Abuse Survivor's $4M Judgment Against Jehovah's Witness Umbrella Organization Upheld by Court

By Ross Todd
Recorder
December 10, 2018

https://www.law.com/therecorder/2018/12/10/court-upholds-abuse-survivors-4m-judgement-against-jehovahs-witness-umbrella-organization/

Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower office in New York City.

The ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal leaves in place terminating sanctions issued after the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc. refused to hand over a trove of documents concerning known molesters in the church.

 A California appellate court has upheld a $4-plus million judgment against Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc., the top organizational body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in a case brought by a woman who alleges she was molested as a child by a church elder in 2006.

The ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal leaves in place terminating sanctions and a $4,016,152.39 judgment after Watchtower refused to hand over a trove of documents it received in response to a 1997 letter sent to Jehovah’s Witness congregations concerning known molesters in the church.

The underlying case was brought on behalf of J.W., who was molested by Gilbert Simental, with whom she and her family attended the Mountain View Jehovah’s Witness congregation. J.W. contends that her family wouldn’t have allowed her to attend a slumber party at Simental’s house but for his service as an elder in the church, the highest authority at the congregational level of the organization. Simental was found guilty in two criminal cases of molesting J.W. and two other anonymous victims.