OREGON
OPB
Two Oregon men have filed a civil lawsuit against the local and national branches of the Seventh Day Adventist church. They allege that church elders in Veneta, a town near Eugene, knowingly allowed a convicted sex offender to lead a youth program in the 1970s.
The men are represented by O’Donnel, Clarck, and Crew LLP, a Portland firm known for winning civil liability sexual abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America and the Portland Archdiocese.
The Seventh Day Adventists and the firm have already settled three lawsuits over abuse committed by Les Bovee, formerly one of the church’s youth group leaders in Oregon. The two new plaintiffs who filed suit today served as witnesses in those earlier cases, according to their attorneys.
The civil suit stems from events that took place in Oregon in the 1970s.
In 1970, according to court documents, Les Boyee was sentenced to two years in state prison for fondling a child. Shortly after his release, he moved to Veneta and was chosen to lead an Adventist church youth group called the Pathfinder Club there. The lawsuit alleges that church leaders knew of Boyee’s criminal history when they selected him to lead the club, and allowed him to continue serving as a youth leader even after reports surfaced in 1975 that he was abusing children in the club.
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