Judge halves Missouri Conference’s $6 million in damages
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The Rev. Steve Cox |
Sept. 13, 2005
UMNS Report
By Linda Green
A judge has reduced the
$6 million civil court judgment against the United Methodist Church’s
Missouri Annual (regional) Conference by half, leaving $3 million in
compensatory and punitive damages in place.
On Sept. 6, Greene County Circuit Court Judge Miles Sweeney cut the conference’s civil judgment to a former local church music director by $3 million.
A
civil court jury found in favor of Teresa and Sid Norris of
Springfield, Mo., awarding them $2 million in compensatory damages on
April 29 and $4 million in punitive damages on May 4. The couple sued
the Missouri Conference for intentional failure to supervise and act on
complaints against a pastor more than six years ago. In a trial last
April, the conference was charged with failing to supervise a pastor,
and the church has been in an appeal process since the verdict.
The decision “relieves the pressure of the $3 million that we don’t have,” said the Rev. Steve Cox, director of connectional ministries for the Missouri Conference.
The
ruling was “an important decision by Judge Sweeney” and “makes $3
million available for ministries to those in need across Missouri,” Cox
said. “Those who regularly benefit from the generous work of United
Methodists can now be better served. It is certainly good news for
them.”
Errors
during the trial confused the jury, which led to “an inappropriate
decision,” Cox said. The conference will continue its appeal, he said.
Mrs.
Norris — music director of Campbell United Methodist Church from Sept
1, 1997, to April 26, 1998 — and her husband filed the lawsuit in Greene
County Circuit Court in 2002, contending the conference did not
appropriately respond to informal complaints that were filed against the
Rev. David Finestead, and that this alleged failure to respond put
Norris in danger. Norris alleged that Finestead, then pastor of the
church, raped her on March 25, 1998, in her office at the church. He was
not criminally charged.
Before
the church trial began, Finestead withdrew his clergy credentials from
the United Methodist Church and was ordained by another denomination.
Since he was no longer an ordained elder in the denomination, the church
trial never took place. He died last spring.
In
a letter to the attorneys involved in the case, Sweeney rejected the
conference’s efforts to overturn the verdict and its motions to obtain a
new trial.
The
judge’s letter also highlighted errors and indicated concerns
surrounding an alternate juror. “We believe the judge agrees with what
we have been saying,” Cox said. “We are confident that the appeal will
be in our favor over time.”
Speaking
about the jury awarding actual damages, Sweeney said, “the jury
obviously concluded that Teresa Norris was raped, and they concluded
that the church did not do enough to prevent that from happening.” He
also ruled that the “dollar value of what it means to be raped is
certainly one within the purview of the jury,” but he chose not to remit
the actual damages.
The
judge said that although the jury was not out of line with its $6
million verdict, he determined that the conference’s assets of nearly
$4.8 million at the time of the trial made the punitive and compensatory
damage awards “not appear … to be reasonable,” especially since the net
worth of the conference “is in designated funds, which is money donated
by members for specific purposes.”
“Finally,
we consider whether the church’s actions were so egregious as to
justify a verdict that would basically put them out of business. I find
this is not so,” Sweeney wrote. The judge also said Norris’ assertion
that the “church did nothing in this case is hyperbole.”
Cox said the conference
would continue focusing on the case in two ways. “First, our legal team
will continue the appeals process through the courts. Second, and just
as importantly, our people will focus on continuing the ministry of
compassion that has made the United Methodist Church a positive force in
Missouri for 200 years.
“Our members have been
stocking food pantries and clothing centers in nearly every county in
Missouri for years, and they will continue to do so for as long as there
are people who are poor. Now, at least a portion of the money that
would have had to be diverted from those ministries can remain in
place.”
During
the annual conference session in June, a Bishop’s Task Force on Covenant
Accountability was created to examine standards of professional
behavior and policies and procedures for assessing the behavior that was
attributed to Finestead. The task force developed a plan of
accountability and will make recommendations to the 2006 annual
conference.
This
fall, all Missouri clergy will undergo retraining in sexual ethics, a
course repeated every two years, as a way for the conference to “have
clergy who are healthy models of Christian behavior,” according to the
conference Web site.
“We are
focused on doing the ministry God called us to do, and we take seriously
our role in advocating for women and children,” Cox said.
The conference, he said, is “working on policies and procedures to assure the safety and security of our parishioners.”
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Judge cuts civil judgment in half
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Resources
Missouri Annual Conference
Clergy Sexual Misconduct
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