Wine" while Matthias Flores was sexually molesting her, Doe claims in her Superior Court complaint.

Doe claims the reverend contacted her frequently, via email, text message and telephone, then confined her against her will in February 2008 and sexually assaulted her.

She says her mother "became aware of sexually based messages from the perpetrator to the plaintiff" in the summer of 2010, and reported them to the other defendants and to the Murrieta Police Department.

"The messages sent by the perpetrator clearly indicated that intimate sexual contact had already taken place between plaintiff and the perpetrator and that the perpetrator was planning further encounters with her," the complaint states. "New Wine and Project Life failed to take any action to protect the minor plaintiff and allowed the perpetrator to serve as the senior pastor, all to the plaintiff's further detriment.

"In addition to the incidents set forth above, from approximately February 2008 through November 2011, the perpetrator repeatedly sexually abused and exploited plaintiff by engaging in illegal sexual contact while she was still a minor. Plaintiff was approximately thirteen (13) years old when the sexual abuse began. The perpetrator engaged in this illegal sexual contact with plaintiff on the premises of New Wine, including the physical structure the church parsonage (the perpetrator's house) as well as other locations in the County of Riverside and the County of San Diego.

"In November 2011, perpetrator was arrested for his sexual assaults on plaintiff, and subsequently sentenced to more than nine years in state prison."

Doe seeks statutory and punitive damages for sexual battery of a minor, negligence, fraud, false imprisonment, criminal violations and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

She is represented by William Karns with Cheong, Denove, Rowell, Bennett & Karns of Los Angeles.