An attorney for eight people who claim they were sexually abused by a youth group leader at Immanuel Baptist Church in Chesterfield County, Virginia between 2008-2015 has filed a motion to add the Southern Baptist Convention, the Baptist General Association of Virginia, and the Petersburg Baptist Association as defendants to a civil suit already pending against the church and three individuals seeking more than $82-million in compensatory and punitive damages as well as medical expenses.
The court action, filed by attorney Kevin Biniazan of the law firm Breit Cantor, with offices in Richmond and Virginia Beach, identifies two of the individuals as Jeffrey Dale Clark, the youth leader, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for his crimes, and his father, Alvin “Ted” Clark, who held various leadership positions at Immanuel Baptist for more than four decades. The elder Clark is alleged to have threatened one of the plaintiffs unless he recanted his allegation against his son, which enabled Jeffrey Clark to continue working at the church and preying on the children. The third defendant is Fred K. Adkins, Jr., who was the Junior Pastor at Immanuel Baptist and one of its administrators until the ouster of Immanuel Baptist’s Senior Pastor in August 2009, at which time Adkins was promoted to that post.
The plaintiffs, now between the ages of 14-23, are only identified by initials in the suit, which is actually a modified version of one filed earlier against Immanuel Baptist Church (IBC) alone. The motion and amended lawsuit seek to add the governing bodies as defendants including the Georgia-based Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which is comprised of 47,000 Baptist churches and other institutions with some 150-million members, making it the world’s largest group of Baptists.
In February 2019, The Houston Chronicle published a six part series of stories about 35 Southern Baptist pastors, youth ministers and volunteers who were convicted of sex crimes but were still allowed to work at churches. That expose reportedly prompted the SBC to address the issue of sexual assault by clergy and other church officials at its June 11-12 Annual Meeting next week in Birmingham.
According to the suit, “for decades, the SBC has exercised its power to control the conduct, policies, and practices of its member churches and entities, including BGAV, PBA, and IBC.” Indeed in 2002, the SBC, says the lawsuit, “issued a resolution, ’On the Sexual Integrity of Ministers’, acknowledging its ‘fallenness and the need to prevent such appalling sins from happening within [its] own ranks’ when referencing sexual abuse by members of the Convention’s churches similar to the abuse exposed in the Roman Catholic Church.” The SBC at the time urged the “training of pastors, missionaries and educators; accountability to the highest standards of Christian moral practice; discipline for those guilty of any sexual abuse; and removal of predatory ministers.” In doing so, states the suit, the SBC “acknowledged that Baptist pastors, employees, and volunteers were sexually abusing youth members of its Convention at its member churches,” but still took no action against any known perpetrators and failed to warn or protect its members from them.
The suit contends that neither IBC nor the governing bodies conducted any background checks or other screenings regarding Jeffrey Clark, “an unmarried middle-aged man . . . who lived alone with an elaborate game-room tailored for child entertainment, possessed child pornography, demonstrated sexually pervasive behavior,” and “posted internet ads half-nude to gain the company of younger men.” Even after an allegation of sexual misconduct had been made, IBC continued to allow Clark to supervise and host Youth Group members including chaperoning overnight camping trips and sleepovers at his home. In fact, the lawsuit alleges IBC promoted Clark to “Leader of the Youth Group in 2010” and provided him unfettered access to youth group members. Plaintiffs say some of the abuse occurred at Camp Kehukee in Petersburg, which is owned and operated by PBA.
“There is no question that Immanuel Baptist and the other organizations knew or should have known about Jeffrey Clark’s behavior, which included multiple acts of molestation, explicit sexual abuse, and instances of providing the boys alcohol, marijuana and Ambien,” says Biniazan, “at the camp, at the church, on trips and in his own house.”
The lawsuit lists nine causes of action including Assault and Battery; Negligence and Reckless Breach of Duty; Vicarious Liability; Civil Conspiracy; and Intentional Willful and Wanton Misconduct. It asks for $10-million in compensatory damages for each of the eight plaintiffs plus a total of $2-million more in punitive damages and to cover medical expenses.
“As a direct and proximate result of the acts,” according to the suit, “plaintiffs suffered and continue to suffer pain and suffering, pain of mind and body, shock, emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, fright, grief, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, post-traumatic stress disorder resulting in physically manifested injuries including anxiety, depressions, sleep disorders, nightmares, psychological injuries, physical and mental sickness, and bodily injuries. Plaintiffs were prevented and will continue to be prevented from performing their daily activities and obtaining the full enjoyment of life, and have sustained and continue to sustain loss of earnings and earning capacity.”
Biniazan says he is seeking a jury trial in Chesterfield County Circuit Court.
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