One of the first of many sexual abuse lawsuits expected under a new California law targets Modesto megachurch
NASHVILLE (TN)
Baptist News Global
Oct. 22, 2019
By Bob Allen
A survivor of childhood sexual abuse is suing a California church and her former youth pastor in one of the first of many lawsuits expected to be filed under a new law greatly extending the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims.
Tracy Epler of Los Osos, California, filed a lawsuit Oct. 17 seeking damages for sexual abuse she claims she endured while attending the high school youth group at First Baptist Church in Modesto in the mid-1970s.
The congregation, now called CrossPoint Community Church, recently settled a lawsuit with another woman claiming that a different youth pastor molested her for in the 1980s.
Two weeks ago Epler could not have filed the lawsuit, because she waited too long to disclose abuse that she says started when she was 17. That changed with the stroke of a…
