Td Church Sued over Sex Abuse

By Neita Cecil
Dalles Chronicle
June 15, 2016

http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2016/jun/15/td-church-sued-over-sex-abuse/

The mother of a sex abuse victim has sued First Christian Church in The Dalles for $5 million, alleging the church did not adequately supervise the youth leader who abused her teen daughter.

#This is the second leader from First Christian to be convicted of sexually abusing church youth in the last three years.

#The victim from that earlier criminal case sued the church in 2013 and reached an undisclosed settlement in 2014.

#Later in 2014, youth leader Michael Cele Stephens, now 20, began abusing girls he met through youth group at the church, said attorney Peter Janci, whose firm has brought both lawsuits against the church.

#The latest suit, filed last Thursday in Wasco County Circuit Court, alleges the church was negligent in failing to investigate warning signs involving Stephens, who was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing six teen girls.

#He confessed to assaulting at least four other girls, but they or their family did not want to press charges, a prosecutor said.

#Church Senior Pastor Dan Trautman had no comment.

#Janci said his law firm was “still investigating” any evidence of missed warning signs. “It’s a small community so it seems to us if a youth leader is spending a lot of time with girls from the youth group individually outside, people are going to learn about that. Either way, it’s a problem. If they’re not learning about it, the question is, ‘Are the policies about monitoring their youth leaders strong enough?’”

#A prosecutor said Stephens contacted his victims through social media, then convinced them to meet him, usually at a private home – either the victim’s homes, their relatives’ homes, or residence of Stephens’s relatives. One incident occurred in a parking lot.

#The lawsuit, which seeks $4 million in non-economic damages, contends the victim suffers from alcohol and drug abuse, sleep disturbances and physical symptoms of stress and anxiety. It said she has emotional trauma, guilt, depression, social isolation and trust issues.

#The lawsuit also seeks $1 million in economic damages for lost future earning capacity and to cover the costs of substance abuse treatment and psychiatric care.

#Lindsay Carlin, who brought the first lawsuit and agreed to have her name used, said her first reaction to the latest abuse case was “heartbreak.”

#“I’m truly appalled that somebody else is experiencing this. I thought for sure that they would’ve learned their lesson and taken heed after my case.”

#In 2013, former youth pastor Daniel Chamberlin pleaded guilty to two felonies for his abuse of a then-15-year-old Carlin in 2006.

#The latest lawsuit alleges Stephens’s actions of grooming the victim for sexual abuse – by befriending her and gaining her trust – were done “directly in the performance of his duties as a youth leader.”

#The suit alleges the church “had the right and ability to control Stephens’s grooming of youth affiliated with the church, and his interactions with those youth.”

#The suit alleges the victim was 12 or 13 years old when the sexual abuse began. Stephen pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sodomy in relation to his sexual abuse of her.

#The suit alleges the church breached a duty of care, and created a foreseeable risk of Stephens abusing the victim, by failing to investigate or respond to warning signs including Stephens’s grooming of the victim, and failing to train church staff and volunteers to respond to warning signs indicating grooming or sexual abuse.

#It also alleges the church failed to implement adequate policies that would have prevented Stephens from isolating, grooming and abusing the victim on numerous occasions.

#Carlin commended the girl and her mother for coming forward so soon. It took Carlin years to come forward. “I wish I could’ve had that kind of clarity and strength back then, but I was fooled.”

#She said of the victim, “I wish she could know that it’s not her fault and she placed her trust in somebody in an authority position and First Christian Church let somebody else down again. It’s heartbreaking.”

#Carlin said she would “love” to speak to the victims of Stephens. “I didn’t know there were so many; disgusting. But at the same time, they shouldn’t have to live with this pain, and the sooner that they can start talking to somebody and start moving forward with their life the happier they’re going to be.”

#Carlin said there were “absolutely” red flags in her case that something was amiss. “I sit in awe of all the things that happened to me that they turned a blind eye to.”

#She said there were several times where people connected to the church saw her and Chamberlin alone together “and nothing came of it.”

#Earlier news stories about the Chamberlin criminal case said the congregation was split over the matter, and many parishioners who supported Chamberlin left the church.