New Concerns over St. Louis Hospice Chaplain Accused of Sexual Misconduct

By Lilly Fowler
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
October 23, 2014

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/new-concerns-over-hospice-chaplain-accused-of-sexual-misconduct/article_a6765a1f-c9fc-56f2-9320-bdb7d22b27c2.html

The Rev. Bill Little

An alleged victim of sexual exploitation has fresh concerns over a pastor and former licensed psychologist who is now working as a hospice chaplain.

The Rev. Bill Little is currently employed by Unity Hospice in St. Louis’ Dogtown neighborhood. Rhonda Pitt, who together with her husband first sued Little in 2011, accusing him of sexual misconduct, is concerned the pastor could hurt someone else.

“We just need people to know. They need to be warned,” Darrell Pitt, Rhonda’s husband, said at a news conference sponsored by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “I just hope we can prevent him from hurting anyone else.”

The couple sued Little, and the now defunct Christ Memorial Baptist Church in Cool Valley, claiming that in the 1980s he used his position as pastor, and his role as their personal therapist, to engage in an affair with Rhonda.

That lawsuit settled in 2013 for $30,000 and included a personal apology from Little.

“I am sorry for what happened. It was inappropriate, stupid and immoral, and I was wrong. It amounts to clergy sexual misconduct,” Little wrote to the couple.

As part of the settlement, Little himself agreed to pay $5,000. The church settled for the other $25,000.

The couple’s lawsuit against Little is not the first time the pastor has run into trouble.

In 1996, the State Committee of Psychologists suspended Little’s license for one year, with five years of probation. It cited the case of an unnamed woman who went to Little for joint marriage counseling in 1973, then a decade later, for therapy relative to childhood sexual abuse and incest. Little had no formal training relative to incest, according to the board, and started using “pressure point” therapy that involved inappropriate physical conduct.

The board also cited his sexual relationship with Sandra Saake, who went to him for grief counseling in 1994 after a car crash killed her husband. Saake sued Little in a case settled out of court.

At the time, Little was program director for the Cancer Support Center, in Cool Valley, which was forced to dissolve in 2004 for failing to file with the state.

Aaron Staebell, Little’s lawyer, said he thought the type of hospice work Little is now engaged in should be commended and that he wouldn’t hesitate to have the pastor work with his own family.

He noted that Little’s personal apology to the couple was simply part of a settlement the pastor agreed to in order to move on with his life.