Decades old child sex abuse suit against Memphis Presbyterian church can go forward
A suit centering on accusations of sexual abuse by a Memphis Presbyterian church and its governing bodies will be allowed to go forward, a Tennessee appellate court ruled late last week.
The suit, filed by three “John Does,” alleged that the trio was among several young boys sexually assaulted by James "Jim" Stanford, who at the time was lead pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church, when invited to spend the night at his church-provided house more than 20 years ago.
The church, according to the suit, allowed Stanford “unfettered access” to minors and said, “Church leaders knew that Stanford was inviting young boys to spend the night at his house from the very start of this inappropriate conduct.”
In a March hearing, attorney Gary Smith spoke about how Stanford would help the victims’ families financially, ply the boys with alcohol, invite them over to spend the night, then sexually assault them after they fell asleep. When the boys told a Sunday school teacher what was happening, they were told to confront Stanford, who denied the accusations.
As adults, the three plaintiffs began to make inquiries in 2019, learning new information, including that church leaders had allowed Stanford to continue having overnight visits with boys even after hearing allegations that he had sexually abused a child, Smith said.
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The appellate court did affirm the dismissal the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the denomination Woodland previously affiliated with, from the suit for lack of personal jurisdiction.
The original suit was filed in May 2020 against Stanford and a host of Presbyterian institutional defendants.
Stanford did not file either an answer or a motion to dismiss the original lawsuit, leaving the appeal to deal with the dismissal of the institutional defendants.
"Stanford indicated to the court that he is willing to allow a default judgment to go down against him. He has provided an affidavit in which he admits he did the abuse," Smith told The Commercial Appeal. "There are other issues addressed in that relative to the church’s knowledge of his activities in that time and their failure to act on it. He’s very contrite and forthcoming and acknowledges what he did.”
While the trial court had dismissed the institutional defendants due to a one-year statute of limitations, the appellate court looked to precedent set by other cases, including Redwing v. Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of Memphis.
Both cases included allegations of institutional coverup of sexual abuse perpetuated by clergymen, the appellate court wrote in its ruling.
"Plaintiffs alleged that in 2019 the John Does were told by a former Woodland pastor that a 'full investigation' was done at the time of the complaints being made in the 1990s, but they later learned the investigation was a 'whitewash' and that 'efforts were undertaken to conceal and hide this illegal and heinous activity,'" reads the ruling. "In addition, Plaintiffs allege they discovered in June 2019 new information about their experiences when John Doe 3 contacted Pastor Matt Miller at Woodland and was told Miller believed Plaintiffs because he had heard stories supporting their claims."
The church's claims of a full investigation constituted fraudulent concealment, a legal doctrine that can impact the statute of limitations, Smith argued in the March hearing.
The court ruled that because of that, the statute of limitations remains a question in the case. The suit will return to Judge Rhynette Hurd in Shelby County Circuit Court.
According to the suit, the church and its governing bodies are included because they did little or nothing to train the people responsible for children about abuse and because church leaders had knowledge of Stanford's sleepovers with young boys, were suspicious of the activity, but did nothing to stop it.
"They confronted him about it and he told them he was going to keep doing it and they allowed him to keep doing it and the result was these boys were abused.”
Additionally, in 2019, one of the defendants revealed the identities of the three John Does to members of the media.
The appellate court also overturned the trial court's decision to dismiss the plaintiff's claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Christopher Ehresman, attorney for Woodland Presbyterian, said he could not comment on pending litigation.
Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Presbyterian church sex abuse suit to move forward
