Lawsuit says pastor behind ‘regular and repeated’ sex abuse at church, school in Fresno
A former student of a Christian school in Fresno filed a lawsuit alleging a church leader kissed her forcibly and made her touch him sexually when she was 14, the Fresno Bee has learned.
The girl identified only as “Jane Roe,” who is now older than 40, says the abuse started when she was 14 and a student at Truth Tabernacle Christian School in Fresno, the lawsuit says.
Court documents named the church, the United Pentecostal Church International, and Galen Gregg, a former church pastor who also was a teacher and administrator at the school.
The attorney representing Truth Tabernacle in Fresno, Ramsey Kubein, did not respond to requests for comment on behalf of the church.
There was no record of criminal charges being sought against Gregg, according to a Fresno County District Attorney’s spokesperson.
Gregg, who is representing himself in the civil case, responded to a request for comment by email.
“I have been advised not to comment,” Gregg said in the email. “However, in general terms, it would not be wise for people to believe everything they read in a civil lawsuit.”
Jane Roe’s attorney, Steven Dias, also did not return requests for comment.
The lawsuit was filed in November and has its next case management hearing Oct. 17, according to records.
Alleged sexual abuse at Truth Tabernacle
The grooming started when she was 12, the suit alleges, and the abuse was ongoing between 1987 and 1993.
The school is connected to Truth Tabernacle, which operates inside the church building on First Street north of Ashlan Avenue.
The victim was allegedly friends with the daughter of Gregg and began occasionally staying over at age 12, the lawsuit says.
At one point he said “he wished he could watch her when she bathed,” according to the filing.
When she was 13 and staying at the Gregg home, a minor-aged son entered a room with the girl and slept in the bed with her, the filing says.
The following day at the Christian school, Gregg brought up the incident and would bring it up often to make her feel ashamed and threatened, the lawsuit alleges.
He was later promoted to principal of the school, where he developed a student assistant position he assigned to Jane Roe, the court claim says. He would routinely pull her out of class.
Then he would lock the door, “aggressively kiss in a wrongful sexual manner and commit wrongful sexual abuse,” the complaint says. That included forcing the girl, who was 14, to fondle his genitals in acts the complaint described as “regular and repeated.”
The complaint says Gregg admitted his acts to the girl’s parents and church leadership, who asked the family to not report it to police. The church wanted to handle the accusations internally, the court filing says.
The lawsuit says church leadership was negligent in its handling of the incident, and asks for damages of an amount to be determined at trial.
