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(EDITOR'S
NOTE: M4 The Associated Press and AP Religion writer Bobby Ross contributed
to this report.)
A
jury was selected Monday in the civil trial against the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of America, Trinity Lutheran Lutheran Seminary and the Northern
Texas/Northern Louisiana Synod, while a dispute continued on whether a
settlement had been reached by some parties in the suit.
The
lawsuit stems from the case of Gerald Patrick Thomas, a former Lutheran
minister, who was convicted of sex crimes against children while serving as
a pastor for the
Lutheran
Church
in
Marshall
. The case involved 14 boys from the
Marshall
community.
The
trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday, April 13, with a four woman, eight man
jury. The racial make up of the jury is three African American and nine
whites, according to Lyda Molanphy, plaintiffs spokesperson.
Rumors
were still swirling on Monday, that a settlement had been reached by the
ELCA and the seminary with some of the plaintiffs in the case.
John
Brooks, spokesperson for the ELCA and the Trinity Lutheran Seminary in
Columbus
,
Ohio
,
told the Associated Press that there had been a settlement, but it is not
official until it is approved by the court.
Ms.
Molanphy disagreed.
"The
case is going to trial on Tuesday because there is not a settlement with any
of the plaintiffs in the case," she said.
"The
defendants in this case have a history of not telling the truth,"
Molanphy said. "That is why we find ourselves in this position to begin
with."
Thomas
was convicted in 2002
Harrison
County
's 71st District Court and received a sentence of 397 years. He is
not a defendant in the civil case.
The
plaintiffs' attorneys will try to prove the ELCA and the seminary knew
Thomas posed a threat to children before he was assigned to
Marshall
's
Good
Shepherd
Lutheran
Church
in 1997.
They
allege that problems arose with Thomas before he was certified as a Lutheran
minister and after certification. Both of those events took place before he
came to
Marshall
.
Harrison
County Courthouse officials said they were acting under strict guidelines
set by 71st District Court Judge Bonnie Leggat when they refused to give any
details of Monday's events.
If
the Chicago-based
Evangelical
Lutheran
Church
in
America
and its Trinity Lutheran Seminary in
Columbus
,
Ohio
,
have reached a tentative settlement in the case, that would leave ELCA’s
Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, headquartered in
Dallas
,
as the only remaining defendant in one of the most serious sexual abuse
cases ever to hit a major U.S. Protestant denomination.
However,
the lead attorney for the plaintiffs disputed the settlement claims.
"There
have been no settlements,” attorney Edward Hohn said, supporting Ms.
Molanphy's claim.
"The
case is going to trial as to all defendants," Hohn said. "That’s
all the comment I’ve got.”
Thomas
was found guilty of sex crimes involving boys he befriended and lured into a
world of child pornography, videotaped indecency and sexual assault.
John
Brooks, spokesman for the 5 million-member denomination, and Scott Shanes,
attorney for the Trinity Lutheran Seminary in
Columbus
,
both said formal settlement approval could come on the day the trial begins.
“There’s
been a settlement reached with all 14 plaintiffs,” said Shanes, a
Dallas-based attorney who skipped jury selection Monday. “That’s just
subject to court approval now.”
Neither
Brooks nor Shanes would discuss details or how much the victims might be
paid.
Church
officials have repeatedly denied negligence, despite private memos that
detailed Thomas’ questionable behavior before he was assigned to
Marshall
in 1997.
"It
is uncontested, we believe, that immediately after the bishop learned of his
arrest and the criminal charges against Thomas, the bishop received
Thomas’ resignation from the clergy roster," Brooks said in a recent
written statement.
Thomas,
now 41, misspelled his first name as “Gearal” on the essay he wrote in
1993 applying to the seminary.
In
the essay, the former pizza delivery manager, who would later flunk both New
Testament and Old Testament, discussed his work with inner-city teenagers
who “lived in roach-infested houses.”
In
1996, as a ministry intern at a small Lutheran church in rural Wilson,
Texas, near Lubbock, he befriended two poor Hispanic brothers, ages 13 and
14, often inviting them to stay overnight, according to a private seminary
memo included in court records.
But
when the boys started avoiding Thomas, their father contacted sheriff’s
deputies, who learned the boys drank tequila with Thomas and watched part of
a homosexual pornographic video they found at the parsonage.
In
the memo to seminary officials, Thomas’ intern supervisor Mel Swoyer wrote
that Thomas cried and admitted giving the boys alcohol. Thomas denied any
sexual contact with the boys and said of the video, "That’s something
I have wanted to throw away for a long time."
Back
in
Columbus
for his final year of seminary, Thomas volunteered with an after-school
youth program.
When
the Rev. Carol Stumme, who oversaw the program, discovered two sixth-graders
were going to Thomas’ apartment on weekends, she reported her concerns.
Then, in an April 1997 meeting with Thomas and seminary official Brad Binau,
Stumme learned of the earlier situation in
Wilson
.
"As
soon as I heard about the
Wilson
incident, I knew I was right on,” said Stumme, 71, now pastor of
Lutheran
Memorial
Church
in
Minneapolis
.
She
banned Thomas from her church.
Binau,
meanwhile, urged Thomas to seek therapy to confront confusion in his life.
"He
seemed to take my suggestions for therapy seriously though there was no
absolute commitment on his part and none sought on my part," Binau
wrote in May 1997.
While
aware of Thomas’ "boundary issues" in seminary, the Northern
Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod did not share details of Thomas’ background
with the
Marshall
congregation, court records indicate. Synod officials did not
return calls seeking comment.
Thomas’
crimes weren’t exposed until 2001, when a teenager found nude images of
friends on the pastor’s computer and tried to blackmail him. The FBI was
alerted after Thomas took the teen to at least two dealerships looking to
buy him a pickup to keep him quiet.
Thomas,
convicted on federal child pornography charges, is serving five years at the
U.S. Penitentiary in
Beaumont
. His state sentence will start after that.
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