Lawsuit: Ventura councilman knew of his son's abuse of teen girl in church group
Jim Duran was elected to the Ventura City Council last year by a comfortable margin, unseating the incumbent and winning 42% of the vote in a four-way race to represent District 6.
Duran is the lead pastor at The River Community Church in Ventura. During his campaign for City Council, his son, James Duran II, was in Ventura County Jail, serving four months for a felony sex crime he committed against a girl while he was a youth group leader at the church.
Last month, the victim filed a lawsuit that claims Duran Sr. and his wife Pamela, an associate pastor at the church, knew about the abuse while it was happening and did nothing to stop it or report it to the police. The abuse began in 2014, when the girl was 14, according to her lawsuit, though Duran II only pleaded guilty to conduct that occurred when she was 16.
The victim's lawsuit describes a conversation with Pamela Duran during the years the abuse occurred, in which the pastor’s wife “was obviously aware of what was going on” and “grilled” the girl about her relationship with Duran II.
The girl was scared by the encounter and denied the abuse, according to her lawsuit. She said Pamela Duran allegedly “chastised” her, "made her feel like anything that may have happened was her fault," told her to "focus on God" and “humiliated her by making her feel like she acted like a ‘slut.’”
Jim Duran Sr. declined an interview request but provided a written statement to the Star. In it, Duran and his wife said they knew nothing about their son’s relationship with the girl until he was arrested in December 2021. That was more than five years after the abuse ended.
“Our hearts were, and are, grieved over the situation,” their statement says. “Neither Pam nor I had any knowledge whatsoever of any sexualized relationship, in any form, nor had we even heard any rumors of such.”
Dave Ring, the victim's attorney from Los Angeles law firm Taylor & Ring, said the Durans' statement is “demonstrably false.”
“Pastor Duran and his wife, Pamela, had significant and serious concerns and suspicions about what was taking place with their son and the victim well before December 2021,” Ring said. “Pamela Duran confronted the victim, and it was crystal clear from that conversation that Pamela had some very, very strong suspicions that there was an inappropriate relationship taking place.”
According to her lawsuit, the victim met Duran II in late 2013 or early 2014, when she began attending The River Community Church. She was 14, and he was 22 or 23.
Duran II and the girl began exchanging text messages, first about church matters and soon afterward, about sex and “how they felt about each other,” her lawsuit states. They would later exchange nude photos, the suit continues.
Duran II first molested the girl on a bus, coming back from a church youth group trip to Big Bear, according to her lawsuit. He then met her numerous times over the next two-plus years for sexual intercourse and other sexual encounters, including during and after church-sanctioned events, in the back of church vehicles, in an empty house he was working on, and at a Motel 6 in Ventura, the lawsuit states.
The girl was "young and vulnerable," her lawsuit states, and "believed James loved her, and she thought that she was in love." Duran II, the suit says, "took advantage of plaintiff's youth and naivete with lies and promises." He told her he loved her and wanted to marry her, though he married an adult woman and had a child during his relationship with the girl.
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Duran II, the lawsuit says, stole the victim's "youth, self-esteem and her ability to cope," and she suffered for years from depression and a "sense of worthlessness."
The victim reported Duran II to the police years later, in November 2021. According to the lawsuit, she called him and said she wanted to rejoin the church, but she was worried that there were rumors going around the congregation about the two of them. Duran II said there were rumors like that, but he had never told anyone, because he "could go to jail for a long time," the lawsuit states.
Police detectives were listening to the call and arrested Duran II shortly after. He pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count of oral copulation with a person under 18. A second count, of oral copulation with a person under 16, was dismissed as part of his plea bargain.
Duran II was sentenced to 240 days in Ventura County Jail and two years probation, and was released Nov. 3, after serving half of the jail time. The court barred him from contacting the victim and required him to register as a sex offender. He is not on the state’s “Megan’s Law” website of registered sex offenders because that website lists only people convicted of certain sex crimes, and the crime Duran II pleaded guilty to is not among them.
The victim is now in her early 20s, and is "doing OK," said another of her attorneys, Tamiko Herron of the firm Owen, Patterson & Owen.
"As you can imagine, a victim goes to the church because she believes the church is there to help her, and she trusts them, is an extremely vulnerable person, especially at that age," Herron said. "She's finally in a place in her life where she realizes this was not her fault."
Her civil lawsuit names The River Community Church as well as Jim and Pamela Duran and their son. She is seeking damages for childhood sexual assault; sexual battery; sexual harassment; intentional infliction of emotional distress; negligence; and negligent hiring, supervision and retention.
Mandated reporting
Ring said one important factor in the case is the fact that pastors and other church representatives are “mandated reporters” under California law. That means they are legally required to go to the authorities with any suspected cases of child abuse or neglect.
“The lawsuit we filed alleges that Pastor Duran and his wife both had reasonable suspicions with enough facts that they were required to report that to law enforcement,” Ring said. “If this had been reported to the police earlier than it was, this guy would not have molested her as many times as he did, and he would have been criminally charged much earlier than he was.”
The lawsuit also claims that The River Community Church "failed to take any reasonable steps or implement reasonable safeguards" to protect children from abuse by church employees or volunteers.
Jim and Pamela Duran deny this allegation as well. In their statement to the Star, they said their church "has long had robust child safety precautions in place, runs background checks on anyone that works with children at the church, and we have long been familiar with the mandatory reporting obligations we as pastors have."
Even before he was elected to the City Council, Jim Duran was a prominent figure in the Ventura community. He is a lifelong resident of the city, according to his official council biography, and has been honored many times for his volunteer work, including as "Citizen of the Year" by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce in 2009.
Professionally, Duran started in the restaurant industry, and also ran a senior living community in Ventura. In 2003, he and his wife started a Bible study group at East Ventura Foursquare Church, and the next year, they started their own church. The River Community Church met in "homes, schools and various other venues," according to the church's website, until it moved into a building in downtown Ventura in 2012.
In addition to leading the church, Duran is the executive director of two nonprofits located a block away: Tender Life Maternity Home and The City Center Transitional Living.
Duran's work with the homeless and disadvantaged was at the center of his 2022 campaign for City Council. His son's arrest the previous December was not a significant campaign issue; neither Duran nor his opponents discussed it publicly.
"We have never sought to hide the situation," Duran said in his email to the Star. "My constituents were aware of it, and several community business and civic leaders encouraged me to run for office even with full knowledge of the situation. This recently filed civil lawsuit does not change my commitment to the city of Ventura or its people.”
Ring, the victim's attorney, said he thinks there is a difference between the public being aware of Duran II's crime and the question of whether Jim and Pamela Duran knew about it as it was happening.
"I think the voters deserve to know the background of those they're voting into office," Ring said. "And this is a significant thing in Mr. Duran's background that voters should know about: Did he know what his son was doing, and did he violate the law by not reporting it to the police?"
Editor's note: This article was updated to provide more detail about why Duran II does not appear on the state's public sex offender website.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura councilman knew of his son's abuse of teen girl
