NEW JERSEY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
June 20, 2019
By Kelly Heyboer
Four parishioners say they went separately to the Rev. Dr. William Weaver at Linden Presbyterian Church for counseling over the years to ask the veteran minister for help for various problems, including marriage difficulties and depression.
Weaver listened to their troubles in his office and eventually suggested the same solution to all of them — an “exorcism” ritual he said was taught to him by Native Americans, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this week.
The elaborate exorcism, which involved the minister waving feathers and placing gem stones and metal strips on their bodies, led to sexual abuse, according to the three men and one woman who jointly filed the lawsuit.
“The Rev. Dr. William Weaver, who spent nearly 40 years as the pastor of Linden Presbyterian Church, allegedly performed masturbation and oral sex on the male plaintiffs as part of a ritual he said would free them from evil spirits,” the Fuggi law firm, which is representing all of the parishioners in the lawsuit, said in a statement.
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