VERMONT
Brattleboro Reformer
By DOMENIC POLI / Reformer Staff / Associated Press
BELLOWS FALLS — Two adult sisters are suing the local Jehovah’s Witness congregation they attended as children, claiming they were sexually abused more than 20 years ago and the religious organization ignored the issue.
Miranda Lewis, 23, and 27-year-old Annessa Lewis say they were abused in the 1990s at ages 5 and 4.
Irwin M. Zalkin of The Zalkin Law Firm in San Diego, Calif., and Jerome O’Neill of Gravel & Shea in Burlington released a statement saying they filed in federal court two sexual abuse civil lawsuits on Tuesday against the Bellows Falls congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., the headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witness faith.
Zalkin told the Reformer his law firm has teamed up with O’Neill in the past to battle the Roman Catholic Church on cases child sex abuse and the two lawyers have recently been fighting for the victims of abuse at the hands of Jehovah’s Witness organizations. Zalkin said Miranda Lewis found his law firm while researching online.
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