Woman sues Ga. church over alleged human trafficking
ATLANTA, Ga. - A woman has filed a lawsuit against an Atlanta church, claiming she and others were trafficked and forced to work in inhumane conditions after being recruited as young ministry students.
The lawsuit was filed Monday against the Atlanta Dream Center Church and its affiliated Pentecostal Christian denomination Assemblies of God, among others.
The woman, identified in the lawsuit as “K.D.,” says she joined the church’s Atlanta School of Ministry in 2014 to train as a missionary.
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She claims that she and other young students were instead forced to work unpaid catering events, live in dangerous environments, and were given moldy, expired food to eat.
“This case reveals a sophisticated human trafficking and forced labor operation disguised as a religious ministry,” the lawsuit claims. “Young, vulnerable individuals, including the plaintiff, were recruited nationwide with promises of missionary training, only to be systematically isolated, manipulated, and coerced into providing unpaid labor at sporting events, conventions, and corporate gatherings across the country.”
READ THE LAWSUIT:
The woman also claims she was twice sexually assaulted during her time with the church, once by a pastor and another time by a guest at one of the church’s events.
According to the lawsuit, Atlanta Dream Center leaders did not report the sexual assault at the church event, and instead told the plaintiff to “try avoiding the assailant for the remainder of the shift.”
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The lawsuit claims the pastor rubbed his hands on the plaintiff’s bare legs and thighs without her consent, and when she told him to stop, he continued. When she again objected, he allegedly threatened her life, saying “she ‘would not make it to her 21st birthday’ if she ever left his control.”
The lawsuit says the defendants, who range “from local ministries and churches to national religious organizations, prominent non-profits, and restaurant companies,” collaborated for years “in a sophisticated trafficking operation that operated openly under the guise of volunteer ministry work in exchange for college tuition, room and board.”
According to the lawsuit, some defendants traveled the country to recruit Pentecostal teenagers and young adults who aspired to become missionaries and pastors. The plaintiff says she was recruited by church leaders in Missouri.
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The defendants allegedly targeted vulnerable youths in impoverished areas with promises of housing, food and the “opportunity to satisfy the purported tuition debt through ‘volunteer’ work spreading the gospel at corporate and sporting events.”
However, “upon arrival, the students soon learned the promises were inaccurate and misleading,” and they were instead “subjected to abhorrent living conditions, including being crammed into overcrowded rooms and forced to sleep on cold floors or in vans in dangerous, crime-ridden areas of Atlanta and other major cities” and were forced to “perform chores at the church for 12 to 14 hours a day, typically six days a week, with minimal time scheduled for their promised ministerial education.”
The woman says she escaped the church to get medical care after her mental and physical health deteriorated, taking off in the middle of the night “given how fear stricken she was over leaving.”
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