Did Jehovah's Witness elders fail to report sexual abuse? Trial starts Tuesday

By Steve Marroni
PennLive
February 7, 2017

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/02/jehovahs_witness_spring_grove.html

When she was a teenager, Stephanie Fessler was sexually abused by a member of her York County church.

It was a place where she was supposed to feel safe, but it was the authorities within that church who not only failed to protect her, but they covered up the abuse, she claims.

And according to a lawsuit Fessler filed against the Jehovah's Witness church in Spring Grove, had church elders contacted the authorities as they were legally obligated to do, she would have been spared more sexual assaults from the same woman.

While her abuser, Terry J. Monheim, pleaded guilty back in 2012 in York County Court, a lawsuit Fessler filed against Monheim and the church is going to trial Tuesday in Philadelphia.

Her goal in filing the suit, besides personal justice, is to remove the secrecy within the denomination that allowed her abuse to continue after it was reported to church elders, her attorney, Jeffrey Fritz, said Monday. 

"Her main motivation is exposing that the policies of the Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses are not following mandatory reporting laws in Pennsylvania," he said Monday. "That's what led to this happening to her, and continuing to happen to other victims within the religion, as well."

Fritz, of the Soloff & Zervanos law firm in Philadelphia, successfully represented several victims of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky in claims against Penn State for child sexual abuse.

Fessler is suing the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Spring Grove Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and Monheim.

It is PennLive's policy to not name victims in sexual abuse cases unless they go public their identity, as Fessler has decided to do in her lawsuit.

According to the suit, the incidents occurred like this:

Fessler, who was a member of the Spring Grove church, was sexually abused by Monheim, another member of the church.

Fessler had met Monheim when she became friends with her children in 2002 or 2003. Monheim started hugging and kissing Fessler on occasion and, with time, that escalated to oral sex and digital penetration.

During the years of the abuse, Monheim was 49 through 51 years old. Fessler was 14 through 16.

When Fessler's parents became suspicious, her mother notified the church elders, who did not comply with their obligation as mandatory reporters under the Pennsylvania Child Protective Services Law to report the abuse to the state's ChildLine or to the police.

Instead, they chastised and "publically reproved" Fessler.

The acts continued after the abuse was reported to the church elders, she says.

It wasn't until 2011 when, as an adult, Fessler went to the Southwestern Regional Police Department and made a report that Monheim was charged.

Monheim pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a person less than 16 and corruption of minors, court records indicate. She was sentenced on May 22, 2012, to three to 23 months in York County Prison, running concurrently with five years of probation.

But the abuse, the suit states, continued, because the church engaged in "outrageous conduct" by failing to report it. And the suit claims that allowing this sort of child abuse to occur is systemic within the church.

Fritz writes in the suit that Watchtower has published a series of books distributed to church elders but kept secret from the other Jehovah's Witnesses and the public.

The handbooks, he says, provide day-to-day instructions for the administration of the religion and give more specific instructions on how to deal with allegations of wrongdoing.

Members of the church, Fritz said, are encouraged to bring their problems to the elders and to resolve them within the church rather than contact outside authorities.

"Even in cases of child molestation, if there are not at least two eye witnesses to abuse and the accused denies the wrong, then no action is taken by the congregation," Fritz said in the suit.

Fessler is alleging counts of negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligent failure to rescue and a violation of the Pennsylvania Child Protective Services Law against the church.

She is accusing Monheim of negligence, assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Church officials and their attorneys could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Fritz said the church asked the court to have the case tried in York County, but the suit remains where it was filed in Philadelphia County, which is one of many nationwide operating locations of the church.

Fessler, according to the suit, meets the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder and faces a life-long risk of mental health issues due to the trauma.

She is seeking punitive damages. The suit denotes a $1.9 million demand against the church's $100,000 offer to settle the suit. 

The parties did not settle, though, leading to the trial, which is expected to run five or six days.