OREGON
Portland Tribune
Written by Kara Hansen Murphey|
An Arizona woman has filed a lawsuit against Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Lake Oswego, accusing church leaders of allowing her former youth group leader to sexually abuse her when she was growing up in Lake Oswego.
Cristie Marie Prasnikar, now 34, filed the lawsuit Feb. 14 in U.S. District Court in Portland. It names Ralph “Woody” Veerkamp, the local church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Review generally doesn’t publish the names of victims of sex crimes but has in this case because Prasnikar chose not to use an alias when filing public pleadings.
Veerkamp was reportedly chairman of a committee overseeing the Great Commission Subcommittee, known by many during the 1990s for its popular youth choir, which involved hundreds of youths from Lakeridge and Lake Oswego High as well as other area schools. In that role, Veerkamp provided educational, spiritual, moral and ethical guidance along with religious instruction to young people, including Prasnikar, according to the lawsuit.
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