Second Baptist taken from suit
Second Baptist has been removed from a lawsuit alleging sexual assault by former state judge and prominent Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler.
A prominent Houston church has been removed from a lawsuit alleging sexual assault by former state judge and Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler.
The Jan. 30 removal of Second Baptist Church of Houston came months after state District Judge Ravi Sandill dismissed all sexual assault claims brought against Pressler, saying the allegations were too old for Duane Rollins, a former member of Pressler’s youth group at another church, to pursue in court.
“We’re not even certain why we were ever in the case,” Second Baptist attorney Jay Aldis said Wednesday. Still unresolved is a dispute over a once-confidential $450,000 settlement between Pressler and Rollins in 2004 that Pressler has said under oath stemmed from sexual assault allegations by Rollins, according to court documents.
Also pending are defamation allegations against First Baptist Church of Houston over comments made by Jared Woodfill, Pressler’s former law partner and former head of the Harris County Republican Party. Sandill has already dismissed defamation allegations against Woodfill and the church is seeking a similar order. Pressler attended both First and Second Baptist churches.
The dismissal would end First Baptist’s involvement in the law-
suit.
“First Baptist considers that the case against it is basically over,” said First Baptist attorney Barry Flynn.
Rollins’ attorney, Dan Shea, said he will appeal the judge’s decisions if all remaining claims are dismissed. A court hearing is tentatively set for April.
Ongoing dispute
Rollins filed suit in 2017 in Harris County court accusing Pressler of committing “decades” of rapes and alleging the abuse was concealed by the two churches, the Southern Baptist Convention and other prominent political and religious figures. Rollins asserted that the alleged assaults pushed him toward the drugs and alcohol that landed him in prison multiple times.
In 2016, a psychiatrist concluded that Rollins had suppressed memories of rapes and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder as “a direct result of the childhood sexual trauma he suffered.” Three other men have since alleged in sworn statements filed in the lawsuit that they were groped or solicited for sex by Pressler, dating back to the late 1970s and as recent as 2016, court records show.
The judge, however, ruled that Rollins’ sexual assault allegations were too old to fall within the state’s statute of limitations.
Rollins and his attorney, Shea, said they filed the most recent lawsuit in part because of concerns that Pressler, who is almost 90, would stop the monthly $1,500 payments he agreed to make through 2029 under the settlement. They also claim there were alterations made to the original settlement agreement, which was kept by Woodfill and Pressler but never filed in Dallas where the suit was filed.
In a Jan. 25 court filing, Pressler’s attorney, Ed Tredenick, argued that Rollins and Shea breached the settlement agreement when they made it public last year as part of the current lawsuit. Tredenick also accused Shea of destroying an affidavit from the 2004 suit in which another man alleges “inappropriate conduct” by Pressler, according to court records.
The settlement terms required that all such affidavits be turned over to the mediator in the 2004 settlement, according to Tredennick’s filing.
Legal arguments
Pressler’s lawyers have argued that the current lawsuit should be dismissed because Rollins has already resolved the allegations of sexual assault with the 2004 settlement.
The 2004 lawsuit, however, alleged “simple” assault under Texas law and did not make reference to sexual assault. Pressler believed the allegations were sexual in nature, which he said to his decision to reach the settlement, according to court documents.
A ruling that the 2004 lawsuit was based on sexual assault — and not “simple” assault — could form the basis for dismissal of the current lawsuit, Tredennick contends in the recent court filing.
“If (Rollins) is correct, and the 2004 Dallas case only included allegations of ‘simple assault’ as he alleges, and not sexual assault as (Pressler) recalls the allegations, then (Rollins’) claim for sexual assault damages are time barred as the Court has already ruled,” Pressler’s attorney wrote in the Jan. 25 court filing.
Shea, however, questioned Pressler’s recollection in a July deposition, according to court documents.
“Looking back at the settlement agreement itself, is there any reference either in the settlement agreement or in the underlying lawsuit in which the word ‘sex’ in any way, shape or form is mentioned?” Shea asked.
“I don’t think so,” Pressler responded.
Reached by phone at his home on Wednesday, Pressler said he “paid (Rollins) only to get it over with."
He declined to comment further on the nature of the 2004 lawsuit.
Woodfill, who represented Pressler in the 2004 lawsuit, declined to comment on the settlement, saying it was confidential. Woodfill was accused in the 2017 lawsuit of helping conceal the alleged abuse by Pressler.
He said the allegations leveled against him and the former judge are “hideous” and “meant to harass and embarrass.”