Leader of Christian ministry followed by the Duggar family from TLC's 19 Kids And Counting is accused of using teenage girl as 'personal sex slave' in $1m lawsuit
Daily Mail, UK/April 16, 2014
By David Mccormack
The former leader of a popular Christian ministry – who resigned last year after confessing to an ‘inappropriate’ relationship – is now the subject of a lawsuit by a woman who claims that he ‘groomed’ her to be his ‘personal sex slave’.
Doug Phillips, a married father of eight, is a senior figure in the controversial Quiverfull movement, which preaches that women should keep giving birth until they can't anymore and that both wives and daughters must live in submission at home.
The movement is followed by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of TLC’s 19 Kids And Counting, they've attributed their 19 children to a Quiverfull belief that God is in control of the womb. Michelle Duggar received a Mother Of The Year award in 2010 from Vision Forum, Phillip's ministry.
Women within the Quiverfull movement are generally expected not to work outside their home or go to college, and are taught to abide by strict gender roles in which men have authority over women.
Phillips - a close friend of the Duggars and actor Kirk Cameron - resigned last October from Vision Forum Ministries and Boerne Christian Assembly, a Baptist church outside San Antonio, Texas, after admitting to ‘a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman.’
In a civil lawsuit filed against Phillips and Vision Forum on Tuesday, Lourdes Torres-Manteufel, now 29, claims that she is the woman that Phillips had previously confessed about.
She is suing for more than $1 million in damages over what she alleges was an abusive and manipulative relationship that caused her serious mental harm and distress, reports TLC.
According to her complaint, Torres-Manteufel was just 15 years old when she first met Phillips and his wife, Beall, at a homeschooling conference in November 1999.
Her lawsuit states: Among her disturbing accusations: ‘Douglas Phillips repeatedly groped, rubbed, and touched Ms. Torres’ crotch, breasts, and other areas of her body; rubbed his penis on her; masturbated on her; forced her to watch him masturbate on her; and ejaculated upon her.
'This perverse and offensive conduct repeatedly took place over the course of several years.’
The 30-page complaint includes specific incidents with dates in which Torres claims Phillips assaulted her.
‘In July 2007 Douglas Phillips invited Ms. Torres to ‘help’ him on one of his events. That night when standing next to Ms. Torres, Douglas Phillips put his hand under her hair around the back of her neck and massaged her neck,' the document states.
'Another time Douglas Phillips sat next to her while she watched a movie with his children. While watching the movie, Phillips reached out and massaged her leg.'
Torres-Manteufel eventually moved into the Phillips’ home in 2007, acting as a nanny - but she claims it wasn’t long before he began to enter her bedroom without her permission to touch 'her breasts, stomach, back, neck, and waist.'
'As a result of the manipulation of this movement, Ms. Torres’s thinking was altered.
'As described herein, Douglas Phillips - standing in a position of influence and prominence within patriarchy - methodically groomed Ms. Torres so that she would eventually participate in illicit sexual rendezvous with him promising that she could one day marry him.'
By the end of 2012, Torres stopped working with Phillips and attending his church. She told her parents and a friend about the relationship.
Though Phillips resigned from his position as an elder of Boerne Christian Assembly in January 2013, claiming he wished to devote more time to his family, it would be nearly nine months before he resign from Vision Forum Ministries.
Torres also named Vision Forum for negligent supervision and retention, claiming they were aware of the alleged abuse and turned a blind eye for their leader.
Attorney Jason Jakob, who is representing Phillips and Vision Forum, told WND that the allegations are 'false, defamatory and made with malicious intent to destroy Doug Phillips, his family and his ministry.'
'While it may be true that Mr. Phillips had an intermittent relationship with Mrs. Lourdes Torres-Manteufel, they never had the physical intimacy of touching and/or the exposure of genitalia, nor did the intermittent relationship escalate to sexual intercourse,' he said.
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