Central California Conference Settles Sex Abuse Lawsuits

[Jeannieb43]

It's sad to see that the Catholic church isn't the only religious organization in which young men have been sexually abused.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-abuse5jun05,1,6981284.story

Adventists to Pay to Settle Abuse Claims

From Associated Press

June 5, 2005

SAN JOSE — The Seventh-day Adventist Church has agreed to pay $3.5 million and alter its policies to settle lawsuits filed by five men who said they were molested by teachers when they were students at a church boarding school.

A spokesman for the Central California Conference of the Adventist Church said the church was "deeply saddened" by the lawsuit allegations and hoped the settlements would "bring closure for those involved."

The men claimed they were molested during the 1980s by two teachers who worked at the Monterey Bay Academy, which is near San Jose.

One of the teachers, Ronald Wittlake, shot himself to death when the accusations became public in 2003. The other, Lowell Nelson, has said the allegations are "absolutely not true."

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[Stan]

I find it interesting that with the recent major sex abuse settlements, the GC RMS was not involved, and that those conferences had switched to other insurance carriers.

One person said, that the Conferences were not willing to meet the standards the the GC Risk managment had. Not sure who true that is, and I doubt any official would confirm/deny that.

Stan

[Jeannieb43]

Very interesting, Stan.

I never knew any of our conferences or other SDA organizations which were not insured by GC Risk Management.

In other words, you believe RMS maybe *predicted* this lawsuit in advance, and didn't want to be involved??

Quite a puzzle.

[Stan]

I would not say predicted, i do know that the leadership at RMS is very no nonsense and not flexiable over the rehiring of those who have crossed the line. I do not believe he would even allow that if it was his son or brother who did that. He has been taking to task before for standing up for the right thing.

BUT I do not know who initiated going with another insurance company. This case is so old that perhaps they did have some play in this. But unless things have changed, RMS was not the insurance company for the CCConference.

Keep in mind that I am course, not privy to the private dealings of the CCC in any way shape or form.

ALSO keep in mind, that the current administration was not in leadership at the time of the alledged incidents

[Gregory Matthews]

RE: Involvement of the GC Risk Management Services.

The Odenthal case, which is familiar to many of us, was covered by a commercial insurance company, and not the GC Risk Management.

For whatever reason, some SDA institutions are chosing to obtain commercial insurance rather than use the GC RMS.

For those who may not be aware of the Odenthal case, a couple went to thier pastor for marital counseling. The pastor ended up divorcing his wife, and married the woman who had come to him for counseling. This resulted in a large financial payment, following several years of litigation, and a ruling by the State Supreme Court.

[Gregory Matthews]

SPECTRUM has reported that one of the two people charged by the five is am employee of Weimar Collage, and independent college in N. California. I contacted them in regard to this, and here is their response:

***************

"Thank you for coming to us with your concerns about Lowell Nelson. Your concerns about sexual abuse and its effects on children and youth are absolutely valid. We share your concerns and could not ethically hire someone suspected of such activities.

Lowell Nelson is NOT employed at Weimar College, nor has he ever been employed by Weimar Institute of Health and Education. There are no plans to hire him now or in the future.

I do not know where Spectrum magazine received its erroneous information about Mr. Nelson being employed here. Perhaps the confusion comes from the fact that several years ago someone by the last name of Nelson was employed

at Weimar. This person was not Lowell Nelson, and as far as I know there is no connection between them. Spectrum evidently did not research this sufficiently. But rest assured that that Lowell Nelson has NO connection

with Weimar Institute.

Thank you again for coming directly to us with your concerns and getting the facts straight.

Journey in Christ's Joy!

Shenalyn Page

Director, Education Marketing

Weimar College & Academy

*******************

[LynnDel]

Gregory,

Do you have the capability of removing those long lines of asterixes (what IS the plural of asterix?), or at least shortening them so that messages in this thread can be read without having to scroll from side to side?

Maybe I'll just have to get a wide-screen monitor. . .

