UMC Reaches $875K Sex Abuse Settlement Over Former NY Pastor, Foster Parent
Attorney: Church gave pastor access to kids despite previous abuse
The United Methodist Church and Warren County, New York, have agreed to a combined $875,000 settlement with a man claiming he was sexually abused as a child by a former UMC pastor who was also his foster parent.
John Smith of Troy, New York, alleges the abuse took place from 1978 to 1981 while he was 11 to 13 years old. At the time, the alleged abuser, Richard Reynolds, was pastor of the now-defunct North Creek Methodist Church, which owned a foster home in North Creek.
The statute of limitations prevented criminal charges from being brought against Reynolds, 82. However, the state’s Child Victims Act enabled Smith to sue for negligence.
According to a statement from Smith’s law firm, Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, PLLC, the resulting settlement falls mostly on the shoulders of Warren County, while the UMC is responsible for $125,000.
Smith and his attorneys allege the church endangered children by failing to remove Reynolds from the pastorate after learning of his abuses and allowing unfettered access to the foster home.
“The Church sent Reynolds for sexual deviancy treatment, and then allowed Reynolds back into its congregation to continue serving in leadership positions where he would have access to children. The Church never reported Reynolds to law enforcement, and in fact, pleaded with the victim’s family to keep the abuse silent out of fear of bad publicity,” said Attorney Vincent Nappo.
The law firm’s statement says “multiple foster children came forward” with abuse allegations, but the church never reported Reynolds to law enforcement. One mother wrote a letter to church leaders, only to be given excerpts from the UMC’s Book of Discipline and asked to keep the abuse “quiet.”
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Nappo also faulted the county, which he said “failed to supervise and protect our client for years on end, leaving our client vulnerable to unthinkable acts of sexual abuse by the very adult charged with his protection. No child should ever have to endure such trauma and abuse.”
For decades, the allegations remained hidden, enabling Reynolds to retire 25 years ago and open a clown business that gave him more access to children.
“Richard Reynolds should never be anywhere near children, ever,” said Attorney Cynthia LaFave, who filed a separate lawsuit in Fulton County over Reynolds’ alleged abuses. The settlement in that case remains undisclosed.
During his pretrial deposition for the Warren County case, Reynolds cited “a privilege against self-incrimination” and refused to answer any of 300 questions, including what Warren County attorneys characterized as “routine questions which have no causal link to any criminal element of any crime.”
Nappo praised the settlement as a warning to institutions that “there are consequences for failing to protect children and take responsibility.”
The agreement comes just over a month after the conclusion of the UMC’s General Conference, during which the denomination read an official apology acknowledging that “sexual misconduct is a current and real problem within The United Methodist Church.” The statement includes pledges to educate church leaders, provide “healing resources” for victims and “develop a trauma-informed response to complaints of sexual misconduct.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Why does MinistryWatch report on sex crimes? These stories are tough to read and sometimes even tougher to report, but we think they are vital to our mission to bring transparency, accountability, and credibility to the evangelical church. To read more about why and how we report these stories, read “Why MinistryWatch Reports On Sex Crimes.” You can find that story here.
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