wfn.org | Abused as Teen Has Day in Court

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3174 notes).

Note 3173 by UMNS on Sept. 17, 1996 at 16:24 Eastern (3932 characters).

SEARCH: sex abuse, misconduct, clergy, trial, settlement, Nault,
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally                      458(10-71B){3173}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470            Sept. 17, 1996

Woman molested as teen by former
pastor has her day in court

by Ann Whiting*

     After being molested by a former United Methodist pastor for
three years in her teens, Rebecca Nault of Canton, Mass., finally
got what she wanted: her day in court.
     Nault testified that in the late 1970s, Earl Haywood, then
pastor of Fisk Memorial United Methodist Church, Natick, Mass.,
molested her repeatedly beginning when she was 12.
     She sued Haywood last year, settling out of court for an
undisclosed amount of money.  Then she took her legal actions
further, suing retired Bishop Edward G. Carroll and the New
England Conference.  She claimed the bishop knew of earlier sexual
molestations by Haywood and failed to remove him from ministry.
     Nault's family discovered the abuse in the fall of 1980,
after Haywood was named district superintendent and moved to Rhode
Island.  They reported it to Bishop George W. Bashore, who had
succeeded Carroll Sept. 1, 1980.  Bashore immediately removed
Haywood from ministry and set in motion a series of events that
resulted in Haywood surrendering his ministerial credentials under
charges.
     Parents of a previous victim testified that Haywood molested
their child at a family wedding in 1976.  They said they reported
the incident to the bishop. They also testified that Haywood,
brought into the meeting, admitted molesting the child.  The
parents said they left the meeting with Carroll believing that
Haywood would be removed from access to children.  The bishop
reportedly sent Haywood to counseling, but allowed him to continue
as pastor in Natick. That allowed him to molest Nault, her lawyer
asserted.
     Haywood admitted in the July trial that he molested Nault.
     After she told her story and her counselor and a forensic
psychiatrist testified about the long-term damage caused by the
molestation, Nault agreed to accept settlements of an undisclosed
amount offered by Carroll's insurance company and the New England
Conference.
     Nault explained that she refused to settle her suit against
Carroll and the conference before it went to trial because she
wanted her day in court.
     She said she wanted to make sure that what happened to her
was made known. "My intention from the beginning was to make it
clear that the church needs policies (about how to deal with
pastors who violate sexual ethics) and that the policies need to
be solidified."
     Her desire to tell her story and be believed is not unusual
for victims of clergy sexual abuse, according to the Rev. Marie
Fortune, a nationally-known expert on clergy sexual ethics who
spoke during a series of lectures in the Boston Area Pastors'
Assembly in 1991.
     Fortune says victims of clergy sexual abuse need "justice-
making," which includes truth-telling, the acknowledgement of
truth, compassion, protection, calling the perpetrator to account,
restitution and vindication.
     The New England Conference now has policies for dealing with
abuse.  Adopted in 1994 and printed in the 1995 Conference
Journal, the policy provides for teams to respond to charges of
sexual misconduct by a pastor.  If the accused admits to
misbehavior, several steps are taken, including protecting local
church members from further abuse.  If a written grievance is
filed, the accused pastor may be suspended for up to 60 days while
the charges are investigated.
                              #  #  #

     
     * Whiting is editor of Zion's Herald, bi-weekly newspaper of
the New England Annual Conference.

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