----------

It is interesting that most responses to the original post only address the Risk Management aspect of the news, not the basic case. This situation, which has gone on for decades at MBA, is a sad blot on our history and on the lives of many young people. I am not often angered, but I personally know two people who were directly affected and the parents of several more, and I am very angry at how repeated complaints were handled, ignored, brushed under the carpet. Even now.

LD

http://www.gtweekly.com/cover/story.2005-05-18.9962864738

[Jeannieb43]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

LynnDel said:

Gregory,

This situation, which has gone on for decades at MBA, is a sad blot on our history and on the lives of many young people. I am not often angered, but I personally know two people who were directly affected and the parents of several more, and I am very angry at how repeated complaints were handled, ignored, brushed under the carpet. Even now. .

LD

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

[Emphasis mine.]

Me too, LynnDel. Even during the litigation, the "SDA" attorneys employed by the church exhibited totally unchristian behavior toward the plaintiffs. Padding their own billable hours in the process, while treating the plaintiffs like liars.

I noticed that not even the Santa Maria County Prosecutor or Michael Jackson's defense attorney in the Michael Jackson case stooped to that type of treatment of the complaining witness. And they don't make any claim to being Christians. It was just good, ethical lawyering.

But not so in our church's case.

[Stan]

JeannieB

Were they adventist lawyers? I had understood, from a conversation that I had last year, that the CCConference has not insured by the General Conference Insurance.

Having a balance between the Church being scammed, and justice for victims is a fine line.

I am aware of a abuse-scams that happened, with the people bragging about it after they got their "settlement"

[Fran]

Many lives are ruined each year by teachers, preachers, church leaders or members, parents, step parents and relatives that it would shock most people.

Most of these crimes go unreported for maybe years or forever. Most victims are ashamed to tell anyone. However, in the trail of all this activity, the victim is left to deal as best they can.

The big settlements do not alleviate the experience of the victim. I would rather see the perpetrator go to jail for a very long time so they can not be a repeat offender.

Yes, God loves them as much or maybe more than He does me. God will love them in or out of jail. Jail does give the criminal time to rethink their salvation and give them time to look up instead of at victims.

[Gregory Matthews]

As I understand it, also, the CCC was not insured by the GC Risk Management. It was insured by a seccular company. If that is true, we can assume that it would have had thier lawyers (non-SDA) involved.

But, notwithstanding the above, the orginal claims were made to the Conference. It immediately got it lawyer, as SDA, involved, who was, as I understand it deeply involved right up the the settlement.

So, while some non-SDA lawyers may have been invovled, a SDA, Conference laweyer was deeply involved.

[Stan]

All of the Bonnie vs Bruce comments and the comments that responded have been moved to a happier place..

This is an important subject, and doesn't need the level of posting that it deteriorated to.

Some posts that had not detoriated also got moved, as the command is to move that posts and all the responses. That is from a database point, not a topic or subject command.

I am sorry those got zapped as well. Please feel free to repost. Comments by those two will be removed..

[Guest]

Concerning past church policy when a innocent pastor [Elder Mills] was accused by church leaders themselves of being a sex pervert, leadership told the governing authorities that they would cooperate to the fullest to keep this innocent pastor behind bars forever. This Elder Mills was MaryKay Silver pastor from Mountain View. But come to find out the only thing he was really guilty of was in not following their orders to dis-fellowshipping MaryKay.

=======================================

Stan has posted these words many times.

“There are a few things I know.

1) There is a God

2) There is a judgement day

3) God will do the judging

4) I am not God...”

=================================

As an Adventist I must remind other Adventist’s out there of their SDA roots. This list above, items #2 & #3 should read ...There WAS a judgement day, with it commencing in 1844...

AND... God IS DOING the judging at present...

"The time has come when Jerusalem is being searched as with lighted candles. God is at work investigating character, weighing moral worth, and pronouncing decisions on individual cases. {TM 448.1}

===============================

Almost the entire Jewish nation is still waiting for their Messiah to appear, Adventist need not be following in their footsteps in awaiting for the judgement day in the future when it is going on now should they?

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[cricket]

**bump**