Portland Man Files Lawsuit Claiming Sexual Abuse by Eugene Pastor

By Rachael McDonald
The Klcc
January 2, 2013

http://klcc.org/Feature.asp?FeatureID=4112

EUGENE, Ore.-- A Portland man is suing the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for sexual abuse he claims he suffered at the hands of a now-deceased Eugene pastor.

William Walker was pastor at First United Methodist Church in the 1980s. He died in 1992 from complications related to AIDS. A Register Guard newspaper article from the time says he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989 but kept it a secret. The plaintiff, Jack Doe, claims Walker raped and sexually abused him 28 years ago when he was 11. Gilion Dumas is Doe's attorney. She says she believes there are others who were sexually abused by Walker.

Dumas: "We want them to know that if they do come forward with either information about Pastor Walker or information about their own experiences with Pastor Walker that they will be listened to and treated with respect because its very important that the whole story comes out."

After Walker's death about a dozen men came forward to say they had had sexual relationships with Walker, some as teens. Walker infected his wife with AIDS. She died a year before he did.

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