Fellowship Bible Church Sued For Not Protecting Sexually Assaulted 3-yr-old From Predator

[Countess Olenska]

A local family has filed a lawsuit against a Brentwood church after their 3-year-old was sexually assaulted by a church volunteer.

According to a lawsuit filed Monday, the family's 3-year-old son was raped by a male teenage volunteer in a bathroom of Fellowship Bible Church of Williamson County during church on August 24, 2014. The teenager pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual battery.

The family left their son at the Children's Ministry while worshiping, but they weren't aware of the sexual assault until the following weekend.

According to the lawsuit, the church allegedly urged the family to not pursue charges and asked them to attend another church campus.

It further states that the church "sought to hide the truth about the perpetrator pedophile and about the rape of (the 3-year-old) from other families.”

http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...xual-assault-lawsuit-against-church/76591682/

On the day the sexual assault took place, the parents dropped off their two children at the Children’s Ministry for it’s care, but while there, the 3-year-old was taken into a bathroom by a teenage volunteer and sexually assaulted, but the family didn’t find out about the situation until the next weekend.

“Their son was saying he didn’t want to go back to church.” said Kathryn Barnett of Morgan & Morgan, the firm representing the family. She added that’s when the parents asked more questions and found out what happened.

According to Barnett, the family reached out to the church to let them know what their child had told them to get to the bottom of the situation, and at first, the church denied that it happened, stating the child was making it up.

According to court papers “the Church urged the (family) not to pursue criminal charges against the perpetrator.”

The family later took the teenager to court where he pled guilty for aggravated sexual battery.

The lawsuit also alleges the church misled the parents of other toddlers and “sought to hide the truth about the perpetrator pedophile and about the rape of (the 3-year-old) from other families.”

“We want justice for this family.” Barnett explained, “but also we want to make sure that every child at this church and every church is safe.”

The lawsuit alleged that the church did not adequately protect the children by not completing adequate background checks, not lining out policies and procedures, and not providing adequate training.

“It’s not okay to wait until a child is raped before you start to take youth protection seriously.” Barnett said.

http://www.newschannel5.com/news/lo...-after-sexual-assault-of-3-year-old-at-church


I'm not sure how they can possibly win this case. If the kid who raped their child was a 17-year-old volunteer and not an employee -who no doubt would have to do that 20-40 hour child course before being hired- I'm not sure how they'll be able to prove the church was liable. The sick teen, sure, but no proof the church knew it would happen.

 

[DamagedGoods]

http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...xual-assault-lawsuit-against-church/76591682/



http://www.newschannel5.com/news/lo...-after-sexual-assault-of-3-year-old-at-church


I'm not sure how they can possibly win this case. If the kid who raped their child was a 17-year-old volunteer and not an employee -who no doubt would have to do that 20-40 hour child course before being hired- I'm not sure how they'll be able to prove the church was liable. The sick teen, sure, but no proof the church knew it would happen.

I agree, though I wish organizations could be sued as accessories after the fact for trying to rugsweep and deny that kind of abuse. Maybe they can and I just don't know it, but it sure doesn't seem to happen much in my experience.

 

[Victoria]

What kind of sexual assault, battery on a three year old would have gone unnoticed by the family for a full week?

 

[lithiumgirl]

http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...xual-assault-lawsuit-against-church/76591682/



http://www.newschannel5.com/news/lo...-after-sexual-assault-of-3-year-old-at-church


I'm not sure how they'll be able to prove the church was liable. The sick teen, sure, but no proof the church knew it would happen.

Perhaps some merit being that the Church initially had an underwhelming response to the allegation that abuse took place or other wise begged the parents not to go to the police. I wonder if there are more victims?

 

[amac]

What kind of sexual assault, battery on a three year old would have gone unnoticed by the family for a full week?

