VERMONT
Vermont Public Radio

By TAYLOR DOBBS

Two sisters raised in Vermont filed lawsuits Tuesday against the Bellows Falls congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, alleging that an ordained minister of the church sexually abused them as children.

Miranda Lewis, 23, said she was in a church meeting when she was around the age of four when Norton True – at the time a “ministerial servant” in the church – held her back as everyone else left.

“He waited for the room to clear out, and that’s when the abuse started,” Lewis said. She didn’t go into detail about the abuse, but the lawsuit, to be filed in Windsor County Superior Court, alleges that True lifted her dress and touched her.

In the case of Miranda’s sister Annessa Lewis, the complaint says that True was babysitting her on his property (years before the incident with Miranda allegedly happened) and took her…