This Brief, in part, supports the motion to compel the depositions of three key members of the Jehovah’s Witness Headquarters staff, Gary Breaux, Allen Shuster, and Gene Smalley.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Excerpts:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n “WTNY has withheld from production substantial evidence bearing on Plaintiffs\u2019 claims, including many documents referencing the child sex abuse that occurred in Hardin, MT at issue in this case. Plaintiffs\u2019 attempts to understand the foundation of WTNY\u2019s privilege log have not yielded meaningful information, and it remains unclear if the claims of privilege are entirely sound. For instance, while the privilege log makes blanket assertions that many of the documents are related to \u201cseeking spiritual guidance,\u201d WTNY will not tell Plaintiffs what type of spiritual guidance is being discussed. WTNY\u2019s lack of candor has made it impossible for Plaintiffs to assess whether the documents are genuinely protected from disclosure by the clergy-penitent privilege, or are actually secular in nature and should be produced.”<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n “WTNY is essentially asserting that any and all correspondence about child sex abuse between a local congregation and the Jehovah\u2019s Witness Organization\u2019s (the \u201cOrganization\u201d) headquarters in New York is protected from disclosure by various testimonial privileges. Yet, in truth, this correspondence is likely the result of an effort by the Organization to get a handle on the scope of its child sexual abuse problem. This is the same rational – and purely secular – step that any entity facing serious and growing child sex abuse accusations would undertake…”<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n “Elder Gary Breaux is the \u201coverseer\u201d of the Organization\u2019s Service Department and has served at the New York headquarters during times material to Plaintiffs\u2019 claims. Among other things, Mr. Breaux\u2019s Service Department is responsible for corresponding with local congregations about allegations of child sex abuse. Mr. Breaux has previously testified as the designee with the most knowledge of the Jehovah\u2019s Witness Organization\u2019s policies pertaining to the handling and reporting of child sex abuse allegations going back to 1970. Mr. Breaux\u2019s knowledge of how the Organization has handled accusations of child sex abuse going back to 1970 certainly makes him a witness with knowledge pertaining to many aspects of Plaintiffs\u2019 case and Plaintiffs are entitled to depose him. However, WTNY refuses to produce him.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brief Supporting Motion to Compel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"doc_categories":[75],"doc_tags":[76],"doc_author":[],"file_type":[14],"class_list":["post-1885","dlp_document","type-dlp_document","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","doc_categories-caecaert-v-watchtower","doc_tags-caekaert-v-watchtower","file_type-pdf"],"download_url":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/154-0-Plaintiffs-Brief-Supporting-Motion-to-Compel-Depositions.pdf","file_size":"238 KB","filename":"154-0-Plaintiffs-Brief-Supporting-Motion-to-Compel-Depositions.pdf","download_count":"3","version_history":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dlp_document\/1885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dlp_document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/dlp_document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_categories?post=1885"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tags?post=1885"},{"taxonomy":"doc_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_author?post=1885"},{"taxonomy":"file_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwchildabuse.org\/xqllht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/file_type?post=1885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}