Oakland Tribunemercurynews.com

Posted: 06/18/2012 06:09:19 AM PDT
June 18, 2012 1:9 PM GMTUpdated: 06/18/2012 06:09:30 AM PDT

OAKLAND — A jury has ordered the Jehovah’s Witnesses to pay more than $20 million to a woman who accused the religion’s national leaders of setting a policy of secrecy that led a Fremont congregation’s elders to protect a convicted sex offender who she claims molested her in the 1990s.

An Alameda County Superior Court jury on Thursday awarded $21 million in punitive damages — and another $7 million in compensatory damages the previous day — to plaintiff Candace Conti, a San Joaquin County resident.

“It was the nation’s largest verdict for a victim of sex abuse involving a religious institution,” said Rick Simons, the plaintiff’s Hayward-based attorney.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — the organization overseeing the Jehovah’s Witnesses — must pay Conti nearly $24 million, covering all of the punitive damages and 40 percent of the compensatory damages.

Jonathan Kendrick, the congregation member whom Conti accused of molesting her, has been ordered to pay 60 percent of compensatory damages.

Jim McCabe, an attorney for the congregation, said he was very disappointed with the verdict and plans appeal it.

“The Jehovah’s Witnesses hate child abuse and believe it’s a plague on humanity,” McCabe said. “Jonathan Kendrick was not a leader or a pastor, he was just a rank-and-file member. This is a tragic case where a member of a religious group has brought liability on the group for actions he alone may have taken.”

Conti, now 26, was repeatedly molested by Kendrick from 1995-96, when she was 9 and 10 years old and a member of the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Simons said.

The lawsuit claims Watchtower formed a policy in 1989 that instructed the religion’s elders to keep child sex abuse accusations secret. The North Fremont congregation elders followed that policy when Kendrick was convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in Alameda County, Simons said.

“That abuse case had been reported to the elders,” he said. “But they kept it secret and didn’t do anything to stop him from molesting more kids.”

Kendrick, a registered sex offender, was convicted in 2004 of molesting another girl in Contra Costa County, Simons said.

“That policy is still in place and it was a secret until, through the power of the court, it was put into evidence,” he said. “That policy was what this case was all about.”

Criminal charges have not been filed against Kendrick in the Conti case, but Simons said authorities are investigating. Sources confirmed the investigation but declined to comment further.

McCabe said there is a lot of dispute regarding the plaintiff’s accusations.

“But if she was, in fact, abused then we feel horrible, and hope she can make a full recovery and lead a normal life,” he said.

Kendrick, now 58, lives in Contra Costa County, according to the state sex offender registry.

Conti said she had two main goals in filing the lawsuit last year against Kendrick, Watchtower and the North Fremont congregation: She wanted to protect children in the future and to encourage sex abuse victims who’ve been hurt by the policy of secrecy to come forward and make their voices heard.

“Nothing can bring back my childhood,” she said. “But through this (verdict) and through, hopefully, a change in their policy, we can make something good come out of it.”

Contact Chris De Benedetti at 510-353-7011. Follow him at Twitter.com/cdebenedetti.

By James Eng, msnbc.com

Updated at 3:20 p.m. ET: In what both sides described as a momentous ruling, a jury in Oakland, Calif., has found that Jehovah’s Witnesses was partly responsible for the alleged sexual abuse of a girl by one of its members and must pay her more than $20 million.

The Alameda County Superior Court jury on Thursday awarded $21 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff, who is now 26 years old. That was on top of the $7 million in compensatory damages it awarded her on Wednesday.

——————————————————————————–

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ legal entity, is responsible for the entire punitive damages amount and 40 percent of the compensatory damages, said Rick Simons, attorney for the plaintiff. Sixty percent of the compensatory damages was assessed against Jonathan Kendrick, the man accused of abusing her.

Candace Conti sued Watchtower, the Fremont, Calif., congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Kendrick in 2011. It’s msnbc.com’s policy not to identify victims of sexual abuse, but Conti agreed to be identified so that any other victims would feel they could come forward too.

“The ultimate goal of the lawsuit was to have a change in policy, to be able to ID these people, child molesters, to the congregation to protect children,” Conti told msnbc.com. “Secondarily, to have silent ones come forward and tell their stories and to bring to light that overall issue of violence and the hush-hush policy.”

Both her parents were Watchtower congregation members at the time of the abuse, she said.

“I was trying to be the best Jehovah’s Witness I could be at that time,” she told msnbc.com.

