Jury Awards $135,000 In Clergy Sexual-Abuse Case -- Ex-Seattle Minister Held Liable For Turning Woman's Counseling Into Improper Conduct

In a milestone clergy sexual-abuse case, a King County Superior Court jury has held a former Seattle minister liable for pastoral malpractice and ruled that the regional conference of the United Methodist Church failed to adequately respond to allegations of misconduct.

The jury awarded $135,000 in damages to the plaintiff, the Rev. Kay Wright, herself an ordained Methodist minister.

Wright alleged that the Rev. Albert Sweet, former pastor of Sand Point Community United Methodist Church in North Seattle, turned pastoral counseling sessions stemming from the death of her mother into an improper sexual relationship that lasted from 1987 to 1991.

Wright's lawyers argued Wright was traumatized over her mother's suicide when she confided in Sweet. She could not have given true consent to the relationship because the pastor had an inherently more powerful role over her as her minister and counselor, they said. Before her ordination in 1990, Wright was a church member and part-time church secretary at Sand Point.

In its ruling Friday, the seven-woman, five-man jury held Sweet accountable for 60 percent of the monetary award and the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for 34 percent. It said Wright bore some responsibility, and reduced the damages by 6 percent, for a net total of $126,900.

Wright, 53, who has been on a medical leave from the Methodist Church because of depression, said she was elated by the verdict.

"This will do a great deal for the public good," said Wright, a Seattle resident.

Wright said she lost her home, her marriage, friends and her church community over the relationship, and "felt like dirt." But she persisted in her suit, filed in 1993, because she had a story to tell.

The verdict "will open opportunities for other people who are victims to come forward, tell their stories and be believed," she said.

"It will put religious institutions and religious professionals in Washington state on notice that this is abuse and they better take it seriously," Wright added.

The case was significant because it was one of the few lawsuits of its kind, if not the first, to go to trial in this state. Most clergy-misconduct suits are settled out of court, according to Wright's attorneys. Further, this was possibly the first trial of a suit involving two adults. It is more typical for clergy-misconduct cases to involve children, the attorneys said.

King County Superior Court Judge Michael Hayden, in whose courtroom the three-week trial unfolded, noted case law is gray when it comes to allegations of clergy misconduct or abuse between two adults.

Sweet, 68, of Vashon Island, declined comment after the verdict, saying he was "very upset." During the trial he denied the allegations and said the relationship was between two "consenting adults." He said he and Wright saw themselves as "lovers and friends," not as pastor and parishioner or counselor and client.

Providence Worley, Wright's attorney, said Wright couldn't have given consent because of the power imbalance between caregiver and the person seeking help. She introduced into evidence a letter from the Rev. Craig Parrish, Seattle district superintendent of the Methodist Church, describing clergy sexual misconduct as "the abuse of power."

Thomas McCormick, a professor of ethics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, testified that in his view it was "totally impossible" for a careseeker to give "authentic consent" to a helping professional, and that a sexual relationship between the two would be "by its very nature . . . exploitative."

Asked if the jury felt Wright could have given her consent, Barbara Waske, the presiding juror, said, "Yes and no." Waske said some jurors felt Wright consented to a sexual relationship with Sweet on the first occasion, but not later.

Worley said Sweet mixed sex and "false religiosity" to keep the relationship going. When Wright once asked him when he was going to divorce his wife, he gave her an article titled "The Spirituality of Waiting," said Worley. He also intimated she would not be ordained if she revealed the relationship, Worley said. The Methodist Church calls for "fidelity in marriage and celibacy in singleness."

Worley and her co-counsel, William Bender, contended that the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference, the regional governing body of the United Methodist Church, failed to adequately investigate a May 16, 1990, grievance brought by Wright's then-husband, Donald Tock. Tock accused Sweet of having an improper relationship with Wright and breaking up their marriage.

United Methodist Church leaders said Tock's evidence - two letters of a romantic nature between Sweet and Wright - was too old; it fell outside the church's internal two-year statute of limitations for filing grievances. Sweet also denied the allegations, they said.

Gary Trabolsi, the attorney representing the regional conference, said Wright was concerned Tock was trying to damage her career aspirations.

And Bishop Calvin McConnell, head of the regional body, felt that if Wright were a victim of clergy sexual abuse, he should not make a "frontal attack" on her, revictimizing her in the process of finding out what was going on. He said his door was open to her, but she was not "ready to go public with it" at the time, he said. Trabolsi said McConnell was trying to handle the situation in a loving and compassionate way.

But Worley countered that when Wright finally came forward in September of 1991 to ask how to go about filing a grievance against Sweet, instead of taking a taped statement at that moment or offering her a victim's advocate, McConnell sent her home to write up her grievance. "She took forever to do it because she was depressed," said Worley. Wright finally filed her grievance in March 1992 and Sweet surrendered his ministerial credentials within the month.

McConnell said late Friday that he and other Methodist officials "did the best we could" under difficult and complicated circumstances. Five years ago the regional church was just implementing its misconduct policies, he said. Church leaders continue to work to be more responsive, he said. Robert Stevens, a lay leader of the conference, said the regional church has been a leader in educating its members about clergy sexual abuse and misconduct.

McConnell said he believed the United Methodist Church's General Conference, the national ruling body, will do away with the statute of limitations in sexual-misconduct cases when it meets next year.

In the meantime, said McConnell, people should not be afraid to come forward if they feel they have been victimized. "We will take (the allegations) seriously and determine with them what course of action might be pursued," he said.

The jury did not hold the Sand Point Church liable for negligence in its supervision of Sweet. Max Peabody, the attorney for the church, argued that Wright and Sweet had "actively concealed" their relationship from church members. "Now she is suing the very people she hid it from," said Peabody.

None of the defendants said Friday whether there might be an appeal.