Hyde Park Baptist Church sued for alleged sexual abuse by former pastor

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Former Pastor Jonathan Alan Weaver. Photo provided by the Greenville Police Department.

POUGHKEEPSIE – A lawsuit filed in Dutchess County Supreme Court under the New York State Adult Survivor’s Act (ASA) accuses the Hyde Park Baptist Church of intentional and negligent acts that resulted in the plaintiff, Shielagh Clark, being a victim of sexual abuse carried out by the church’s former pastor, Jonathan Alan Weaver.  At the time of the alleged abuse, the alleged victim was known by her birth name Shielagh Thompson.

The plaintiff says that she joined the Hyde Park Baptist Church in 1995 at the age of 10 with her mother and siblings.  Clark alleges that in November 2000 Pastor Jonathan Weaver began taking her to his private residence on the church grounds under the guise of “counseling.”  Instead, according to Clark, the pastor used the meetings to molest, forcibly touch, and sexually abuse the 15-year-old girl.  Plaintiff Clark says that the abuse continued and became more aggressive over the next year, despite her demands for the pastor to stop.  The pastor, according to Ms. Clark, used psychological tactics to prevent her from revealing the abuse to anyone.

As the abuse continued, Clark said the church became aware of the misconduct in 2004 when church employees witnessed Weaver and Clark in “private sessions” and confronted him about his behavior.  In an attempt to escape the abuse, the plaintiff left to attend Bob Jones University in South Carolina in 2004.  Weaver was a graduate of the college and visited the campus in 2005 and Clark claims that Weaver raped her during the visit, resulting in pregnancy.  The Hyde Park church congregation learned about the pregnancy and she says the members began a campaign of harassment against her.  She alleges that the congregation forced her to read an apology letter aloud in church, asking for forgiveness.  The pregnancy resulted in an intrauterine fetal death.

The pastor was arrested in South Carolina in 2020 on assault and battery charges for his contact with Clark.  He entered a guilty plea to the charges in Greenville County.

Clark is seeking a judgment against the church for a yet-to-be-determined amount of general, compensatory, special, and punitive damages along with costs associated with the lawsuit.

Clark is married and lives with her family in South Carolina.  She previously filed a parallel lawsuit against the church in Dutchess County Supreme Court in 2020 under the New York Child Victims’ Act.

The original lawsuit which is pending can be viewed here and Mid-Hudson News coverage of the case can be found here.

The Hyde Park Baptist Church did not respond to a message from Mid-Hudson News seeking comment.




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