Columbus jury awards $500K to woman in lawsuit alleging preacher's longtime sexual abuse
After just 90 minutes of deliberation in a three-day trial, a Columbus jury awarded half a million dollars to a woman who sued her former pastor for years of alleged sexual abuse that began when she was 15 years old.
Jurors reached their decision Wednesday afternoon in the suit Lequita Jackson filed four years ago against Lewis Clemons, accusing him of pushing her into a sexual relationship that lasted from 2002 to about 2009, as Lewis led churches known as Faith Unlimited Ministries and Kingdom Awareness Ministries.
Though the Ledger-Enquirer by policy does not identify those alleged to be victims of sexual assault, Jackson chose to have her name disclosed to show that victims should not be ashamed to come forward.
“We’re not the ones who should be hiding in the shadows,” she said Thursday. “The predators are the ones who should be hiding in the shadows.”
Read more: https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/crime/article252029303.html
(Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)