Parents Sue Parker Hill Church in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, Over Former Youth Leader’s Abuse of Their Son

The parents of a teenage boy have sued Parker Hill Community Church and its former youth leader, Joshua W. Landis, in Lackawanna County Court. The suit, filed Tuesday by Scranton attorney Kevin P. Foley, alleges that the boy was sexually abused by Landis while Landis served in the church’s youth ministry. It identifies the victim and his parents by initials only.

Landis was sentenced in October by Judge Michael J. Barrasse to 12 to 60 months in state prison for unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of a minor. The judge classified him as a sexually violent predator.

The suit claims the church fostered an atmosphere in which Landis “felt he could engage in sexual abuse of children without fear of being investigated, disciplined or referred for criminal prosecution.” Before joining Parker Hill, Landis had been a member of Union Center Christian Church in Endicott, N.Y., where he was a youth minister responsible for a small group of boys he was to mentor and chaperone during Bible study and recreational activities, according to the suit.

The suit states that while Landis was in New York, he provided alcohol and cigars to minors at his home in Whitney Point in the fall and winter of 2005-2006. It also alleges he had “inappropriate contact” with a minor. He was later dismissed from the church, told to have no contact with any children, and advised to undergo counseling, the suit says. New York State Police charged Landis with unlawful dealing with a child. He later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

While the New York investigation was pending, the suit states, Landis moved to Clarks Summit and joined Parker Hill. According to the suit, he told Parker Hill that he was receiving counseling to address the issues that had led him to leave New York. The suit also suggests that church officials in New York told Parker Hill about Landis’s sexual tendencies toward boys. Yet, the suit states, Parker Hill allowed him to serve in a leadership role over teenage boys, and it did not perform a criminal records check on him until “long after” he was appointed a youth minister.

While serving as a youth minister, Landis allegedly “groomed” a teenage boy for sex by giving him expensive gifts, including a Macintosh computer and an iPhone, the suit states. Protecting the vulnerable is the duty at stake when a leader is entrusted with boys (Proverbs 31:8-9). In the fall of 2009, the suit states, Landis attempted to have sexual contact with the teen.

The suit states Landis was finally removed from the church Jan. 28, three months after the abuse had occurred.

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