FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — September 23, 2021
Summary: John Doe E.L., along with his siblings, were surrendered to social services when he was age 6, and sent to live at The Children’s Home, located in Forsyth County, operated and overseen by The Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Beginning in 1969 when he was 7 years old, Beatrice Biggs employed at the Children’s home as his house mother began sexually assaulting him.
Defendants: The Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church; and The Children’s Home, Incorporated
Court: Mecklenburg County Court, North Carolina
The full complaint is available upon request.
The Alleged Abuse
Jack and Beatrice Biggs were employed by the Defendants as house parents at the Anna Haines Cottage on the Children’s Home campus, where John Doe E.L. was assigned. The Biggses had the responsibility of protecting and supervising the children and serving as their guardians. Instead, they regularly sexually assaulted Plaintiff and numerous other children, some of whom have also filed lawsuits as a result their abuse. Tragically, neither the Children’s Home nor the Western Conference of the United Methodist Church had procedures in place to monitor house parents or to routinely ensure the wellbeing of the young, innocent and vulnerable children for whom they had accepted responsibility.
How Many Other Abuse Survivors?
According to Attorney Richard M. Serbin, who represents John Doe E.L., along with other children sexually abused by Beatrice Biggs and her husband Jack, “the filing of this sixth lawsuit shows the dismal record of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Children’s Home in protecting children who were already in dire circumstances, and then placed in the care of evil predators who were given free rein to sexually violate children. Due to the lack of any monitoring, they were free to act on their revolting sexual fantasies. John Doe and the many others who found themselves in this nest of pedophiles had no families to protect them; no one in authority to listen to them and nowhere to hide. I have no doubt other children who have thus far not come forward, were also abused at the Children’s Home.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Primary: Richard M. Serbin, Esq. | rms@serbinlaw.net
Secondary: Mary Ann Ruscio | (814) 944-6111 | mar@serbinlaw.net
About Richard M. Serbin
Richard M. Serbin has more than 34 years of experience pursuing justice on behalf of child sex abuse survivors against culpable institutions, including the Catholic Church and other religious denominations. He is nationally recognized as a trailblazer in the area of child sexual abuse by clergy, winning the only jury verdict in Pennsylvania against a bishop, Catholic diocese, and predatory priest. He has represented more than 400 abuse survivors across the U.S. and now heads the Sexual Abuse Division of the national law firm of Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC (JJS).
About Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC
The Sexual Abuse Division of Janet, Janet & Suggs has represented thousands of men and women across the nation who were abused as children by trusted authority figures such as clergy members, priests, doctors, and coaches