United States: default judgment against the Watchtower Society for recommending a known child molester as a boy's Bible-study mentor

Proceedings

1. 2014-01-01 · default judgment

   San Diego County Superior Court, California, USA. San Diego Superior Court Judge Joan Lewis entered a default judgment of $13.5 million against the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York after the organization declined to comply with discovery orders, finding it had failed to protect Jose Lopez, molested in 1986 at age 7 by Gonzalo Campos, an adult congregation member elders of the Linda Vista Spanish congregation had known since 1982 to be a child molester and nonetheless recommended to Lopez's mother as someone he should study the Bible with. The judgment was $10.5 million in punitive and $3 million in compensatory damages; Campos himself was never criminally charged and, per later reporting, is a fugitive believed to be in Mexico.

2. Date in cited record · primary-source citation recovered

   See citation. Lopez v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc., 246 Cal.App.4th 566, 201 Cal.Rptr.3d 156 (Cal. Ct. App., 4th Dist., Div. 1, 2016), filed 2016-04-14, Haller, Acting P.J. (McDonald, O'Rourke, JJ.), docket D066388 — matches existing sourcing's docket number. This is the Court of Appeal opinion AFFIRMING the 2014 San Diego County Superior Court default judgment already documented in this record. Add as a full reporter citation alongside the existing courts.ca.gov DOC link and PRWeb release. Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3194461/lopez-v-watchtower-bible-tract-society-of-new-york-inc/

Documented coercion mechanisms

• elders' recommendation of an adult they already knew to be a molester as a one-on-one Bible-study mentor to a 7-year-old congregant, portrayed to the child as a fatherly spiritual teacher