ALABAMA
AL.com
By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com
on October 25, 2012
BIRMINGHAM — A Jefferson County jury today awarded a $1 million judgment against a former youth minister at Word of Life Christian Center who was accused of sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old girl in the congregation.
William David Webb pleaded guilty in 2009 of transporting a minor girl across state lines for sex. Webb, 39, is serving a five-year sentence at a federal prison in Forrest City, Ark.
The victim in that case, Barbara Elizabeth Echols, now 24 and married, filed a lawsuit in 2009, alleging seduction of a minor, assault and battery. The jury today returned a verdict in Jefferson County Circuit Court for $500,000 in compensatory and $500,000 in punitive damages, said Echols’ attorney, Johnny Brunson.
“They found that she was 15 when he initiated contact,” Brunson said. “She testified that he sexually assaulted and sexually abused her beginning when she was 15.”
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