represented by Andreozzi + Foote.<\/a><\/p>\nThe case centers around a girl who was sexually abused between 2006 and 2009 by a man named Brian Timothy Wagner, who was convicted in April of sex crimes related to the abuse.<\/p>\n
In 2009, when the girl was 13 and Wagner was 21, he took her to Shepherd\u2019s Counseling Ministry for \u201ccouple\u2019s counseling,\u201d according to the suit, saying she needed to cope with the death of her mother.<\/p>\n
While there, the girl reportedly disclosed the abuse to a man named Jerry O\u2019Connell, a former pastor of Richfield Church who resigned in 2005 to start Shepherd\u2019s Counseling.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit accuses O\u2019Connell of dismissing the abuse and failing to report it to authorities. He allegedly blamed the victim for the abuse, calling her a \u201ctemptation\u201d and saying she was going to hell.<\/p>\n
She did not return to Shepherd\u2019s Counseling after that.<\/p>\n
Later that summer, however, she was raped by Wagner, the suit says.<\/p>\n
Shepherd\u2019s Fold Counseling Ministry, registered at 167 Church Street in Richfield, Juniata County, is a nonprofit that operates as an extension and sponsored ministry of both Richfield Church and Cedar Grove.<\/p>\n
Richfield Church and Cedar Grove control all their ministries, including Shepherd\u2019s Counseling, and their administrations were \u201cinextricable intertwined,\u201d the filing says.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims all three religious entities are responsible for failing to report the abuse, which had they done, likely would have prevented Wagner from raping her.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims that despite the defendants knowing about Wagner\u2019s abuse, they took no action to protect he girl from Wagner and failed to act as a Mandated Reporter.<\/p>\n
The suit claims negligence, carelessness and recklessness in failing to establish adequate child abuse prevention policies, screenings and training. It also claims the victim suffered severe emotional distress and suffering.<\/p>\n
The suit seeks punitive damages for the defendants\u2019 acts.<\/p>\n
CBS 21 has reached out to Shepherd\u2019s Fold Counseling Ministry, Richfield Life Ministries Church, and Cedar Grove Brethren in Christ Church for comment on the allegations.<\/p>\n
Cedar Grove Brethren responded saying it was aware of the lawsuit and that, because of the case involving pending litigation, it couldn’t comment.<\/p>\n
The Church cannot comment on the specific allegations or the claims asserted in the complaint. The allegations contained in the complaint represent the plaintiffs\u2019 assertions only. Cedar Grove intends to respond through the judicial process, where the facts and legal issues can be addressed in the appropriate forum. Accordingly, we respectfully decline to comment further at this time. Thank you for your understanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUNIATA COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 Three religious organizations registered in Juniata County are facing a lawsuit after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-254137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}