This doesn't really surprise me actually. Lots of examples of this. If you think about it, a child that young would not only have no context to understand what was happening to them, but then you also have to take into account that the perv probably told them not to tell, made it seem "normal" or "ok," or even downright threatened the child or their family. Plus, I'm no expert, but children have such a short attention span when it comes to processing things that, as horrific, painful, or damaging as it was, they aren't thinking like an adult or older child would when it comes to prioritizing the urgency to tell someone what happened.

I'm fairly certain the parents weren't on the lookout for signs of abuse. Children can often act out or display strange new behavior patterns at that age for a variety of non-traumatic reasons. It seems the child saying they didn't want to go back to church was the catalyst for them to begin questioning things and at least they showed the proper concern and asked the right questions at the first sign something might be amiss.

This part really got me... It said he did it DURING church! I mean, I know it's just as horrible no matter where or when, but seriously?!?!

 

[Lauralye]

What kind of sexual assault, battery on a three year old would have gone unnoticed by the family for a full week?

I agree ..I know the article stated he was raped a number of times.. But the pos only pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault.. Which covered all the basic sick abuse but not full Penetration
. uugghh just writing that sickened me.

ETA.. This is only my thoughts ..I have no legal knowledge..

 

[lithiumgirl]

Poor kid...I agree with @amac about young children, they don't have the vocabulary of adults. Sad but true...sometimes this is a real barrier for kids and sex crimes and prosecutors. I remember one story we had here recently where the first victim was discredited, until other victims started emerging.

 

[mynameiskat]

I attend a very small church and I am not at all religous (I go for my husband) and I volunteer in the nursery (so I don't have to hear all the God talk) and even in this small town church I had to pass a background check including getting fingerprinted. I also had to pay for it. $70.00. It is not hard to weed out the bad guys!!! A minor should never be left alone with a child period.

Also a 3 year old still gets bathed and dressed and taken care of by parents. How did they miss he was raped for a week? If my kid has a hair out of place I notice. He must have been in pain or had bleeding or SOMETHING! Not that it is the fault of the parents but they had to have missed some signs he was hurt.

 

[amac]

I agree ..I know the article stated he was raped a number of times.. But the pos only pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault.. Which covered all the basic sick abuse but not full Penetration
. uugghh just writing that sickened me.

ETA.. This is only my thoughts ..I have no legal knowledge..

I'm confused. Where are people getting the multiple rapes thing from? I thought it was a single incident. Sounded to me like it happened on a Sun, but the parents didn't discover something had happened until a week later when the child expressed that he didn't want to go back to church the following Sun. Plus the article says:

On the day the sexual assault took place...

[ ... ]

According to a lawsuit filed Monday, the family's 3-year-old son was raped by a male teenage volunteer in a bathroom of Fellowship Bible Church of Williamson County during church on August 24, 2014.

Maybe I missed an update or something though?

 

[Lauralye]

I'm confused. Where are people getting the multiple rapes thing from? I thought it was a single incident. Sounded to me like it happened on a Sun, but the parents didn't discover something had happened until a week later when the child expressed that he didn't want to go back to church the following Sun. Plus the article says:

Maybe I missed an update or something though?

No.. Your right.. I worded that wrong ( I do that a lot) when I said he was raped a number of times..I was implying that a number of times through out the article they referred to that 1 incident as rape....reading it today I have no clue how that made sense to me last night.. Sorry ..haha
.

ETA.. The point I was trying to make was that although I know he went through something horrible I don't think he endured the penetration of rape because I think he would of bled a lot and the parents would have noticed that..

 

[amac]

No.. Your right.. I worded that wrong ( I do that a lot) when I said he was raped a number of times..I was implying that a number of times through out the article they referred to that 1 incident as rape....reading it today I have no clue how that made sense to me last night.. Sorry ..haha
.

Ah! Makes sense when I re-read it knowing that.

 

[sunshine9]

I believe oral is also considered rape isn't it?

