Texas Megachurch Pastor to Pay $2.4M After Allegedly Giving Woman Herpes
A popular pastor in Texas has been ordered to pay $2.45 million to a woman after a jury decided he’d given her a sexually-transmitted disease, according to KPRC. The Rev. Dr. Ralph D. West II was found liable after a three-day trial and nearly seven hours of deliberation, the station reported on Wednesday. The unidentified woman had claimed West had infected her with genital herpes in 2018 after the pair met on Facebook. Her lawyer, Shaun Murphy, said the reverend had lied to her about whether he had the disease, but that she’d been able to identify West as “the source” of her outbreak through “medical records” and the fact that “she hadn’t been with anybody else.” Murphy said his client was relieved and vindicated by the judgment. But “you can’t fix it,” he added, “she’s got it for the rest of her life.” West, the founder and senior pastor of Houston’s Church Without Walls, which claims to boast a congregation of more than 24,000 families, did not immediately respond to an email from The Daily Beast. He declined to comment on the case to KPRC.
