THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230242
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Parents of five children who were allegedly molested by a baby sitter at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, one of the oldest churches in America, sued the church Monday claiming it negligently hired and supervised the baby sitter and covered up the molestations.
The families seek $17 million.
It was the fifth lawsuit against baby sitter Richard ``Wes'' Weaverling, 18, and his mother, Hortense ``Tess'' Weaverling, but the first against the church itself.
It is also the first allegation of a cover-up by church officials.
The Weaverlings worked at the 300-year-old church in Colonial Williamsburg for almost two years in 1993 and 1994. During psychiatric treatment, Richard Weaverling admitted molesting at least 14 boys and girls, ages 6 months to 13 years, at the church and in their homes.
The Weaverlings pleaded guilty last March to aggravated sexual battery of a 6-year-old girl and received a 10-year suspended sentence with no jail time. Charges that he molested a 2-year-old boy were dropped and he was granted immunity from prosecution for molesting children in two families.
Since then, he has admitted molesting many other children, the lawsuit says.
``Richard Weaverling admittedthat he is not sure how many children he has baby-sat in his life,'' the lawsuit states, ``but that any child he baby-sat he eventually molested.''
The lawsuit, filed in Norfolk Circuit Court, accuses church officials of ignoring early warnings of Weaverling's behavior, a year before he was caught, and then hiding the extent of his molestations from church members.
``The church knew what was wrong and they continued to tell these parents it was only in these two families,'' Jeffrey A. Breit, the families' attorney, said Monday.
``When they said that in March of '95, they knew absolutely they were telling a lie.''
The lawsuit says church officials conspired to hide the molestations on the advice of the church's insurance company to prevent bad publicity and liability.
Six defendants are named: Bruton Parish Church, the Episcopal Church diocese, Rector Richard L. May, Weaverling and his mother, and the Church Insurance Co.
On Monday, May said he had not seen the lawsuit and does not know what it says. ``It comes as a shock to me,'' he said. He declined further comment.
The church's attorney, Vernon Geddy Jr. of Williamsburg, also said he has not seen the lawsuit and could not comment. ``Whatever they say at this point is mere allegation,'' he said.
The lawsuit includes documents that allegedly show church officials tried to hide the molestations.
Among the documents is an internal church report from June 1995, summarizing the church's handling of the molestations. That report was not sent to parishioners because of the rector's disapproval, the lawsuit says.
``Part of this report may appear in the newspaper,'' the rector warned in a confidential memo attached to the lawsuit.
``Would CW (Colonial Williamsburg) or WM (the College of William and Mary) Boards send out such a report?''
Instead, the church, the diocese and the rector ``continued to pursue a policy of misinformation,'' the lawsuit states.
As a result, other molestation victims were not identified or treated, which contributed to their injuries, Breit said Monday.
This is the second child molestation lawsuit in two years against the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Southern Virginia.
In 1994, a teenage boy molested by a youth group leader from the Eastern Shore Chapel in Virginia Beach sued the church and the diocese for $2 million. His parents also seek $1 million.
That case is scheduled for trial in March.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT SEX CRIME CHILD ABUSE CHILD MOLESTER BRUTON
PARISH CHURCH by CNB