ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Two women sued their Jehovah's Witnesses congregation and the church's parent organization Tuesday, alleging church elders told them to remain silent about being sexually abused by a member.
The church member, who allegedly abused the women as children, is also named in the lawsuit. The suit seeks more than $50,000 in damages for each of the women, now 22 years old.
No one answered the phone Tuesday at the church in Annandale, about 60 miles northwest of the Twin Cities. Officials at the parent organization, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in New York, had no comment.
The lawsuit alleges Derek Lindala, 30, molested one girl repeatedly when she was between 11 and 13 years old and another girl once in 1990.
Both women say they told congregation elders but were told to remain silent. Police were never notified.
Lindala, whose uncle is an elder at the church, did not return a message Tuesday.
One plaintiff filed under the name Jane Doe. The other, Heidi Meyer of Minneapolis, spoke at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.
``Living with this secret was very hard,'' Meyer said. ``It's traumatic.''
Meyer said church elders told her she had misinterpreted Lindala's conduct, and because there were not two eyewitnesses, her comments could be seen as slander or gossip
The other woman alleges Lindala molested her when she spent the night at his family's home.
The women no longer belong to the church.