Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Other Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Pomona, California, USA · 2005

United States: Buddhist monk's rape conviction and the temple's civil liability for enabling access to victims

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Civil finding

Authority role

Dung Huu Khuat, Buddhist monk at a Theravada Buddhist Corporation temple, Pomona, California, Chon Tri (a/k/a Hien Dinh Nguyen), monk and officer of Theravada Buddhist Corporation, found civilly liable for negligence enabling the assaults

Organization

Theravada Buddhist Corporation (Pomona, California temple), Phap Luan Buddhist Culture Center, Houston, Texas (named defendant, found not liable)

Spiritual nexus

The victims were guests/devotees at the temple under the monks' religious authority; Khuat's status as a monk at the institution was the access mechanism for the assaults, and the surviving civil theory turns on the temple corporation's negligent failure to supervise a monk with that authority.

  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2005-05-13 · criminal conviction (California) and civil judgment (Texas)

    California (criminal, court and county not further specified in the Texas civil record); Texas civil courts (164th District Court, Harris County; Court of Appeals, Houston 1st District; Supreme Court of Texas). Khuat was convicted in California of rape and other sexual assaults of the two sisters at the Pomona temple. The sisters separately sued Khuat, the Theravada Buddhist Corporation, Chon Tri, Ho Giac and the Phap Luan Buddhist Culture Center in Texas; a jury found Khuat, Chon Tri, Giac and Theravada Buddhist Corporation part of a civil conspiracy, and the trial court apportioned damages 85% to Khuat, 10% to Theravada Buddhist Corp., and 5% to Ho Giac. The Supreme Court of Texas (162 S.W.3d 552, 13 May 2005) reversed the court of appeals and reinstated the trial court's judgment, resting affirmance on a negligence theory — the corporation liable for its agent Chon Tri's negligence — rather than the jury's conspiracy finding.

Appellate history

  1. 2003-06-19

    111 S.W.3d 680: reversed the trial court's judgment against Chon Tri and Theravada Buddhist Corp.

  2. 2005-05-13

    162 S.W.3d 552: reversed the court of appeals and reinstated the trial court's judgment, resting affirmance on a negligence theory rather than the jury's civil-conspiracy finding.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • monastic authority over two sisters who were guests/devotees at the temple, used to obtain access and compliance
  • the temple corporation's own negligence in supervising Khuat's access to the victims, the basis on which the Texas Supreme Court ultimately affirmed civil liability

Primary record

Sources

appellate court opinion court opinion Chon Tri v. J.T.T., 162 S.W.3d 552 (Tex. 2005).

Controlling Texas Supreme Court opinion; states Khuat's California conviction as an adjudicated predicate fact and resolves the corporation's civil liability on negligence grounds.

appellate court opinion court opinion J.T.T. and M.T. v. Chon Tri, 111 S.W.3d 680 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2003).

Intermediate appellate opinion, reversed by the Texas Supreme Court.

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