- Oct 17, 2011
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More than a decade before police found dozens of videos of naked children on the computer of longtime children’s pastor Tony Waller, girls at his Assemblies of God church in Arkansas repeatedly warned adults about what was happening behind closed doors, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
The sweeping civil complaint, filed by six women in Craighead County Circuit Court, accuses Refuge Church in Jonesboro, along with regional and national leaders of the Assemblies of God, of dismissing reports of Waller’s abuses — enabling him to groom, molest and secretly film girls for 15 years.
The earliest reports about Waller reached church leaders in 2000, according to the lawsuit. Again and again over the years that followed, the complaint alleges, church leaders took little action. A senior pastor briefly suspended Waller around 2004 after girls discovered a hidden camera pointing into a church bathroom, then promptly returned him to ministry, where he continued preying on children for another decade, the lawsuit says.
The abuse finally ended in 2015, when Waller’s wife went to police after finding images of naked children on his computer. A year later, Waller pleaded guilty to raping two girls and was sentenced to life in prison.
The sweeping civil complaint, filed by six women in Craighead County Circuit Court, accuses Refuge Church in Jonesboro, along with regional and national leaders of the Assemblies of God, of dismissing reports of Waller’s abuses — enabling him to groom, molest and secretly film girls for 15 years.
The earliest reports about Waller reached church leaders in 2000, according to the lawsuit. Again and again over the years that followed, the complaint alleges, church leaders took little action. A senior pastor briefly suspended Waller around 2004 after girls discovered a hidden camera pointing into a church bathroom, then promptly returned him to ministry, where he continued preying on children for another decade, the lawsuit says.
The abuse finally ended in 2015, when Waller’s wife went to police after finding images of naked children on his computer. A year later, Waller pleaded guilty to raping two girls and was sentenced to life in prison.
