Sex abuse victim files lawsuit against children's pastor, Baptist church

By Greg Garrison
AL.com
July 23, 2014

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2014/07/sex_abuse_victim_files_lawsuit.html

Former Highland Park Baptist Church Children's Pastor Jeff Eddie has pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse.

MUSCLE SHOALS, Alabama – A victim of former Highland Park Baptist Church Children's Pastor Jeff Eddie, charged this year with 36 counts of child sexual abuse, has filed a lawsuit against Eddie and the church.

The lawsuit was filed in Birmingham July 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Western Division. The plaintiff identified as "J.G.," now living in Louisiana, seeks unspecified damages for the sexual abuse that he said began in 2001 when he was 11. The lawsuit states that Eddie pleaded guilty on March 7 to 16 counts of sodomy for oral sex, three counts of sexual abuse of a child under 12 and one count of possession of child pornography. Eddie, 41, was arrested Feb. 4. Eddie was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Colbert County District Attorney Bryce Graham said the number of Eddie's victims was in the double-digits.

Eddie was administrative and children's pastor at Highland Park, a Southern Baptist Church in Colbert County, from 1998 through 2014. The lawsuit said that sexual abuse took place at Highland Park Baptist Church, in Eddie's office and attached storage closet, and on church-sponsored trips to Earle Trent Assembly Camp, sleepovers at Eddie's home and on the church van when Eddie drove youth to church-sponsored events.

The lawsuit alleges that Eddie stored child pornography on his church-owned computer and that "Highlands Park Baptist provided Jeffrey Eddie with little to no oversight, monitoring or supervision. Jeffrey Eddie's office at Highlands Park Baptist Church was isolated from all other administrative offices. Jeffrey Eddie covered the only window in his office with a bulletin board which prevented anyone from looking in his office."

The lawsuit alleges that the church waited 10 days after a reported incident and insisted on doing its own investigation before disclosing the allegation of sexual abuse to police as required by Alabama law.

The lawsuit alleges that Eddie repeatedly and consistently sexually abused other children and that the church continues to pay Eddie's salary and benefits including cell phone service to his wife, a non-employee. "At all times relevant to the acts of sexual abuse against J.G., Jeffrey Eddie was acting as a spiritual counselor and was providing spiritual guidance and instruction to J.G.," the lawsuit states.