Champion Forest Baptist, Houston, Texas, megachurch, agrees to settle child sex abuse suit

Champion Forest Baptist Church, a multi-site megachurch in far northwest Houston, has agreed to pay “minimal money” to settle a civil lawsuit alleging that one of its Sunday school teachers beat and sexually assaulted a 4-year-old boy in 2019, an attorney for the church confirmed this week.

In an email on Wednesday, Houston attorney Marc Sheiness, who represents the church, said the case “like many lawsuits in North America, was settled by the church’s insurance company.” He said the insurer “paid minimal money to eliminate the expense of ongoing litigation.” Sheiness declined to disclose the cost of the proposed settlement and said the amount “was not determined by the church and had nothing to do with the allegations or injuries being claimed.” The proposed settlement, reached this month, still must be approved by Judge Tanya Garrison of the Harris County District Court, who is scheduled to oversee a hearing on Monday, Oct. 21.

The suit was filed in Harris County District Court in December 2022. According to the suit, the boy was attending religious classes at Champion Forest when he was sexually assaulted by a teacher, David Taylor, on Jan. 27, 2019. Andrew Bivona, the Houston personal injury attorney representing the boy and his family, accused the church of negligence, saying it failed to train its employees and failed to keep the boy safe from Taylor. The suit also claimed the church neither investigated nor reported allegations of abuse to law enforcement. Bivona further alleged gross negligence, writing that staff “had actual, subjective awareness of the risks, but proceeded with conscious indifference to the rights, safety, and welfare of the plaintiff.” Bivona wrote that the boy has “suffered serious personal injuries and other damages.” The plaintiffs had sought $1 million for medical bills and for “pain and suffering” past and future. Bivona has declined to answer questions about the case “due to confidentiality,” and it is unclear whether the proposed settlement includes a non-disclosure or non-disparagement clause.

Champion Forest, founded in 1970, is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The plaintiffs argued that the SBC and its members “have a known history of hiding sexual accusations from the public” and have not taken further steps to report those involved to the proper authorities. The suit also refers to a separate case in which three Jane Does, who said they were sexually abused as minors by a youth pastor at Champion Forest, sued the megachurch and the SBC in April 2024, alleging negligence and seeking more than $1 million in damages. That case remains in litigation. The youth pastor, former minister Timothy Jason Jeltema, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse crimes. Sheiness filed a “general denial” response in that case earlier this year.

The suit was filed after the church’s senior pastor, Jarrett Stephens, joined the SBC’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force in August 2022. The volunteer group, known as ARITF, was charged with launching an online database of abusers within the church. The SBC and ARITF faced criticism this year for releasing a report without including a single named abuser on the database, according to Religion News Service. SBC leaders said the group’s progress had been slowed by a lack of funding and by insurance concerns.

According to the suit, Champion Forest staff did not immediately tell the boy’s family about the alleged abuse. Family members learned of it only after the boy “expressed fear” about attending a women’s ministry program. The suit says that in a meeting with Campus Pastor Steven Morris, one church leader apparently “justified” Taylor’s conduct because Taylor had recently learned his wife had cancer. Bivona wrote that the church did not report the incident to law enforcement and that Taylor was not fired but was asked by the administration “to take a break from teaching.” He also wrote that the church did not inform other churchgoers and had failed to provide meaningful assistance to investigators. Protecting children from harm and reporting suspected abuse to authorities are central to that concern (Proverbs 31:8-9).

As of Thursday, Sheiness, Champion Forest and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office had not responded to questions about Taylor’s whereabouts. Sheiness said, in an email, that “as far as the allegations against the church, there was an eyewitness who advised the mother within 24 hours of the outcry that the incident did not and could not have occurred as alleged.”

Source: Read the original report