Man Alleges Sexual Abuse by Former Eugene Pastor

By Greg Bolt
The Register-Guard
January 3, 2013

http://www.registerguard.com/web/news/29254025-57/church-walker-abuse-suit-sexual.html.csp

A one-time Eugene man is suing the Methodist Church for $4.5 million over allegations that he was sexually abused as a youth by a Eugene pastor who later died from AIDS.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges that former Pastor William Walker of First United Methodist Church in Eugene sexually assaulted the unnamed victim when he was about 11 years old and his family attended the church. It claims the abuse caused extreme physical and psychological damage, the effects of which continue to haunt the man, who is now in his late 30s.

A spokesman for the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church, which is based in Portland and is named as the defendant in the suit, said Wednesday that the church has not yet been served with a copy of the suit and cannot comment on it.

But Greg Nelson, communications director for the conference, did say in an e-mail statement that the denomination’s churches “work to make their local congregations places of safety for children and vulnerable adults and will take this, and any allegation, seriously.”

Pastor Debbie Pitney, currently the senior pastor at the Eugene church, declined comment.

The man whose alleged abuse sparked the suit is named only as “Jack Doe.” The suit says he only became aware this year that the problems he has experienced were tied to the alleged abuse that happened when he was a child.

“For years, I put what happened to me when I was a kid out of my thoughts,” the man said in a statement released by his attorney. “But the abuse severely affected my life, and I am just now able to face my fears, come forward to make sure the church is held accountable for its actions and try to help prevent this kind of abuse from happening to someone else.”

Walker was an extremely popular and admired pastor who served the Eugene church for 10 years and held national leadership positions in the Methodist denomination. But he led a dual life that only became widely known after his death from AIDS in 1992, stunning many in his extended church family as well as his own children.

Walker, it was learned, was a


bisexual who had made advances to at least 12 males in the church, including one minor whose name has never been revealed. It is not known whether that minor is the adult who is now suing the church.

It also appears that Walker infected his wife with the AIDS virus after contracting it himself in 1989. Carol Walker died from complications of the infection in 1990, but the cause of her death and Walker’s was hidden until six months after Walker’s death.

The abuse alleged in the lawsuit is said to have taken place in 1984, five years before Walker was diagnosed with AIDS. The lawsuit does not make any claim that the plaintiff, who still lives in Lane County, has been infected with AIDS as a result of the alleged abuse.

Gilion Dumas, the Portland attorney who filed the suit, said the man had himself tested for AIDS after hearing of Walker’s death from the disease. The test was negative.

Rape among accusations

The suit accuses Walker of rape, sexual battery and sexual exploitation. It says Walker used his position of trust with the boy and his family to “groom” him for later abuse, which allegedly included kissing, fondling and anal sex.

The abuse occurred on at least four or five occasions, the suit claims, both on church property in Eugene and at Camp Magruder, a retreat near Rockaway Beach on the Oregon Coast operated by the Methodist church.

Under Oregon law, victims of sexual abuse can file civil suits for damages at any time up until age 40 regardless of when the abuse occurred. After 40, a suit still can be filed within five years of a victim connecting current problems with past abuse.

The suit seeks $4 million in noneconomic damages and $500,000 for his past and future psychological treatment, medical care and lost earning capacity. It also reserves the right to add punitive damages to the claims at a future date.

Dumas said she will ask for punitive damages if she finds evidence that the church knew of Walker’s sexual advances toward children and failed to take action to protect them. No such evidence has yet been uncovered, but she stressed that she is just beginning the process of seeking documents from the church that might be relevant to the lawsuit.

She also said it’s possible other victims exist who have not yet reported abuse will do so after hearing about the suit. Dumas, whose practice includes representing victims of sexual abuse, said having one victim step forward often gives other victims the courage to report their abuse as well.

“Given what we know about how pedophiles operate, it’s probably a good assumption that this Pastor Walker didn’t go from never molesting a child to raping an 11-year-old as his first victim,” she said. “Sometimes when one victim comes forward, then other victims also get the strength to come forward, knowing they will be treated with respect and listened to.”

Similar lawsuits

While sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church has generated widespread news over a number of years, the problem has hit churches in other denominations as well. According to a 2010 article in the magazine Church Executive, the Methodist church spent $100 million dealing with cases of sexual misconduct by its clergy in the previous 10 years.

Walker’s sexuality was unknown to the vast majority of his congregation until it was revealed at an unprecedented church meeting four months after his death. It was then that church members learned that Walker had died of AIDS, not lymphoma as they originally had been told.

They also learned that Walker had been accused of making sexual advances to two male teenagers at the Methodist church camp in the mid-1970s. Those accusations didn’t surface until 1991, when the alleged victims reported the abuse to their pastors in other churches.

William Dew, the bishop of the Methodist conference at the time, said Walker was confronted with the allegations and claimed to have no memory of the incident. But he agreed to submit to counseling, only to have to end the sessions after three months because of his failing health, Dew said.

When confronted with information that he was suffering from AIDS, Walker became angry over what he saw as an invasion of his privacy and refused to confirm or deny it, Dew said. It wasn’t until after Walker’s death that his family confirmed that Walker and his wife died from AIDS and other men came forward with allegations of improper sexual advances by Walker.