Jackson County jury splits verdict in church case

MISSOURI
The Daily Star-Journal

Kansas City (AP) — A Jackson County jury has returned a split verdict in a lawsuit accusing a pastor who’s also a past president of the Missouri State Board of Education of sexual exploitation.

The Kansas City Star reported the jury ruled Thursday that the Rev. Stan Archie’s Christian Fellowship Baptist Church has to pay a former staffer and her husband $350,000 for misrepresenting that a 2007 church investigation of her abuse allegations was aimed at learning the truth.

Jurors rejected claims alleging that Archie and the church had defrauded the staffer by misrepresenting Archie as a “safe and competent” counselor. The jury declined to consider punitive damages.

Lawyers for the couple, who were not identified, had been seeking $1.5 million.

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