Haugh said to his knowledge, this is the first time an investigation of Jehovah's Witnesses has been done on this scale in any U.S. Haugh said elders told him he could report it but asked, “Do you really want to bring reproach on Jehovah's name?” When Haugh became an elder, he said, he learned of four other cases in his congregation that members weren't alerted about. He said he didn't report the abuse to authorities. Haugh said he also testified about how his daughter was molested at his congregation in 2005 - and that he later learned that elders knew the perpetrator had a history of abuse when he joined the congregation but didn't warn parents. Martin Haugh of York Haven, Pennsylvania, a former elder who left the church in 2016, said he has spoken for hours to investigators, both inside and outside of the grand jury proceedings, about the structure of the denomination and how it handles cases of child abuse. “They were very interested in not only individual cases but in systemic concerns regarding the reporting of child abuse,” said Mark O’Donnell of Parkville, Maryland, a former church member who said he appeared twice before the grand jury. Dozens of witnesses have testified before the secret grand jury in Harrisburg or provided information to the attorney general's office, and some report that investigators have exhibited keen interest in how the church has responded to molestation allegations. The grand jury probe began with a referral from a county district attorney who believed the state's greater resources were needed. He said the second-witness rule applies only to internal church discipline and that elders comply with reporting laws, even when there is not a second witness. ![]() ![]() Critics also say the church has often required a second witness for complaints, a standard that can be impossible to meet in cases of molestation.Ĭhurch spokesman Jarrod Lopes said otherwise - that the church does recognize abuse as a crime and that members have the right to report sexual assault to authorities. Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, at a news conference in February announcing charges, said some of the defendants “even used their faith communities to prey upon the victims.”Īsked whether her office was looking into the Jehovah’s Witnesses as an organization, Henry replied it was an ongoing investigation.Ĭritics say church elders have treated child sexual abuse as a sin rather than a crime, carefully documenting cases in internal files but not reporting allegations to authorities and sometimes letting the accused remain active in their congregations with access to children from unsuspecting families. ![]() Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.īut documents made public so far include nothing about what critics have long maintained has been a systemic cover-up and mishandling of child molestation within the Jehovah's Witnesses. Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news.
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