Champion Forest Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in Houston, has settled with “strict confidentiality” a lawsuit alleging church and denominational leadership’s complicity in the sexual misconduct of former youth pastor Timothy Jeltema.
Three women, anonymously referred to as “Jane Doe” in court documents, filed a joint lawsuit against both the Southern Baptist Convention and Champion Forest Baptist Church on April 19, 2024, seeking $1 million in damages. The parties agreed on a settlement on May 14, according to a notice submitted to Harris County Court by mediator Lema Mousili.
The church’s attorney, Marc Sheiness, told Law 360 last week, “The settlement was made by the insurance carrier on behalf of the church.” He further explained, “The church had no say-so on when the case was settled, where it settled or the amount that the case settled.”
Timothy Jeltema
Jeltema went to prison in 2022 and is currently serving a five-year sentence on counts of sexual performance by a child, indecency with a child and online solicitation of a minor. He pled guilty to sexually abusing about 25 girls.
Jeltema had worked at Champion Forest since 2009 when he started as an intern but was eventually promoted to be a youth pastor for middle and high schoolers.
The three plaintiffs were between 14 and 16 years of age when they allege Jeltema used his position of authority to begin abusing them. According to the complaint, his abuse included attempted rape, sending sexual images and texts to girls and coercion of one girl into sending him nude photos.
The now-settled lawsuit accused the church of negligent hiring, training and supervision, negligent failure to timely report child abuse and general negligence. According to the women, Jeltema was heavily encouraged to work closely with young girls by church leadership, but his transition from intern to youth pastor lacked proper safety protocols to prevent abuse.
The complaint also alleges another church leader alerted Jeltema that police were investigating these abuses on at least one occasion. As a result, he was able to destroy evidence to delay getting caught.
The lawsuit also accused the SBC of general negligence, considering the broader context of sexual abuse issues in the denomination. The women claimed that, by failing to adequately inform SBC member churches of other similar instances of abuse, the denomination perpetuated this issue. Had the SBC been more forward about abuse in its congregations, those at Champion Forest may have been better equipped to handle Jeltema’s abuse.
The terms of the settlement remain confidential.
The alleged incidents occurred before the current pastor, Jarrett Stephens, arrived in January 2021. His predecessor, David Fleming, stepped down as senior pastor on Sept. 8, 2019, and led the church during the time the abuse occurred. Jeltema was arrested in 2018.
In 2022, then-SBC President Bart Barber named the church’s current pastor, Stephens, to serve on the denomination’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force.