FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel
By Ludmilla Lelis, Orlando Sentinel
6:05 p.m. EST, May 17, 2012
TAVARES — A Lake County jury today found the Florida Baptist Convention liable for a former pastor who sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in Eustis.
Jurors decided that the convention didn’t do enough to investigate the background of Douglas W. Myers, who started two churches in Lake County after receiving funds and training from the convention.
Myers, 63, pleaded guilty to molesting the boy repeated over a six-month period, ending in 2005, and is serving a seven-year prison sentence. The convention had argued that it is more of a support organization for Baptist churches and that it didn’t have any control or responsibility for him.
The jury for the nearly two-week trial was not asked to decide a monetary award for damages. Attorneys said that issue would come up at a later court hearing.
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