Jim McCabe, attorney for the Fremont congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, said that he was “stunned” by the verdict and would appeal.

“This is the first case I know of where a church has been hit with liability involving a rank-and-file member,” he told msnbc.com.

“Mr. Simons has his twist on the facts and we will see how a court of appeals views the trial court rulings and the evidence,” McCabe said.

The jury found that the elders who managed the Fremont congregation in the 1990s and who were under the supervision of Watchtower knew that Kendrick, a member, had recently been convicted of the sexual abuse of another child, but they kept his past record secret from the congregation, said Simons.

Kendrick went on to molest the plaintiff, who was a Jehovah’s Witness member in Fremont, over a two-year period beginning when she was 9 years old, the lawsuit contended.

Kendrick was eventually convicted in 2004 of the sexual abuse of another girl, and is now a registered sex offender in California, Simons said. He has not been criminally charged with abusing the plaintiff, but Simons said the case is under investigation by law enforcement.

Kendrick was not in court for the trial and msnbc.com could not immediately find a contact number for him.

The California sex offender registry lists two convictions for him: lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age and sexual battery involving a restrained person.

The lawsuit alleged that Watchtower had a policy that instructed elders in its Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations to keep reports of child sex abusers within the religious group secret to avoid lawsuits.

“The verdict is significant because the policy of hiding sex abusers within the congregation was out in this case,” Simons said.

He also said the judgment was “one of the largest in the country for a child sex abuse single victim in a religious institution molestation case.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses is a Christian denomination noted for its nontraditional interpretation of the Bible. Members are best known for their door-to-door preaching, distributing literature such as The Watchtower and Awake! magazines.

Conti filed the lawsuit after trying, without success, to get Jehovah’s Witnesses in Southern California and in Fremont to change the secrecy policy, Simons said.

“There was no settlement demand from her because she felt the only way to expose this policy and make it change was to bring this case to trial and make it public,” he said.

“The money is the only way left for her to force Jehovah’s Witnesses to stop keep hiding known sex offenders within their congregation.”

McCabe denied Jehovah’s Witnesses has a secrecy policy concerning child sex abuse. He called the verdict “unprecedented.”

“We’re stunned by the verdict. We hate child abuse and everything to do with it.”

McCabe said he was not aware of any other case in which a religious organization has been found liable for wrongdoing by a member who was not in an official position of responsibility.

“We’ve got a long ways to go yet before this one is resolved,” he said of the planned appeal.

From the TechDirt Site:

The dramatic announcement that the EU’s rapporteur on ACTA, David Martin, would be recommending that the European Parliament should reject the treaty was made at the end of a morning conference on the subject organized by Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. One of those speaking in favor of ACTA at that meeting was Helienne Lindvall, a professional songwriter and musician, who has now blogged about it:

I was told to prepare a five-minute speech, so apart from speaking of the reality musicians are facing, I spent days reading the actual agreement, different points of views on it, as well as looking into the different issues it deals with, to make sure I knew what was being discussed. I’d heard from the Pirate party as well as some other action groups that it would impede freedom of speech so naturally I was concerned — after all, musicians rely on freedom of expression, as do journalists. I was surprised to find that Acta would do nothing of the sort.

That’s curious, since Amnesty International does indeed see ACTA as a threat to freedom of speech — and much else:

Amnesty International believes the pact’s content, process, and institutional structure impact in a number of ways on human rights — especially the rights to due process, privacy, freedom of information, freedom of expression, and access to essential medicines.

There is more information that they share on the site and do encourage you to check it out for yourself. The insert above is what really caught my eye and wanted to really focus on here.  So the question i have for everyone is this…Do you think ACTA is a good idea or is it a way for everyone to lock out everything we have fought for?

In the overall scheme of things this may not be a bad thing, but if you take this as what it mean you are basically giving your information to the U.S. and basically going under surveillance once you decide to take a vacation or a quick jump across the pond.

From the Washington Post:

The European Union parliament on Thursday approved a new data agreement with the United States that tightens restrictions on sharing information about passengers flying from Europe to America.

The legislature meeting in Strasbourg, France, approved the deal on Thursday in a 409-226 vote with 33 abstentions. Those opposed to the deal say the agreement does not provide sufficient privacy protection for EU citizens.

U.S. authorities say such data has helped nearly all of their high-profile terrorist investigations and welcomed the parliament’s approval.

Under the new arrangement, passengers will be able to obtain access to their records to correct them. Names are redacted after six months, and data can be retained for up to 15 years.

