04/23/2004: "The bill: $69 million"

Well, the final totals are in, and it turns out the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Ohio, the Northern Texas/Northern Louisiana Synod, and two of that synod's former officials, Bishop Mark B. Herbener and his assistant, Earl Eliason, are on the hook for a total of $69 million. The denomination and seminary settled for $8 million, which will all be paid by insurance. As for the rest, we'll see how much the plaintiffs�14 children abused by pastor Gerald Thomas�actually wind up getting. According to AP reports quoted by Kairos News,

An attorney representing the victims said the jury award and settlement combined represent the largest per capita award per victim in any previous clergy sexual abuse case in the United States.

Jurors said Herbener and Eliason were responsible for damages to the nine boys in the case because they did not disclose information they had about Thomas' prior misconduct with minor boys. They jury said the synod could have prevented Thomas from being recommended to the Marshall [Texas] community as the church's pastor.

The West Texas Wilson congregation is where Thomas was serving as intern pastor when he was first accused of misconduct. According to testimony, among the information the synod did not disclose was that Thomas had given tequila shots to two teenage boys and that the boys had found a homosexual pornographic video in the parsonage when Thomas served as a ministry intern in Wilson during the 1996-1997 academic year.

One other interesting facet of this case, one that is suggestive of the enforcement of standards for sexual conduct in the ELCA, is that Eliason had pled no-contest three times�in 1987, 1996, and 2003�to indecent exposure charges, yet continued to serve as a clergyman in the ELCA, and even as a bishop's assistant.