wfn.org | Court approves $1 million settlement in camp rape case

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 20, 2003  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
ALL-YE{563}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - A Tennessee court has approved a $1 million
settlement in the case of a 12-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted at a
United Methodist church camp in 2001.

The settlement, signed Nov. 19 in the 2nd Circuit Court for Davidson County,
resolves a lawsuit for negligence brought by the girl's family against the
denomination's Tennessee Annual (regional) Conference. The conference
operates Camp Cedar Crest in middle Tennessee, where the assault occurred.

"We were grieved by the whole situation and regretted very deeply all that
took place," said Bishop William Morris, in an interview earlier in the
month. Morris leads the annual conference.

The conference had approved the settlement in a July 27 special session in
Nashville. The money will come from dormant conference accounts, active funds
and insurance.

During the special session, the conference adopted a resolution stating "that
the members of the Tennessee Annual Conference and its various churches
continue to pray for healing and wholeness for the victim of the assault and
her family and ... we invoke the grace and mercy of God upon all who have
been affected by this experience." 

The conference screens every counselor at Camp Cedar Crest yearly, and its
annual training includes issues related to sexual behavior and misconduct.
Carl Steven Bentrup, 21, of Nashville, passed through the screening each
time, but he had a juvenile court record that was under seal and unavailable
to the conference. He worked at the camp for nearly three summers before
allegedly raping the girl July 19, 2001.  

The girl had left her cabin to use the restroom in the middle of the night
when Bentrup allegedly took her inside a bathhouse and assaulted her. He
later called police and told the dispatcher he had raped the girl, according
to the Hickman County Sheriff's Department. 

He was arrested and charged with child rape, aggravated kidnapping,
aggravated sexual battery and sexual battery by an authority figure. On Oct.
25, a few days before a scheduled court hearing, he was found hanged in his
cell. The Hickman County sheriff said the death was a suicide.

Immediately after the assault, the conference provided the campers, their
families and camp counselors opportunities for counseling. The service was
extended to campers who had attended Cedar Crest during the previous two
years - spanning the time that Bentrup worked there - as well as anyone else
in the conference who wanted it. 

The conference also held a series of open forums, allowing people to ask
questions and get help working through their feelings about what happened.

The conference now seeks more extensive background information on camp
counselors during its screening process, Morris said. After checking with
other organizations, the Tennessee Conference also developed a new manual for
protecting the campers. 

A task force reviewed the conference's elementary- and youth-camp policies,
determining that the existing procedures "were comprehensive and well done,"
according to the group's report. The task force made 20 recommendations for
improving camper safety.

As a result, the conference installed chemically treated "port-a-lets" in the
cabins, so the young people no longer go outside their unit in the middle of
the night, as the assault victim had done. It revised the job descriptions
and applications for camp staff as well as requiring an additional reference
from the applicant's parent or legal guardian. Counselors were equipped with
walkie-talkies in case of emergency, and pastors-in-residence were added to
provide additional supervision.

Camp Cedar Crest, near Centerville, Tenn., provides camping experiences for
students from in and out of state. Enrollment in the camp's summer sessions
for elementary school-age children has decreased from 560 in 2001 to 230 this
past summer. 

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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