Liberal Sophie in ‘t Veld, the parliament’s rapporteur on the issue, opposed the accord because it still allowed the data to be used for unspecified purposes such as customs or public health.

“Unfortunately, it still falls short of the high standards of data privacy and legal protection that our citizens expect,” In ‘t Veld said. “Some things are not negotiable, such as fundamental rights.”

Now i am an american, but if i decided to go to an open country, I would rather be able to visit these countries without worry that they have officially started a file on me for what they want to call “just in case”.

We are no longer in the cold war, nor are we a communist state (Stazi comes to mind). But if we don’t speak up and fight for our privazy we will loose out no matter how much we are appalled by this and anything else that governments think they can do.

What do you think?  Is this fair and within reason or is it just another way to kill off our rights? Leave your comments below and share your thoughts.

Source: Washington Post

We have a few more things planned in the background and will keep you informed as we roll along. Our new news submission section is up and running and all our legal stuff will be up soon as well.  So get involved and help us with our goal of making this a blog that discusses our rights and freedoms and together we can create a voice that we hope will carry far into the future.

We must Occupy The Government. On the 5th of November I am planning a rally, I need hundreds of people to show. We are going to push the lines as far as possible without crossing over the legal boundaries. We must do this so that when they get scared enough to attack us and fire the first shot we can “defend” ourselves and attack back. Just like the battle of lexington, this needs to be OUR first shot fired. We must have live streaming footage that CAN NOT be edited or taken down, we ALL must wear GUY FORKS masks, we will have NO weapons. and do absolutely NOTHING violent until we are forced to “DEFEND: ourselves. we will have signs, mega phones, etc. and march EVERYWHERE screaming EVERYTHING we can bordering the line of violence and revolution but NEVER crossing that border until we are forced to defend ourselves.
This is taking place in Spokane, WA downtown at the FEDERAL building on reserve.
Please support us, please be there, this is the REVOLUTION!

So let us take the reigns back from these tyrants. Let us brake the chains which bind us into slavery and reclaim our FREEDOM! This is our time, these are our days. We as a people must come together and stomp out the destructive forces in power. I am calling on every one! Teaparty, NRA, Oathkeepers, Militia, Liberals, Conservatives, Constitutionalists, Anarchists, Ron Paul Supporters, Rick Perry Supporters, 9/11 Truthers, Birthers, Survivalists, Anyone and everyone that loves our constitution, who respects our founding, who wishes and strives for FREEDOM! will join us around the nation. Let us unite hand in hand, let our voices shatter the silence in the air and are marching feet tremble the hearts of the souless in power. WE SHALL OCCUPY EVERYTHING! Occupy the FED, Occupy Federal Buildings, Congress, Senate, Supreme Court, Federal Court. We shall occupy the Police Department, Fire Department, Sheriffs Office. Let us Occupy the Bankers, Loan Offices. Gather upon the Post Office, News Paper Buildings, Media Outlets. LET US OCCUPY EVERYTHING! AROUND THE NATION! THIS IS OUR DAY OF FREEDOM! OUR REVOLUTION! Come together as one and they can NEVER stop us. Join me on the 5th of November 2011. And we shall shake the Earth EVERYWHERE!

This event is to take place in any city where citizens are fed up with the way our country is.

If you love freedom you will join us in your city and “Occupy Everything”

We will be demanding nothing short of “FREEDOM”

Including but not limited to:

-Divorce of Coorporations and Government

-Term Limits for Congress and Senate

-End The FED

-Abbolish the “Patriot Act”

-Abbolish the “Real ID Act”

-Abbolish the terrorist hit list

-Abbolish “Obamacare”

-End the bailouts

-End and Abbolish the “North American Union”

-End the wiretapping and illegal spying on American Citizens

-End the Tax Hikes

-No more unelected “czars”

-Make it so that the senate/congress and the president have to abide by EVERY law and act that is passed.

-Supreme Court Justices/Federal Court Judges and any other possition of law MUST abide by the constitution for that is SUPREME law of the land.

-No more endless wars

-Bring our soldiers home

-End the fake war on terror

-Enforce our borders

-Reform the educational system (Our founding, the constitution, etc MUST BE tought THOROUGHLY)

-Every President and person of power must present all credentials before being elected (i.e. Birth Certificate, SS Card, Etc)

-9/11 MUST be investigated and the truth WILL be brought to light

For more:

OCCUPY | WITHDRAW

http://occupywithdraw.blogspot.com