Jehovah's Witnesses may pay millions to sexual abuse victim

A jury in Oakland, Calif., has ordered Jehovah's Witnesses to pay more than $20 million to a woman who was allegedly sexually abused by one of its members, MSNBC reports.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the Jehovah's Witnesses' legal entity, is responsible for paying Candace Conti, who sued Watchtower, the Fremont, Calif., congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and Jonathan Kendrick, the man accused of abusing her.

The jury found that the elders who managed the Fremont congregation in the 1990s knew that Kendrick, a member, had recently been convicted of sexually abusing another child, but kept his past record secret from the congregation, MSNBC reports.

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

Kendrick was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing another girl but has not been criminally charged with abusing Conti. He is now a registered sex offender.

"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, now 26, told MSNBC. "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."

Jim McCabe, attorney for the Fremont congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, said that he was stunned by the verdict and would appeal. He denies the church had a policy of secrecy.

"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. "We've got a long ways to go yet before this one is resolved."