OREGON
The Oregonian
By Rick Bella | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on April 16, 2015
Women who waited 18 years to accuse their former pastor of sexual abuse got their day in court Thursday.
One by one, five women who grew up in the communal North Clackamas Bible Community told a Multnomah County jury that Pastor Mike Sperou regularly took advantage of them in the 1980s and 1990s, when they were as young as 4.
Jessica Watson, now a Southeast Portland photographer, testified that she once fell asleep on Sperou’s bed after the two had watched a movie on his big-screen television, then woke up to him rubbing against her.
Afterward, he inserted his finger into her vagina, said Watson, now 33.
“He talked to me, telling me things like, ‘Doesn’t that feel good?’ ”
In an unusual turn of events, Watson is not the alleged victim in Sperou’s criminal case. Instead, Judge Cheryl A. Albrecht is allowing her and five other women to tell their own tales of abuse — in addition to Shannon Clark, the alleged victim in the case. However, the jury is to consider the six women’s testimony only to decide whether Sperou may have touched Clark accidentally or if it was part of a pattern.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.