FREE CONSULTATION 412-263-0524 412-263-0524

All Hell Breaks Loose in Sex Abuse Lawsuit

All Hell Breaks Loose in Sex Abuse Lawsuit

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.independent.com

Louis Bristol (left) and Jeff Peterson-Davis
Louis Bristol (left) and Jeff Peterson-Davis
Article Tools

Print friendly
E-mail story
Tip Us Off
iPod friendly
Comments

The Carpinteria Community Church routinely ignored and covered up reports of sexual abuse committed by one of its youth ministers, a lawsuit filed Tuesday claims.

The lawsuit also alleges that the church’s corporate parents, including the Presbytery of Santa Barbara and Presbyterian Church USA, harbored another sexual predator who molested multiple victims over the course of 30 years as he was transferred to different parishes in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and around the country.

“The Presbyterian Church has always held itself as different from the Catholic Church,” said attorney Tim Hale about how the two institutions treat offenders within their ranks. “They say the right things, but this is a classic case of actions speaking louder than words.”

Hale is representing a single plaintiff in the civil complaint, a former member of the Carpinteria Community Church who says youth minister Louis Bristol preyed on her during religious retreats and when he counseled her about her parents’ divorce.

Bristol joined the church in 2000 as a teenager, and after he graduated high school, he started working for its “worship team” in 2004. That year, the lawsuit states, a church employee received a report that Bristol was having an inappropriate relationship with the 16-year-old victim.

But no calls…

[Click here to see the rest of this post]