Sex abuse suit against Pressler to proceed
A civil sexual abuse lawsuit brought against longtime Southern Baptist Convention leader Paul Pressler will be allowed to proceed, a Texas appellate court decided last week in a reversal of a lower court’s ruling.
The case was put on hold because the lower court ruled that Pressler’s accuser, Duane Rollins, missed the statute of limitations deadline to file a claim. In Texas, courts give victims of child sex abuse five years to file civil lawsuits against perpetrators.
“We are pleased with the court of appeals’ decision, which will finally give Duane his long-awaited day in court,” said Michael Goldberg, an attorney representing Rollins.
The court reversed the decision because it found Rollins was barred from reporting the abuse sooner by limitations, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The court’s opinion recognizes the impact that childhood trauma can have on individuals like
Duane and provides a sensible exception to the legal barriers that so often prevent sexual-assault victims from having their allegations heard by a jury of their peers,” Goldberg said.
Pressler is a retired justice of the Texas 14th Circuit Court of Appeals and Texas state representative. He is considered a “co-architect” of the Conservative Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention, during which time the nation’s second-largest faith group adopted a literal interpretation of the Bible and strengthened its positions against homosexuality and women in leadership roles.
Pressler was a youth leader at Houston’s Bethel Church, First and Second Baptist churches, a state representative and served as an appellate judge for 14 years. He has denied the allegations of sexual abuse. Attempts to reach him for comment Friday were unsuccessful.
Rollins said Pressler manipulated him so that he would not report the abuse by saying that the rapes were “divinely approved” and had to be kept secret because “no one but God would understand,” court documents say.
Rollins maintains that the alleged abuse pushed him into the drugs and alcohol that landed him in jail numerous times over his adult life.
An altercation between Pressler and Rollins in 2003 in a Dallas hotel room resulted in a simple assault lawsuit settlement that became public as part of Rollins’ most recent suit. Pressler agreed to pay Rollins $450,000 if Rollins didn’t publicly disclose the cause of the fight or details about the settlement, court records say.
Rollins’ new suit also shed light on the reason for Pressler’s departure as a Bethel youth leader in the late 1970s — an allegation of abuse that was brought to church leaders at the time.
Rollins said he first realized what Pressler had done was abuse after a psychiatric counseling session in 2015. Rollins was in prison at the time and filed the lawsuit when he was released in 2017, court documents say.
Attorneys for Rollins argued he was of “unsound mind” to make the allegations until his 2015 breakthrough in therapy.
Dr. Harvey A. Rosenstock, Rollins’ psychiatrist, submitted affidavits stating that Rollins suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a “direct result” of childhood trauma.
The psychiatrist said Rollins “was of unsound mind which rendered him incapable of making diligent inquiry as to the reasons for his repeated intoxication followed by appropriate action.”
The abuse Rollins suffered was “sufficiently traumatic to cause these overwhelmingly painful memories to be defensively repressed and dissociated until a safer time in the name of survival,” Rosenstock said in an affidavit.
Attorneys representing Pressler argued Rollins was of sound mind in 2004 when he filed the simple assault lawsuit and questioned Rosenstock’s credibility.
However, the court ruled in favor of Rollins’ appeal and said in its opinion that post-traumatic stress disorder and memory loss associated with it can legally qualify as unsound mind.
The case can now return to the trial court. Rollins’ claim demands $1 million for damages.