A judge approved and sealed a settlement Monday involving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and 14 alleged sex abuse victims who claim church officials ignored warnings about an errant minister who was later convicted of molesting boys.
Several church agencies also were included in the deal, which Harrison County District Judge Bonnie Leggat sealed pending the outcome of a civil trial against the remaining defendant - the denomination's Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod. Testimony is scheduled to start Tuesday.
The case of former Lutheran pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., who was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for sexually assaulting boys in this East Texas town, has drawn parallels from victims' advocates to some of the worst cases in the Roman Catholic abuse crisis.
Besides the Chicago-based denomination, the Ohio seminary that Thomas attended also was included in the deal, as was a candidacy committee in Michigan and the Marshall congregation where Thomas was pastor from 1997 to 2001.
Scott Shanes, attorney for Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, said the trial's resolution will have no effect on the settlement. Details of the pact will become public after the trial is over, he said.
Jennifer Ainsworth, attorney for the 5 million-member ELCA, said the denomination was pleased.
"We believe it's in the best interests of the ELCA and the kids," Ainsworth said. "We believe ELCA took responsibility for any involvement in this and the kids will be taken care of."
The victims and their families accused Lutheran officials of ignoring questionable behavior by Thomas. Private, internal memos detailed allegations against Thomas before his assignment to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall in 1997.
Church officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly denied negligence.
Under the settlement, all money paid out will be put into trust funds for the victims; it won't be controlled by parents or guardians, attorneys said.
A jury of eight men and four women was selected last week before the settlement was confirmed.
Parents and guardians of most victims appeared before the judge to confirm they were satisfied with the settlement terms. In questioning of the victims' relatives Monday, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, Edward Hohn, characterized the settling defendants as "peripheral" and called the synod the "target" defendant in the case.
While allegedly aware of Thomas' "boundary issues" in seminary, the local synod did not share details of Thomas' background with the Marshall congregation later that year, court documents say. Court papers also claim that the church official in charge of pastor assignments at the time had himself been arrested twice for indecent exposure.
Thomas, 41, was charged in 2001 after a teenager found nude images of friends on the pastor's computer and tried to blackmail him.
Convicted on federal child pornography charges, Thomas is serving five years at the U.S. Penitentiary in Beaumont. His state sentence will start after that.