TENNESSEE
Associated Baptist Press
By Bob Allen
A Southern Baptist church in Tennessee is being sued for $2 million by a mother whose 10-year-old daughter was sexually abused while attending Vacation Bible School in 2009.
The girl, now 15, and her mother both use pseudonyms in a lawsuit filed May 20 Madison County Circuit Court alleging negligence by First Baptist Church in Bemis, Tenn., for allowing longtime church member Chad Luttrell to volunteer for VBS despite knowledge of “substantial problems” he had caused in the past concerning inappropriate conduct with female church members including girls between ages 6 and 10.
Luttrell, 35, was arrested June 10, 2009, and charged with aggravated sexual battery. He pleaded guilty, got probation and landed on Tennessee Sex Offender Registry.
Prior to that, the lawsuit alleges, church leaders knew of complaints involving Luttrell kissing a young girl on the face and stalking and harassing three adult female church members in 2006.
Then-pastor Mark McSwain filed a police report in December 2006 about “a problem growing in the church” for several weeks with Luttrell. The investigating officer said McSwain told him that Luttrell was caught kissing a young girl on the mouth and had been following and making physical threats toward three adult women.
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