A Southern Baptist church sued in connection with the rape of a 13-year-old girl at a church camp in Oklahoma is asking a judge for permission to question the victim about her sexual history prior to the attack.
The Country Estate Baptist Church of Midwest City, Okla., asked a state judge Jan. 18 to reconsider a decision to exclude all testimony about the unnamed teen’s “prior history of voluntary sexual activity” before she attended camp in 2016 at the Falls Creek camp owned by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.
Attorneys for the church — accused in a lawsuit filed last March of liability for recruiting a 35-year-old cook who during church camp tied up and raped the girl inside a camp cabin — says the girl told fellow campers she was sexually active and feared she might be pregnant by her then-boyfriend.
The church says her prior sexual history “is directly relevant to her claim for physical, emotional and psychological damages, including PTSD and depression.”
District Court Judge Alicia Haynes Timmons rejected that argument in a hearing Jan. 4, saying the information does not have “even a scintilla of any relevance to anything.”
The girl’s attorneys accuse the Midwest City congregation and another church named in the lawsuit of victim shaming.
“If anyone ever had a question as to why a female would be hesitant to come forward and protect her rights regarding a sexual crime committed against her, defendants Country Estates Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Terrell’s recent filings provide the answer,” lawyers said in December court document.
The lawsuit also accuses the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma of negligence for failing to vet camp staff and not picking up signals that volunteer Benjamin Lawrence Petty was grooming the minor for sexual abuse.
Petty, now 36, was sentenced this week to 15 years on probation after pleading guilty to three felonies in a negotiated deal with prosecutors. The girl’s family agreed to the plea bargain, according to The Oklahoman, after being told the rapist would not serve “any meaningful” prison time, because he is legally blind.
Under terms of the probation, Petty will be required to wear an ankle monitor for 24 months, register as a sex offender and obtain treatment. He had no prior felony convictions.
Previous story: