Former Lake Oswego Woman Files $16 Million Sexual-abuse Lawsuit against Church, Youth Leader

By Heather Steeves
The Oregonian
February 15, 2013

http://www.oregonlive.com/lake-oswego/index.ssf/2013/02/former_lake_oswego_woman_files.html

A woman who grew up in Lake Oswego filed a $16 million lawsuit in federal court Thursday, accusing her church youth group leader of near-daily sexual abuse that went on for years.

Cristie Marie Prasnikar, 34, who now lives in Arizona, filed in U.S. District Court in Portland against Ralph Woodrow "Woody" Veerkamp, 65, Our Savior's Lutheran Church of Lake Oswego and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. She is asking for $300,000 in economic damages, $6 million in non-economic damages and $10 million in punitive damages to set an example.

According to the lawsuit, Prasnikar joined an Our Savior's youth group for high school students when she was 14 and was assigned to a group led by Veerkamp, an adult church-goer. The church's Great Commission Subcommittee youth program drew hundreds of junior high school and high school students from the area in the 1990s.

The lawsuit says Veerkamp "began a process of 'grooming' Cristie Prasnikar that culminated in the sexual abuse." Veerkamp paid special attention to Prasnikar, inviting her to go to his house and bringing her out boating, on ski trips and to barbecues, the lawsuit states.

By the time Prasnikar turned 15, around 1994, Veerkamp, who was about 47 years old, began kissing and fondling the teen, abuse that escalated to sexual contact and rape, the lawsuit states.

Some of the abuse occurred during church events, according to the lawsuit. "(Prasnikar) acquiesced in these acts of sexual molestation and battery as a result of being conditioned to do so through defendant Woody Veerkamp's grooming, and her respect and trust for him as a leading member of the church," the lawsuit states.

Prasnikar's lawsuit contends that Veerkamp acted "as a representative and face of the church" and that the church "received information regarding inappropriate and suspicious conduct" by Veerkamp but failed to take effective action.

Phone calls and emails to Veerkamp were not immediately returned.

Pastor Louis Brunner, who has been with Our Savior's since 1980, according to the church website, said he didn't know about the lawsuit, "so it would be inappropriate for me to comment."

Veerkamp left the church 12 or 13 years ago, church officials said.