And I don't know what 3 year olds you've been around with attention spans that short lol if my 3 year old skins her knee I hear about every little detail for days. If someone so much as looks at her funny I also hear about that in great detail. We are together 24/7 though so that might be why!

 

[amac]

I believe oral is also considered rape isn't it?

And I don't know what 3 year olds you've been around with attention spans that short lol if my 3 year old skins her knee I hear about every little detail for days. If someone so much as looks at her funny I also hear about that in great detail. We are together 24/7 though so that might be why!

Who are you referring to buy "you?" Me, I'm assuming? (You can either hit reply, multi quote, or just directly tag someone with an @ before their user name, otherwise chances are they won't see it. I just happened to stumble upon your post when checking something else.)

I understand that kids that age will talk about just about everything in the moment, but you really can't compare the response to a skinned knee with something this traumatic. What I was saying is that the child would have no context with which to process the event and, depending on what the abuser may or may not have said/threatened, I can see where the child might not bring it up out of sheer confusion or feeling like it was "bad" (even though obviously not their fault in any way, kids can have fearful/shameful feelings arise regardless).

Anyway you look at it, I hope they fry this son of bitch!!!!

 

[SimplySpaztastic]

Wait, I'm so confused. Wouldn't ANY and ALL sexual contact with a 3 year old be considered rape? Being that a 3 yr old isn't old enough to even understand what was happening, let alone consent to it? I would sure fucking hope so. N if not, then why wouldn't it be? I'm seriously kinda stuck on this.

Cuz I can't come up with anything else to call sexual contact with a child, especially at 3- with, or without penetration, oral or otherwise..

I kind of think, had he penetrated that baby the word sodomized would have been used? Maybe?

 

[Krystal]

Okay. Here is Tennessee's Code on Sexual Offenses. All of them, all 18 pages of it.

https://www.tn.gov/assets/entities/...xual Offenses and Violent Sexual Offenses.pdf

Rape in Tennessee requires penetration and force or coercion. There is also a subsection for rape of a child which is a specific charge for a crime against a child 3 to 13.

This male plead to Aggravated Sexual Battery which is: (a) Aggravated sexual battery is unlawful sexual contact with a victim by the defendant or the defendant by a victim accompanied by any of the following circumstances: (1) Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act and the defendant is armed with a weapon or any article used or fashioned in a manner to lead the victim reasonably to believe it to be a weapon; (2) The defendant causes bodily injury to the victim; (3) The defendant is aided or abetted by one (1) or more other persons; and (A) Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act; or (B) The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless; or (4) The victim is less than thirteen (13) years of age. (b) Aggravated sexual battery is a Class B felony.

I believe oral is also considered rape isn't it?

No. It is sexual battery per the Tennessee code, rape requires penetration as in penis (or object) into vagina or anus.

As for the article saying rape, that is what the article says, they are calling the crime rape based on the family using that terminology and many people are unaware of the correct legal terms for each specific sex crime. Legally he plead guilty to sexual battery. We have no idea if there was penetration. Also, the articles also calls the crime a sexual assault too which is a generic catch-all phrase for sexually based offenses that involve actual contact.

Hope that all makes things more clear.

 

[rod2pop]

I will ALWAYS be leary of boys/men in child care. Especially in church. That's just weird.

I participate as a caregiver, of sorts, to children at my church, and there's nothing wrong with me.

No, really. I sometimes teach at children's church, which involves instructing 3 - 6 year olds, and sometimes work in the nursery, taking care of babies to age 3 (before they move on to children's church). Typically, the 3 - 6 year olds can handle bathroom matters alone, so I don't go in with them unless they need help with something (usually washing hands, of all things). All classes/nursery care must be done by at least two people, one male and one female. And our church did do background checks on everyone who volunteers for these duties. So far, no problems.

I do everything I can to give them the best care because I know their parents depend on me, and I am part of the village raising those children.

Just wanted to give you a GOOD example of a guy who does take care of children without abusing them in some manner.