LegalReported
UPDATE: Oregon abuse suit against Watchtower takes an unusual route: federal trafficking law
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.
