September 10, 2017
On June 5, 2017, an Orange County jury awarded $2 million in damages in the personal injury lawsuit to the granddaughter of late televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch, co-founders of Trinity Broadcasting Network.
The jury awarded 24-year-old Carra Crouch $1 million for past emotional damage and $1 million for future pain and suffering. The latter amount will pay for Carra’s past and future therapy and other expenses. She originally sought $6 million, but the award still sends a tough message on how ministries must handle allegations of sexual assault, according to her attorney David Keesling.
The verdict concluded a three-week trial and a five-year legal battle after Carra Crouch filed the suit in 2012. According to her lawsuit, one night in Atlanta in 2006 while attending a Praise-A-Thon fundraiser, Carra drank alcohol and watched a movie in her hotel room bed with a 30-year-old employee who she accused of trying to kiss her and of fondling her. She suspected that he provided her with water that was laced with a drug causing her to pass out, and when she awoke, she suspected that she had been raped.
The jury found the late Jan Crouch 45 percent responsible for causing Carra Crouch’s emotional distress, her mother 35 percent, and 20 percent to the alleged rapist, who was not a defendant in the lawsuit and who was never arrested.
During the trial, Keesling said Carra Crouch was yelled at and berated when she came to her grandmother, an ordained minister, for comfort after the incident. Keesling also said Jan Crouch was legally required to report the incident under California’s mandatory reporting laws but never did because she worried about “bad press.”
In a statement, TBN expressed their disappointment in the verdict that held Jan Crouch partially liable but said that they are pleased that TBN has been vindicated. They also said they are now weighing their options and how to move forward with their new leadership.
If you believe that you were the victim of childhood physical, emotional or sexual abuse, you might have the right to compensation. For further information, contact our legal team.
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