Jehovah's Witnesses Sued In Brooklyn Court Under Child Sex Act

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Two people who say they were sexually abused by high-ranking Jehovah's Witnesses filed suit under a new Child Victims Act in Brooklyn Supreme Court this week, court records show.

Heather Steele, 48, and John Michael Ewing, 47, accused Jehovah's Witnesses of covering up the abuse Steele experienced as a toddler and Ewing as a teenager, then reinstating abusers in new communities without warning of their pasts, according to their complaint.

"This organization has allowed the sexual abuse of children to fester within its ranks for decades," said the pair's attorney, Irwin Zalkin of the Zalkin Law Firm. "These stories need to be told."

The pair were able to file suit against Jehovah's Witnesses decades after the alleged abuse because of a new law that opened Wednesday a one-year window for survivors to bring legal claims previously precluded by statutes of limitation.

Although neither Steele nor Ewing say they were abused in the city, Zalkin filed the complaints in Kings County Criminal Court because at the time of the alleged attacks, Jehovah's Witnesses' eight-member governing body (which he likened to popes in the Catholic Church) operated out of downtown Brooklyn.

Zelkin, whose firm has filed at least 24 cases against the religious organization, argued sex abuse is rampant problem and pointed to a 2017 Australian Government Royal Commission report that linked the Jehovah' Witnesses to about 1,800 child sex abuse cases in that country.

"Now translate that to the United States," Zelkin said.

Steele said her alleged abuser assaulted her for more than a decade in Warrensburg, NY.

"He abused me while I was still in diapers," Steele said of elder Donald Nicholson at a press conference Tuesday. "I was scared to tell, I thought it was a secret between me and Don."

Steele accidentally told her parents when she was about 10, and said she felt lucky to have a cop for a dad, because he believed her.

The frightened parents reported her story to the the Jehovah's Witnesses judicial committee, which responded by organizing a prayer circle for Nicholson which Steele was forced to attend, she said.

"That was torture," Steele said. "That was a bunch of men sitting around praying for Don having us hold hands while we prayed."

Other survivors soon came forward and Nicholson was eventually tried, convicted and sentenced to serve three years in prison, according to the complaint.

But upon release, Jehovah's Witness reinstated Nicholson in a New Jersey town and did not warn his congregation about his criminal history, the suit alleges.

Steele said she is pursuing the lawsuit, despite her own fears about sharing her story, for the other women Nicholson may have assaulted.

"I want to come forward so other people have a voice," she said. "It's not an easy situation to come out and tell this kind of story, but if it helps other girls and boys ... I want to do it for that purpose."

Patch was not immediately able to reach a Jehovah's Witnesses for comment, but a U.S. Branch Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses spokesperson told Newsweekit would not comment on the case.

"[Our] stand on the subject of child abuse is very clear: we abhor child abuse in any form," the spokesperson reportedly stated. "Watchtower's practice is to always follow the law, and we support the efforts of elders in congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses to do the same."