Pastor Accused of Keeping Boys As "Sex Slaves"

By Alex Pickett
Courthouse News Service
October 30, 2014

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/10/30/72936.htm

A Broward County, Fla. man sued five religious and charitable organizations alleging a former youth pastor they supervised treated him and other young boys as sex slaves.

Demetrius Jones claims in his lawsuit that the organizations negligently hired and failed to supervise Jeffery London, 51, who acted as a resident adult and mentor for underprivileged boys.

For more than a decade, London regularly made Jones and other boys perform sex acts on him, Jones says.

The suit names the Bible Church of God of Boynton Beach, BJ's Foundation, New Vision Children's Foundation, Teched-Ventures Inc. and Lauderdale Lakes Academy. Also named is the estate of Elizabeth H. Buntrock, a well-known Broward County philanthropist who created or helped fund the charities. Buntrock died earlier this year.

Jones says the organizations aided London's access to dozens of young boys, and alleges that the youth minister took advantage of the situation "for the purpose of grooming, manipulating, and coercing them into becoming his sex slaves."

In addition, the charities gave him the money and authority to control the boys' living essentials and London "repeatedly and continuously forced young boys ... to submit to him sexually to obtain these necessities," the complaint says.

Jones asserts London had no qualifications or experience to act as a guardian for children; nevertheless, the charities allowed him to care for the boys in an unlicensed foster home called the "Buntrock House" with no supervision.

London also was named "Dean of Students" at the Eagle Academy Charter School, part of the Lauderdale Lakes Academy, though he has no formal educational training, the complaint says.

Jones says he first met London at the Bible Church of God where the youth pastor ran a Boys and Girls Club chapter.

The complaint describes Jones, then nine years old, as a "disadvantaged child whose mother and father were in and out of jail."

Soon after meeting London, Jones' mother went to jail again. The suit claims London created fraudulent paperwork to act as Jones' guardian and moved the young boy into the Buntrock House, whereupon the sexual abuse began.

"London would lie down next to Jones where Jones was sleeping and would rub his body against him," the complaint says about their first encounters. "And then London would touch Jones' penis and masturbate Jones until Jones ejaculated."

As Jones got older, London rewarded sexual activity with money, video games and trips around the United States. Jones claims London made him and other boys engage in threesomes and foursomes. The complaint describes the abuse as "almost daily."

All the while, Buntrock paid London handsomely for chores around the residence and church, the suit says. He was also given a car and access to the church van, where some of the molestation took place. Beatings were also common, Jones says.

London lived at the Buntrock House from 2000 to 2009. He then moved into a townhouse owned by New Vision Children's Foundation, another unlicensed foster home funded by Buntrock.

In 2003, London was hired as "Dean of Students" at the Eagle Academy, also funded by Buntrock and managed by Teched-Ventures. The suit says London abused children, including Jones, from that school as well.

Police arrested London in 2012 on sexual abuse charges based on allegations from several boys.

In April 2014, a jury acquitted him of 27 counts of abuse, however he remains in the Broward County jail without bond as he faces other sexual battery and molestation charges.

Jones is represented by Jeffrey Herman of Boca Raton, Fla.