Church agrees to pay $3.5 million to settle molestation lawsuits

Associated Press/June 5, 2005

San Jose, CA -- The Seventh-day Adventist Church has agreed to pay three and a half million dollars and alter its policies to settle lawsuits filed by five men who said they were molested when they were students at a church boarding school.

A spokesman for the Central California Conference of the Adventist Church, Caron Oswald, says the church was deeply saddened by the lawsuit allegations and hopes the settlements will _ as he puts it _ bring closure for those involved.

The men claimed they were molested during the 1980s by two teachers who worked at the Monterey Bay Academy, which is near San Jose. The allegations included groping in cars off-campus, rape and liquor and drugs in the dormitories.