Third lawsuit filed against Baptist church, youth pastor convicted of sex abuse

Article from AL.com

A third lawsuit has been filed by someone claiming to be a victim of Jeff Eddie, the convicted child molester who was formerly children’s minister at a Baptist church in Muscle Shoals.

Using the alias “John Doe,” the plaintiff says that he was 12 years old at the time Eddie began to molest him in 2009. The molestation continued until the summer of 2013, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit against Eddie and Highland Park Baptist Church seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

The plaintiff says he was sexually abused in various locations at Highland Park Baptist Church, including Eddie’s office and storage closet, a storage room in the basement, and a sound booth at the church, as well as on church-sponsored trips. The trips included Earle Trent Assembly Camp, Elk River and Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center, camping trips and church sleepovers at Eddie’s home, and while Eddie was driving the church van taking youth to church-sponsored events.

The lawsuit alleges that the church provided little to no oversight, monitoring or supervision of Eddie’s activities with children, that Eddie’s office was isolated from other offices, that he kept the only window blocked and frequently locked his door. Eddie was given sole control over the installation and monitoring of security cameras at the church, the lawsuit alleges.

Eddie was sentenced in 2014 to 30 years in prison. He’s currently in prison at Bibb County Correctional Facility. Eddie was administrative and children’s pastor at Highland Park, a Southern Baptist Church in Colbert County, from 1998 through 2014.

The latest lawsuit was filed Aug. 29 in Colbert County Circuit Court. The lawsuit is the third filed against Eddie and the church.

The first was filed in 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Western Division by a plaintiff identified as “J.G.,” now living in Louisiana, seeking unspecified damages for the sexual abuse that he said began in 2001 when he was 11.

Colbert County District Attorney Bryce Graham has said the number of Eddie’s victims was in the double-digits.

If you or someone you care about was sexually abused and you would like advice from an attorney about the rights and options for victims of child sexual abuse, please contact Crew Janci today for a free, confidential consultation at 1-888-407-0224 or by using our private online form.  We will treat you with discretion and respect.

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