Church Counselor Accused Of Molesting Boys March 16, 2009
Police arrested a Central Florida church counselor yesterday for molesting two boys at a church retreat.
David Martin, a 40-year-old Rockledge man, was arrested and charged with sexual battery. Because the boys are 12 or older but less than 18 and Martin was a person in a position of authority, Martin will be charged with a first degree felony. Martin was also charged with lewd or lascivious molestation.
Two boys, ages 11 and 13, said that Martin molested them inside a cabin at the Life for Youth Church Camp in Vero Beach. The boys were visiting the camp as part of a church group from the Faith Fellowship Church in Melbourne.
Of course the perpetrator was “very well liked and someone who was very active with the kids and just had great relationships with the adults and children” the news report reads.
Martin attracted several hundred children to his congregation. At the time this blog was published, no other victims had come forward.
I would be quite surprised if a civil lawsuit did not arise from this in addition to the criminal charges. This type of behavior is dispicable. I wonder if there were warning signs from previous boys at previous camps.
This type of behavior is usually habitual and a 40-year-old has likely left signs that he had committed these acts previously. That is why I am going to lobby the Florida Legislature to enact a law providing for civil remedies against people who fail to report suspected child abuse of any kind, sexual or otherwise.
Now, istitutions have no incentive to train employees to look for telltail signs of abuse and investigate them appropriately because the only punishment for remaining silent while a child is abused is criminal. The institutions can not be held liable under today’s law.
They should be liable. We entrust our children to them and they should be trained to detect abuse and required to report it. Stay tuned to this blog for further news on my lobbying efforts.
Posted Under: Child Abuse, Child Injuries, Current Events, Opinion
Reader Comments
Civil remedies? How on earth would money repair any damages to the young boys or the young boys’ families? I will tell you that I was a youth at that church (I’m 21 now) and have been to a total of twelve retreats and camps with faith fellowship church an one of them I had David Martin as my counselor. This is a typical hindsight is 20-20 case. The only warning sign I ever saw was that he was single and 40. He had a lot of adult friends and he really was always innocently nice to me and my friends. There was never talk about him being weird or creepy or anything like that, and any talk of that is simple sensationalism. The only thing that civil liability would do in cases like this is draw out the recovery process, hurt the church and line the pockets of lawyers like you at the expense of everybody else. And if the parents of these boys think that getting financial compensation will help their children they’re as foolish and self-centered as you are.
Thanks for your comment Josh. I always welcome differing viewpoints. Let me address your concerns. Your first question is “How on earth would money repair any damages to the young boys or the young boys’ families?”
Well you’re certainly right. Money can never repair that damage. I tell you what, if I could repair that damage, I wouldn’t be a lawyer. I find my work helping injury victims to be very satisfying, but if I could go back in time and repair that kind of damage, that would be infinitely more satisfying. The problem is that our legal system only provides monetary remedies for injury victims. It’s a poor substitute, but we don’t have time machines so it’s the best we’ve got.
I applaud your support of David Martin and I’m sure he appreciates it at this time. You may not have seen any of the signs I hypothesized about. You certainly weren’t around him at all times – certainly not during all the more private times when he was more likely to show those signs. Heck, I admit that he may never have shown signs. What I do know is that his disease is a chronic one and is not easily abated. That is why I feel safe guessing there were other signs.
As far as civil liability goes, if someone felt that a civil action would draw out their recovery process, then they are free to avoid filing a claim. I would never force anyone into a situation detrimental to their mental health. It would be an option the could consider. As far as your comment about civil liability hurting the church, you’re absolutely right and that is the whole point. The entire reason for civil liability is to hurt the church (in this case). Institutions need to bear more of the burden of protecting our children. Now they have no legal incentive to train their employees on what to look for, etc. They have no legal incentive to put programs in place that could avoid this type of child abuse.
Addressing your last comment, financial compensation would certainly help. It could pay for their treatment and recovery. It could put the children through college or allow them to open a business of their own and contribute to society. I disagree with you wholeheartedly on that point. Financial compensation would help them in very tangible ways.