Watchtower Loses Trial on Abuse!
wenty Eight Million Reasons Why Jehovah’s Witnesses Should Change Their Abuse Policy
Jehovah’s Witnesses Forced to Pay 28 Million Dollars To Compensate Abuse Survivor
7 Million Judgment and 21 Million Punitive Damages
Legal documents pertaining to case
Survivor
Kendrick - Molester
We wish to thank the brave efforts of those that came forward and stopped this pedophile from hurting more children.
Twelve years ago Silentlambs assisted the first lawsuits for abuse survivors. In 2001 over fifty lawsuits were filed by several different law firms with the help of Silentlambs. Over the course of the next seven years over 10,000 hours of consultation, documentation, and content practices were provided to assist with building a legal framework for victims to have the ability to seek compensation. In May 2007 Silentlambs had a press conference announcing that Jehovah’s Witnesses had paid a major settlement to sixteen victims of their policy on abuse. It was shown this settlement was in excess of twelve million dollars and the largest in the history of the organization to be paid out to victims. The problem was that the Jehovah’s Witness legal department made all the victims sign gag orders that prevented them from ever speaking publicly about what happened.
Two years ago Silentlambs again started work on litigation for eight different victims in California. The purpose was again the push the boulder of proof up the hill a bit further to give future abuse survivors within Jehovah’s Witnesses a solid basis to pursue litigation when hurt by the destructive policies of the organization on child abuse. The first major result has happened today! After a week long trial the jury delivered a decision against Jehovah’s Witnesses in the amount of seven million dollars. Thursday they will decide on punitive damages as well. This represents a huge victory as this is the first major trial with JWs in over fifteen years on the abuse policy and how it puts children in danger.
California recently passed a law that in the event of settlement that no victims can be gagged from speaking out on their abuse. This precedent will allow future victims to have a voice even in the circumstance that settlements are made. At Silentlambs we believe that finally the boulder is at the top of the hill and now the thousands of survivors that have suffered and been silenced can now seek help and be compensated for the abusive way this religion has destroyed the lives of thousands of kids.
When I first started the Silentlambs organization I wrote a story about what I wanted the organization to accomplish. It was called, “The Day The Lambs Roared”. The story described the day when lambs would stand up to their shepards and never allow them to abuse them again. The haughty and prideful Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses have allowed kids to be hurt and protected thousands of child molesters. They maintain a database with well over 23.000 identified pedophiles that are in most cases not reported to police. These men have known about this problem since 1992 and yet they ignored the cries of the children and allowed thousands more to be molested. These men are unethical, immoral, and should be excommunicated as men of God. Yet they do not follow their on mandates for dealing with wrongdoing. On September 27, 2002 Silentlambs presented over 125 eye witnesses to the crimes against children committed by the Governing Body. They hide behind their desks and refused to face their accusers like the cowards they are. It is easy for them to make policy that hurts kids but they lack the backbone to face the people they hurt. The Bible describes such men as “hired men” that do not care for the flock.
“I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep. The hired man, who is no shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong as his own, beholds the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them— because he is a hired man and does not care for the sheep.” (John 10:10-15)
These “hired men” will be speaking at various conventions around the world this summer. As they are idolized and treated like rock stars they hopefully will face reporters that will ask them why they choose to hurt kids with bad policies. The public should see how these evil men have no compassion and simply wish to continue their life of power and prominence.
We are proud of those that have come forward and put their lives and stories on the line to help others to know they are not alone, it was not their fault, and bad men that allowed them to be hurt. Portions of every donation collected for the World Wide Work of Jehovah’s Witnesses goes to support the legal defense of their pedophiles. If you do not wish to help a child molester stay out of jail do not make a donation to this fund. It is our hope the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses will finally comply with a simple request made twelve years ago.
Apologize to all who have suffered as Silentlambs due to WT policy.
Open all congregation confidential files and have any record of pedophile behavior reported to the authorities.
Amend WT policy so that when any report of molestation is reported to elders it immediately is reported to the police for investigation.
If the Governing Body continues to ignore this request to protect kids, we hope they are sued out of existence….
The lambs have roared and they are silent no more.