Volunteer Youth Leader Sentenced to Five Years for Molesting Teen Girl

Key point 4-11.01. Clergy who engage in sexual contact with an adult or minor are subject to civil liability on the basis of several legal theories. They also are subject to criminal liability.

Key point 10-09.01. Some courts have found churches liable on the basis of negligent supervision for a worker’s acts of child molestation on the ground that the church failed to exercise reasonable care in the supervision of the victim or of its own programs and activities.

Key point 10-09.03. Churches can reduce the risk of liability based on negligent supervision for the sexual molestation of minors by adopting risk management policies and procedures.

A New Jersey appeals court affirmed the five-year sentence of a church’s volunteer youth worker for sexual contact with an adolescent female.

Background

When she was in fifth grade, a girl (the “victim”) began attending a church ...