Plaintiff sues Ohio ex-missionary for sexual assault
A former American missionary to Haiti accused of sexually abusing young boys there and in Ohio has been sued in Ohio by a John Doe plaintiff for the same alleged conduct.
The lawsuit against Jeriah Mast, 38, of Millersburg, Ohio, was filed Monday in Holmes County Common Pleas Court.
The suit accuses Mr. Mast of sexually assaulting the unnamed plaintiff, who was under 13, from Nov. 1, 1999, to March 15, 2000.
No other details about the allegations are contained in the filing by attorney Sean C. Buchanan of the Akron firm Slater & Zurz LLP.
In the suit, Mr. Buchanan alleges that Mr. Mast “resided in Haiti in order to avoid prosecution for this and other similar acts.”
Mr. Mast’s criminal defense attorney, John E. Johnson Jr. of Orrville, Ohio, said Friday, “This is all brand new information. I didn’t know anything about it . ... I’m pretty sure Jeriah doesn’t know anything about it either.”
Mr. Buchanan could not be reached Friday for comment.
The three-count suit seeks compensatory damages in excess of $25,000 for each count, punitive damages in excess of $25,000 for each count and attorney fees.
An Ohio grand jury in July issued a 14-count indictment on sexual abuse charges against Mr. Mast, a former worker for a large international ministry, who left Haiti after similar allegations against him arose in that country.
He faces seven felony charges of gross sexual imposition and seven misdemeanor counts of sexual imposition. He is accused of sexual offenses against five different minors.
The charges of felonies are for alleged offenses against minors under 13, and the charges of misdemeanors are for alleged offenses against minors under 16. The indictment says the offenses took place between 1999 to 2008.
A Haitian court is seeking Mr. Mast’s return to that country for him to face similar allegations.
He left Haiti this spring after allegations arose of his sexually abusing minor boys over a period of years while working for Berlin, Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries.
Christian Aid Ministries is the premier missionary and aid society for conservative Mennonite, Amish and related church groups. Mr. Mast worked for many years for the organization in Haiti, even after two supervisors knew he had confessed sexual misconduct as far back as 2013.
He fled Haiti in May amid new allegations and was indicted on the Ohio charges two months later.
Just this month, a Haitian lawyer representing alleged sexual abuse victims of Mr. Mast in Haiti criticized how representatives of Christian Aid Ministries acted in negotiating directly with his clients without him present, paying them $10,000 each to drop their pursuit of a court case.