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Jehovah’s Witness fined $4000 per day for shielding sex offender

2016-07-14 Source:kaiwind Author:qingfeng

(kaiwind.com)According to a report of The San Diego Union-Tribune,a Jehovah’s Witness church refused to cooperate with the court investigation,had been slow to submit documents requested in a civil lawsuit brought by former parishioner Osbaldo Padron. A San Diego Superior Court judge has ordered the Church of Jehovah's Witnesses to pay $4000 a day for every day.

Judge Richard Strauss admonished the church also known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, for willfully ignoring a court order to produce all documents associated with a 1997 Body of Elders letter that church leaders sent to parishes around the world in a quest to learn about sexual abuse of children by church leaders.

For over a year the Watchtower Society and its lawyers have been not willing to produce documents. claiming that turning over the documents would infringe on the privacy of those mentioned in the letter.

In March 2015, the church submitted a heavily redacted version of the letter. Opposing attorneys called the redactions excessive, rendering the document illegible. Judge Strauss then assigned a discovery referee to sit with the two sides. But the Watchtower Society has stated that it will not comply with the order.

"By the time of the hearing on the proposal of sanctions, it will have been over a year since the initial order and almost three months since the referee's recommendation was adopted," reads Strauss's ruling. " Watchtower has shown no effort or willingness to comply with the discovery order.

In this context the court finds that Watchtower's failure to comply is willful. It's obvious that church has hold original documents. The earlier documents were heavily modified. The Watchtower's powers continuted to repeat its prior unsuccessful arguments in opposition to the discovery order further illustrates Watchtower's obstinacy in compliance.

Right man is Jose Lopez

In 2014 an appeals court throw out a $13.5 million judgment against the governing body of the Jehovah’s Witness church. The lawsuit was filed in San Diego Superior Court by Jose Lopez, who claimed he was molested at the age of 7 by a leader in the church’s Linda Vista congregation. Although the elders knew Campos had molested a boy as early as 1982, according to evidence revealed in the case, and did nothing about it, had tried to cover up the abuse.

Suspect Campos

From 1987 to 1994, Campos was accused of numerous assaults. In 1994 a parent of one of Campos's alleged victims wrote a letter to the congregation and church headquarters requesting an investigation. The letter did little. That same year was when the abuse began for Padron. According to his 2013 complaint, Campos molested Padron on numerous occasions from 1994 to 1995.

Two years later, the church sent their Body of Elders letter to congregations worldwide. The contents of the letter have never been made public, and it is unclear whether Campos was one of the members accused of sexually assaulting children.

In recent years, Jehovah's Witnesses sexual assault cases were frequently disclosed by the media. The daily mirror、The Guardian、Fox News and other western media had reported Jehovah's Witnesses had remained silent about sex abuse. Neither take action to punish the wrongdoers nor report to the police.

kaiwind chinese version :http://anticult.kaiwind.com/xingao/2016/201607/05/t20160705_4014256.shtml

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