Jehovah's Witness Congregation Sued for Alleged Child Abuse

WPTZ
September 30, 2014

http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/jehovahs-witness-congregation-sued-for-alleged-child-abuse/28338048

Miranda Lewis, center, with her mother and lawyer Irwin Zalkin, right.

Two women filed lawsuits Tuesday in state and federal courts alleging they were sexually abused as youngsters by an authority figure at their Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Bellows Falls in the mid-1990s, and claiming church elders did nothing to stop it.

The litigation, announced in Burlington, involves sisters Miranda and Annessa Lewis.

Miranda Lewis, now 23, appeared with her mother, Marina Mauvoleon-Folsom, and lawyers Irwin Zalkin and Jerome O’Neill at a news conference.

Lewis said she was 4 years old when she was first molested and fondled by Norton True, a "ministerial servant" in the congregation. Zalkin said that position is one approved by church elders.

She said her sister, Annessa, who now lives in Texas, was similarly assaulted by True.

“The Jehovah's Witnesses have a policy - a policy that is grounded in a code of silence,” Zalkin said, describing a secretive organization that regards protecting its own image as paramount even to protecting its children.

When the girls’ mother says she confronted church leaders with abuse allegations, in 1995 or 1996, they were called liars. Mauvoleon-Folsom said the family immediately left the congregation.

Miranda Lewis said the abuse has caused ongoing anxiety, depression, and a range of other psychological issues. She now lives in Chester with her mother.

The Lewis sisters are seeking compensatory and punitive damages from True, the Bellows Falls congregation and from the national parent organization called the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, based in Brooklyn, N.Y.

A spokeswoman for the church referred questions to its legal team, which has not responded to a message seeking comment.

But Zalkin said he has similar cases pending in other states, and will file a lawsuit in Connecticut on Wednesday against the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

O’Neill has won tens of millions of dollars in judgments and settlements from the Catholic Diocese of Burlington for claims related to priest abuse of children.

He said he will press the courts to force the church to turn over records showing what it knew about True and other child abuse complaints.

Zalkin said his investigators have uncovered indications that the Lewis girls were not True’s first victims.

Reached by phone in Maine, True sounded surprised to hear from a reporter. “I have no comment to make,” he said in response to both a question about the Lewis sisters, or whether he remains active in the church.

When asked why she waited this long to file a complaint, Miranda Lewis said she’s “actually a really private person, and it was also that fear of being so public about sensitive issues. I didn't know this (lawsuit) was an option until this year, so I decided to do it, because it’s important that this stop.”