LegalReported
Meleah Thompson says she was abused as a child by men connected to her Oregon congregation in the early 1990s and that elders, told of it, invoked the two-witness rule and expelled her instead. Her suit, filed 20 July 2026, argues that the sexual acts she says she was coerced into were 'services' under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and that Watchtower knowingly benefited from concealing them. On 12 August a judge refused to waive her $405 filing fee, ruling on her finances without reaching the claims themselves; the docket records a second order the same day setting a 19 August 2026 deadline to pay it. The allegations are unproven.
· Updated August 18, 2026 · 11 min read
PennsylvaniaConfirmed
After nearly six years of litigation, the Commonwealth Court gave the Ivy Hill Congregation the declaration it asked for on 27 February 2026, while expressly declining to decide whether its elders actually qualify for the privilege. Two judges dissented, calling the result "judicial legislation by default."
· February 27, 2026 · 10 min read
Pennsylvania statewide grand-jury investigationConfirmed
A statewide investigating grand jury opened in 2019 produced criminal charges against roughly nine men affiliated with Jehovah's Witnesses congregations, across waves announced by Attorneys General Josh Shapiro (2022) and Michelle Henry (2023), alongside scrutiny of how congregations handle abuse reports internally.
· October 27, 2022 · 6 min read
RulingConfirmed
A 2018 Montana jury ordered the Watchtower to pay about $35 million for failing to report a child's abuse. In 2020 the state's Supreme Court erased the verdict — unanimously — not on the facts, but on a clergy-confidentiality exception in the reporting law. The collision it turned on is still unresolved across the country.
· September 26, 2018 · 11 min read