The Salvation Army and a former parishioner have reached a settlement in the woman’s lawsuit in which she alleged she was sexually abused hundreds of times by a onetime volunteer and agent for the organization.
The plaintiff is identified only as Jane Doe in her Pomona Superior Court lawsuit that names as defendants the Salvation Army, the Salvation Army Southern California Division and the Salvation Army Corps Community Center Pomona. On Monday, her attorneys filed court papers with Judge Allison L. Westfahl Kong notifying her that the case was resolved. No terms were divulged.
Now 32, Doe alleged that for the last twenty years and going forward she will suffer “beyond measure” from extreme emotional harm. In the aftermath of her alleged molestation, Doe continued to be haunted by the abuse and tried to mask the pain she dealt with internally, the suit filed in December 2022 stated.
But Salvation Army attorneys contended that there were many other parties potentially responsible for Doe’s alleged damages, but that she instead took aim at the entity that sought to help her and her family. The organization’s lawyers said the Salvation Army provided Doe and her family with food, shelter and friendship during a time when Doe’s mother had recently separated from her father, two parents who both were addicts and had confrontations with law enforcement.
Doe did not sue the foster father who allegedly sexually abused her for years; her biological mother, who allegedly failed to protect her, relinquished custody of her and consented to her living with her alleged abuser and his wife; the Los Angeles County Dept. of Children and Family Services, which placed and supervised Doe in the home of her alleged abuser; or her San Dimas high school, Bonita High School, which worked with Doe’s alleged abuser during her time at the campus, the Salvation Army lawyers stated in their court papers.
In contrast, the Salvation Army immediately reported concerns about Doe’s safety to authorities, including the alleged harm that Doe confided to the organization in 2006-2007, the Salvation Army attorneys state in their court papers, adding that the charity continued to cooperate with those authorities to have Doe’s alleged abuser jailed.
According to her lawsuit, Doe was 7 years old when she started attending the Pomona Corps. She engaged in choir, brass band, girl guards, bible study and other youth gatherings and met her eventual alleged abuser in 2004-05 when she was 10 or 11 years old and he was a 34-yer-old youth leader, the suit stated.
Doe’s alleged molester was popular among the younger corps members and sported a faux-hawk hairstyle, according to the suit. He groomed Doe by buying her gifts, taking her on outings with a corps van and asking her questions about boys, the suit further stated.
The man’s alleged sexual assaults began in 2006 when Doe was 12 years old, the suit stated. The majority of the mistreatment occurred on the corps grounds, but some happened in the organization van and the abuses numbered in the hundreds, according to the complaint.
“Shockingly, the sexual assaults committed … on plaintiff at the Pomona Corps occurred while there were other TSA adult employees/agents present on the premises who should have been supervising plaintiff and (her alleged abuser),” the suit stated.
The man’s alleged manipulation of Doe included him “conniving ways to allow plaintiff to stay, and ultimately live, in the home that he shared with his wife, where the sexual abuse continued for years until she was a young adult,” the suit alleged.
Doe sought damages for her past and future psychological harm, but not for her out-of-pocket losses.