At JWSurvey, Ex-JW activist Mark O’Donnell digs into an upcoming trial of a former Jehovah’s Witnesses elder in Arkansas who is accused of the sexual assault of at least four minor victims.

Roderick G. Watkins, 56, goes to trial in July after being arrested last November. All four of his known victims, aged 6 to 16, were met through his involvement in Kingdom Halls in Arkansas.

O’Donnell has a redacted police report and more details at JWSurvey, and he asks the key question: How well was Watkins’ predation known in the organization, and how did the allegations finally get to the police?

There’s fascinating material dug up by Mark in this thorough piece.

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 2, 2019 at 13:00

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Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He’s written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology’s harassment of Paulette Cooper titled ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ and more recently a compilation of his stories, ‘Battlefield Scientology.’ He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world, as well as other subjects such as Jehovah’s Witnesses. You can reach him by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you’d like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.)