Advertisement Silent No More: The Justices Jehovah’s Witnesses argue Montana Supreme Court justices should overturn $35 million verdict—largest in U.S. Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Attorneys for the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization tried on Friday to overturn the largest civil verdict against it in U.S. history, arguing to the Montana Supreme Court that it did not violate the state’s mandatory reporter law that requires notifying authorities of suspected child abuse allegations in some instances."There was no clear and convincing evidence of malice,” attorney Joel Taylor told the seven justices during the 70-minute oral arguments on behalf of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Taylor defended the organization in the case of Lexi Nunez, a former Montana resident who sat in the audience with her newborn child to listen to the arguments.Nunez says she was abused multiple times as a child by a member of the Thompson Falls, Montana, congregation. The elders – the church's local leaders – knew about the abuser because he had been accused of assaulting others but they did not alert authorities, saying they didn't have to under state law, relying on the organization’s attorneys in New York state for legal advice. "The statute says who's a mandatory reporter,” and the New York-based organization does not qualify, Taylor argued. But Justice Laurie McKinnon responded, “So what? So, you have one person who's liable. That's not going to solve the problem when it's an institutional problem of cover-up.”Nunez’s attorney, Jim Molloy, attempted to sum up the case from his perspective when Justice McKinnon again spoke up. "The defendants did not report a known child abuser,” Malloy said as a ballroom full of attorneys listened. “They were instructed not to report and then Lexi continued to be abused,” he added.But Justice McKinnon asked, "Do we really want to be looking into what's going on within church circles? And doesn't that bring us right up against the First Amendment?"Congregation Defends Not Calling AuthoritiesIn hundreds of pages of trial court transcripts, elders defended their actions. "We did not call authorities," Thompson Falls elder Don Herberger acknowledged on the stand. When asked "if the same thing happened tomorrow, would you do the same thing?" Herberger responded: "Yes."This week, the National Investigative Unit traveled to Thompson Falls and asked another leader at that same Kingdom Hall, Glen Wilson, a similar question his colleague had been asked in last year’s trial.Standing outside the Hall just minutes from the Sanders County courthouse where the congregation lost the case in September, Wilson said “I don’t know what it would have been” that they could have done different in the Nunez case.When asked whether calling law enforcement, stopping the abuse, or permanently removing the abuser from the congregation would have been actions it could have taken, Wilson responded, “Well, I don’t have any comments on that.” The Office of Public Information for the Jehovah’s Witnesses has declined repeated requests for an on-camera interview about the nationwide allegations against it. Instead, in a statement, it said its policies on child protection “comply with the law, including any requirements for elders to report allegations of child abuse to authorities.”‘Judgment’s Coming’ The circumstance of elders not notifying authorities after being made aware of abuse allegations are a common part of the accusations of more than two dozen current and former members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit contacted as part of a year-long investigation that uncovered new allegations of child sexual abuse and decades-long cover-ups inside the religious organization in the U.S.The findings are contained in a four-part Hearst Television series of reports called “Silent No More.” As reported last month by Hearst Television, the allegations cross states, generations, and congregations. A juror in the Nunez case, Dan Stinnett, spoke to the National Investigative Unit in his first interview about the case.“Judgment's coming,” Stinnett said from his Montana home, referring to the elders in the Thompson Falls congregation who did not report Nunez’s abuse."Everybody agreed they were guilty."‘It shocked this town’Annie Wooden, the publisher and owner of the Sanders County Ledger, the paper of record for Thompson Falls and the surrounding region, said in an interview the $35 million Nunez verdict “shocked this town.” Wooden covered the three-day trial, which was held in a third-floor courtroom presided over by a massive ram’s head mounted above the entrance and law books lining the walls just a few blocks from her newsroom."The Supreme Court case is going to affect a lot of other cases in the country,” she reflected earlier this week. “So, I think the surprise of the magnitude of the case and the deep impact that it's having really affected our town."The Montana Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in the Nunez case in the next several months. The oral arguments took place in Billings, away from the state capital, during the annual State Bar convention.Travis Sherwin and April Chunko contributed to this report.Know of allegations of child sexual abuse inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization? Send investigative tips, information, and documents about this topic to the National Investigative Unit at investigate@hearst.com.