DALLAS (TX)
Dallas News
August 15, 2019
By Sarah Sarder and Dana Branham
A judge ordered a North Texas Muslim cleric to pay millions of dollars to a woman he is accused of sexually exploiting after counseling her for years.
Zia ul-Haq Sheikh, who has served as an imam at Dallas-area mosques, must pay $2.55 million for mental anguish and punitive damages and his accuser’s legal fees, District Court Judge Emily Tobolowsky decided Thursday, according to a news release.
Sheikh had been working as an imam at the Islamic Center of Irving, one of the biggest mosques in Texas, when he allegedly exploited the woman, according to a lawsuit filed in July 2018 and later amended to include an allegation of sexual assault.
Sheikh said in an email Tuesday afternoon that he believed the judgment against him “is in error.”
“Unfortunately, litigation in this country does not always favor the truth,” he said. “In most cases, it boils down to how much financial stamina one has, and whether one has good legal representation.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.