A case highlights the struggle of courts to interpret a convoluted web of clergy reporting laws that stretches across U.S.
Trey Bundy
Reporter
Trey Bundy is a former reporter for Reveal, covering youth. After beginning his career at the San Francisco Chronicle, he joined The Bay Citizen, where he covered child welfare, juvenile justice, education and crime. His work also has appeared in The New York Times, SF Weekly, The Huffington Post, the PBS NewsHour, Planet magazine and other news outlets. He has won three awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2009, he won the national Hearst Journalism Award for article of the year. Bundy has a bachelor's degree in journalism from San Francisco State University. He is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Law Enforcement, Prisons, Solitary Confinement
Obama’s solitary ban will need buy-in from guards
Criminal justice reform is an increasingly bipartisan issue, and grassroots efforts to ban juvenile solitary confinement have been underway for years. But if President Barack Obama wants widespread change, he needs state and local correctional institutions to follow his lead.
Posted inHidden Abuse Under the Watchtower, Religion
Another judge criticizes Jehovah’s Witnesses’ court tactics
A panel of judges in Philadelphia has ruled that Jehovah’s Witnesses used an “abusive tactic” to delay a trial in which a woman accused the religion’s leaders of covering up her abuse as a child.
Posted inHidden Abuse Under the Watchtower, Religion
In England, more accusations that Jehovah’s Witnesses hid sex abuse
Claims that Jehovah’s Witnesses hide child sexual abuse from secular authorities have surfaced again in England. The Daily Mail reported last week that Ian Pheasey, a 54-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for choking young girls for sexual gratification in the 1990s. Prosecutor Nicholas Taplow said that Pheasey’s victims were told to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Hidden Abuse Under the Watchtower, Religion
Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders say they don’t protect sexual abusers
In the face of evidence that the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization in Australia failed to report more than 1,000 allegations of child sexual abuse, the religion’s leaders say they’re doing a great job of protecting children. The response comes from a 141-page document filed by the Witnesses to an Australian government commission investigating rampant child sexual […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Hidden Abuse Under the Watchtower, Religion
How Jehovah’s Witness leaders are responding to child abuse scrutiny
A Portuguese news documentary released in October was yet another report from across the globe to detail the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ policy of not reporting child abusers to law enforcement. As in other media reports, top officials refused to speak to the journalists who produced it.
Posted inHidden Abuse Under the Watchtower, Religion, Religion and Government
Jehovah’s Witnesses shield child sex abusers from police, report says
Jehovah’s Witnesses policies allow child sexual abusers to operate within their congregations without fear that they will be reported to police, according to a new report published by the Australian government.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Hidden Abuse Under the Watchtower, Religion
Jehovah’s Witnesses can hide the truth in court to protect religion
Under the “theocratic warfare” doctrine, Jehovah’s Witnesses are allowed to hide the truth from anyone outside of the religion – including in legal matters such as child sexual abuse cases – if doing so protects the organization.
Posted inReligion
Shunned and shamed by Jehovah’s Witnesses
Reveal reporter Trey Bundy has fielded hundreds of messages from people relaying their experiences as Jehovah’s Witnesses, reinforcing our previous findings that sexual abuse is not an isolated problem within the religious organization.
Posted inHidden Abuse Under the Watchtower, Religion
She spoke about Jehovah’s Witness abuse, and her home was vandalized
Debbie McDaniel, an expelled Jehovah’s Witness, spoke to Reveal about how the organization hides sexual abuse from law enforcement agencies and banish those who speak up about it. Then, just hours before the investigation published, her patio, windows, doors and furniture were tagged with ominous warnings written in black marker.