Pastor Quits State Board of Education Three Days after Lurid Lawsuit Filed

By Joe Harris
Courthouse News Service
January 28, 2013

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/01/28/54305.htm


KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CN) - The president of the Missouri State Board of Education, a Baptist pastor, resigned Friday, three days after a woman filed a lurid lawsuit against him, claiming he sexually abused her while she was a child and he was her pastor.

Jane Doe DL sued the Rev. Stanley Arnold Archie and the Christian Fellowship Baptist Church on Tuesday, Jan. 23, in Jackson County Court.

Archie sent a letter of resignation to Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday. Archie had been a member of the board since 2006 and began his term as president this month.

"Let me be clear, I categorically deny the allegations made against me and the church and believe that eventually the truth will come out and that both the church and I will be exonerated of all allegations," Archie wrote in his resignation letter. "However, I do believe that it is best for the Board and the children of Missouri that I step down at this time and allow the Board's efforts to move forward without distraction."

Jane Doe said in her complaint that she has known Archie since she was 8 years old, as a member of his Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, in Kansas City. She claims her parents sent her to weekly counseling sessions with Archie when she was 15.

During those sessions, he invaded her privacy and abused her, she says in the complaint. She claims that Archie told her he used to be a pimp and would "run trains" on his girls, that he "called his penis 'Anaconda' and made lewd comments about his prowess."

The complaint states: "During the course of the counseling sessions, Reverend Archie began discussing sex with the young girl. He also told her to think of him as her surrogate father. He told her that he needed to know if she ever had sex with any boys.

"He began telling her about sex, sexual positions, the proper ways of having sex and about his male anatomy. He called his penis 'Anaconda' and made lewd comments about his prowess.

"He also told her about things females could experience including such things as orgasms, anal sex, spanking, and group sex.

"He told plaintiff he used to be a pimp and ran a team of girls. He told her about having to break them in to prepare them for sexual experience and would run 'trains' on them with several men engaging in sexual activity with the same girl.

"He told plaintiff that if she had been born 'back in the day' he would make her his and described in detail what that entailed.

"During the time that plaintiff was in counseling, plaintiff lost her virginity in a manner that was unpleasant and possibly coercive.

"When plaintiff lost her virginity, she reported the occurrence to defendant. Instead of engaging in appropriate counseling with her, he gave her tips about the proper way to apply lubricants and how to know whether her hymen had broken. He offered to check that for her."

After that, Doe says, Archie told her "that he was her surrogate father and he had the right to know all of her sexual experiences. He encouraged her to act promiscuously and report her experiences to him."

She says she did so, and reported it to Archie, "often by Skype. Reverend Archie would sometimes masturbate as she told him of her experiences," Doe says in the complaint.

When she turned 17 or 18, Doe says, Archie started calling her "Princess, buying her clothes, paying her rent and otherwise providing gifts and money to her. On one occasion, he spanked plaintiff in a way that felt sexual," according to the complaint.

It continues: "When she was 18, Reverend Archie told her that someone had posted a sex tape of her on the Internet, commenting that she was a million dollar sex maker. Plaintiff does not know whether a sex tape was actually posted or not."

Doe says she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl in 2010.

"During her pregnancy, plaintiff showed her counselor and minister, Reverend Archie, her sonogram of her baby," the complaint states. "He made a sexual comment about how big the fetus' labia were."

As her baby grew, Doe says, she began to realize that Archie was abusing her.

"At all times, Archie told plaintiff that he was her pastor and mentor and nothing they were doing was wrong," the complaint states. "He represented to her that he was engaging in spiritual and psychological counseling with her that would help her overcome her emotional issues.

"Archie gave plaintiff gifts and money.

"He also began telling plaintiff of increasingly personal information that included what plaintiff understood as implicit threats of violence.

"At the time that defendant Archie had sexual misconduct with plaintiff, defendant falsely represented to plaintiff that he was providing spiritual counseling, comfort, mentor and advice to plaintiff. Archie told the emotionally vulnerable girl and young woman that he was her spiritual advisor and next to God. He made the sexual acts a Holy thing. Because of his position of power and the duress he created, plaintiff was incapable of consenting to the sexual misconduct.

"The actions of defendant Archie were outrageous and utterly repugnant to a civilized society."

Doe claims the Christian Fellowship church knew about Archie's abusive tendencies because of previous complaints.

Archie was sued by another woman on Jan. 4, 2012. She claimed Archie called her a liar and said she had mental problems after he preyed on her sexual vulnerabilities while counseling her for childhood sexual abuse.

In the new complaint, Doe says: "In approximately 2010 or 2011, plaintiff ended her relationship with defendant Archie. Thereafter, the defendant began a campaign of harassment and defamation that has continued to the present, including telling church members and others that plaintiff is a liar, has mental problems that prevent her from knowing truth from falsity, and engaged in other defamatory actions that have continued to the present."

Doe seeks actual and punitive damages against Archie and Christian Fellowship for child sexual abuse, intentional failure to supervise clergy, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, defamation, invasion of privacy and psychotherapist malpractice.

She is represented by Rebecca M. Randles of Randles, Mata & Brown.

Archie claims the allegations come from disgruntled congregation members who are trying to get money from him and the church, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.