Bellevue Baptist sued after sexual abuse of teenager
The parents of a 15-year-old sexual abuse victim are suing Bellevue Baptist Church, saying the flagship church in the Southern Baptist Convention provided a space for her abuser to groom and abuse her, and that church officials failed to remove her abuser from working with children after being warned.
James A. Hook was a paid volunteer coordinator at the church when he sexually abused his victim, who is identified by the pseudonym “Janet Doe,” according to the complaint.
Officials at Bellevue Baptist declined to comment on the lawsuit, which argues that church officials knew or should have known that Hook was a risk to minor children. Hook pleaded guilty to sexual battery by an authority figure in January after officers found Hook and his victim in a car together in May 2019. Hook admitted to sexual contact with her, but denied having intercourse, according to the affidavit. Hook was charged with sexual battery by an authority figure and solicitation of a minor at the time.
“Hook groomed Janet Doe and fomented his incredibly inappropriate relationship with her at Bellevue Baptist Church and some of the sexual abuse took place on the grounds of the church,” the complaint reads. “Bellevue Baptist Church placed Hook in a position that would put him in contact with minors, it ignored warnings about Hook, it failed to have policies in place that would prevent him from being alone with a minor on church property, and it failed to have training for its employees and staff to identify suspicious behavior and report it in an effort to prevent abuse.”
The lawsuit notes that Hook knew “Janet Doe” and her family outside of
Bellevue: Hook and the victim's mother had an extramarital affair in 2011, “long before the abuse,” according to the complaint. They also had a child together, “Janet Doe's” sibling, according to Bellevue's response to the complaint.
When the victim's parents separated in 2018, Hook began communicating with the victim and her mother, according to the complaint. Around the same time, Hook became a paid volunteer coordinator at the church in the children's area, the complaint says.
The complaint says that “Janet Doe's” father warned Bellevue Baptist that Hook should not be allowed to interact with children. It also says that Hook used his position to encourage “Janet Doe” to volunteer in the children's Sunday School program, where he had access to her alone. There, the complaint says, he groomed her, giving her gifts, complimenting her and sending her sexually explicit photos of her mother taken during the extramarital affair seven years earlier. He began kissing and having other physical contact with her, sometimes on Bellevue property or when driving her home.
“He, with no ostensible purpose for doing so, shadowed her everywhere she was in the church,” said Gary Smith, attorney for the victims' parents. “It was that setting and that environment that allowed him to groom her, build that trust and then take advantage of it . ... It was the culture at Bellevue Baptist that allowed him to exploit the child. It has all emanated from that location and the culture that existed.”
In its response filed in court, Bellevue denied “any suggestion or insinuation that Bellevue permitted, condoned or was aware” that Hook was grooming his victim. The church also denied any liability for Hook's actions “which were outside the course and scope of his employment.” “Defendant specifically and categorically denies that James Hook had unsupervised and unrestricted access to volunteers, including Janet Doe,” read Bellevue's response. Bellevue had policies in place requiring two adults to be in the room with minors, read the church's motion to dismiss. The church also has background checks and annual training on child abuse, they wrote. And, when “Janet Doe's” father advised a pastor that he did not want Hook around his children, the pastor only knew that Hook had participated in an extramarital affair, according to their motion to dismiss.
“Plaintiffs do not allege the substance of or reasoning behind John
Doe's so-called warning or how this constitutes notice to Bellevue that Mr. Hook would engage in childhood sexual abuse,” read the motion. The motion also said that “Janet Doe” communicated with Hook with the knowledge of her mother.
Bellevue Baptist Church is one of the largest churches in the Memphis area, with an average Sunday attendance of about 8,000. It is a flagship church of the Southern Baptist Convention, and its pastor, the Rev. Steve Gaines, once led the denomination as its 61st president.
The Southern Baptist Convention has recently grappled with sexual misconduct within its churches after a 2019 investigation by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-news found about 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers who had faced allegations of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, with more than 700 victims. The complaint alleges that church administrators knew or should have known “of the attraction the church setting has to those who will do serious harm to minors.” It asks for a jury trial.
It also says that “Members of Bellevue Baptist Church came to Hook's sentencing hearing to show support and ask the judge for leniency.” Bellevue has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which the plaintiffs responded to earlier this week.
Katherine Burgess can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.