Georgia Lawsuit Accuses Jehovah's Witnesses Leadership of Failing to Stop Bible-Study Teacher's Abuse of a Boy

A civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Georgia accuses the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses and three Watchtower corporate entities of failing to protect a teenage boy from repeated sexual abuse by his Bible-study instructor at a Kingdom Hall in Cordele. The filing was announced on February 13, 2026, by the plaintiff's law firm, Romanucci & Blandin.^[1]

The plaintiff, identified in the complaint only as "John Doe," alleges he was abused more than 100 times between August 2019 and January 2022, beginning when he was in seventh grade.^[1] The allegations against the organizational defendants remain unproven; no ruling or settlement has been reported, and no response from the Watchtower or Jehovah's Witnesses entities was located.

The case is notable for two reasons. It names the Governing Body — the religion's central leadership body — alongside the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society entities of New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida. And it concerns recent conduct, not decades-old events, so it does not depend on the statute-of-limitations revival windows that underpin many child-abuse suits against religious institutions.

What the complaint alleges

According to the firm's announcement, the abuse was carried out by Lorenza Davis, the boy's Bible-study instructor, at and around the Kingdom Hall in Cordele, Georgia.^[1] The complaint frames the alleged conduct as more than 100 incidents over roughly two and a half years, from August 2019 through January 2022.^[1]

The lawsuit's central claim is institutional: that the Jehovah's Witnesses and Watchtower defendants, not only the individual instructor, bear responsibility. The complaint alleges the defendants failed to implement safeguards to protect children, allowed in-person meetings to continue during periods when COVID-19 restrictions prohibited them, and prioritized the institution's protection over the safety of a child.^[1]

Those are allegations, tested by neither discovery nor trial. The complaint pleads four negligence-based theories: negligence, negligent supervision, negligent hiring and retention, and negligent failure to warn, train, or educate.^[1]

Antonio Romanucci, the plaintiff's lead counsel, framed the case in the firm's release.

The criminal case against the instructor

Unlike the civil allegations against the organization, the criminal record of the alleged abuser is a matter of public record. A Lorenza Davis, Jr., of Cordele was criminally charged with aggravated child molestation, according to a report by Fox 5 Atlanta.^[2]

Per the plaintiff firm's release, Davis pleaded guilty on or around March 14, 2024, to two counts of aggravated child molestation and was sentenced to 60 years, the first 27 to be served in confinement.^[1]

That conviction gives the civil suit a documented criminal predicate. It establishes, as a legal fact, that the abuse occurred and that Davis was responsible for it. What the civil case seeks to establish separately — and what remains contested — is whether the Watchtower and Jehovah's Witnesses organizations are legally liable for failing to prevent it.

A recent-conduct case, not a look-back suit

Many recent child-sexual-abuse suits against religious organizations, including several against Watchtower entities, rely on state "revival windows" — legislative changes that temporarily reopen the statute of limitations so survivors can sue over abuse that occurred decades earlier.

This case is different. The conduct it describes is recent, spanning 2019 to 2022, so the claims fall within ordinary limitations periods and require no revived statute.^[1] The suit was brought as a standard civil tort action in federal court, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, filed February 13, 2026, with a jury trial demanded.^[1]

The complaint's timeframe overlaps the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pandemic figures directly in the allegations. The plaintiff claims the defendants allowed in-person gatherings to proceed at points when public-health restrictions prohibited them — a period during which Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide had, as an organization, suspended in-person meetings and public ministry.^[1] The complaint casts that alleged local departure as part of the pattern it attributes to the defendants.

The defendants named

The suit names four organizational defendants: the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Inc., and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Florida, Inc.^[1]

Naming the Governing Body alongside three separate corporate entities reflects a common strategy in institutional-abuse litigation: reaching past the local congregation to the parent bodies that plaintiffs argue set policy, control practices, and hold assets. Whether the Georgia court will treat those entities as legally responsible for what happened at a single Kingdom Hall is among the questions the litigation will test.

The plaintiff is represented by Romanucci & Blandin, LLC — with Antonio M. Romanucci as lead and attorney Maura D. White — together with local co-counsel Craig Cotton of The Georgia Law Team, PC.^[1]

What is confirmed, and what is not

The evidentiary landscape here is uneven, and the distinction matters.

The filing itself and its allegations are attested primarily by the plaintiff firm's own press release — a party to the case, not a neutral source. The docket number and exact case caption were not confirmed against the federal court record, and this account does not state one.

The criminal conviction of Lorenza Davis is independently corroborated by Fox 5 Atlanta's reporting on the charges,^[2] and the guilty plea and sentence are described in the firm's release.^[1]

No statement from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the Governing Body, or any Jehovah's Witnesses entity responding to the lawsuit was located. As is standard in civil litigation, the defendants will have an opportunity to answer the complaint in court.

Status

The case is pending. It was newly filed as of February 13, 2026, and no ruling, dismissal, or settlement has been reported. The allegations against the organizational defendants are unproven, and the defendants have not been shown to be liable.

For now, the public record holds two separate things: a criminal conviction of the man who abused the boy, and a civil complaint that seeks to hold the institutions around him accountable for allegedly letting it happen. Only the first has been decided.