Mandatory reporting

Topic

Pennsylvania statewide grand-jury investigationConfirmed

Inside Pennsylvania's Grand-Jury Investigation of Jehovah's Witnesses Abuse Cases (2019–2023)

Illustration: a gavel and indictment before a keystone motif

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 Montana jury ordered the Watchtower to pay $35 million for not reporting abuse. The state's top court erased it.

Illustration: scales of justice, a gavel and a legal document

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