$6 million judgment given in rape case

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A jury has awarded a $6 million judgment to a former choir director who claimed the Methodist Church didn't protect her from a pastor who allegedly raped her seven years ago.

A Greene County jury heard two weeks of testimony before returning their verdict Wednesday to give Teresa Norris $4 million in punitive damages. The jury already had awarded Norris $2 million in compensatory damages and ruled that the West Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church should pay punitive damages for their wrongdoing. Norris cried after hearing the verdict.

"I'm really grateful to the jurors for listening to this whole thing and really making a statement to the conference that things need to change," she said.

Her attorney, Michael Fletcher, had asked the jury to "send a message" to the conference with its damages award.

Attorneys for Norris told the jury that several people from Campbell United Methodist Church in Springfield had filed complaints about the Rev. David Finestead, who served as the church pastor from 1995 to 1998.

Norris testified that she was raped on March 25, 1998, by Finestead. Norris was director of music ministry at the church from September 1997 to April 1998 and said she was attacked in her office. A spokesman for the conference, Steve Cox, said Finestead maintains his innocence and noted that Norris did not file a police report. Finestead has never faced criminal charges.

Witnesses testified that they brought complaints against Finestead about inappropriate comments and sexual innuendoes as early as 1996 to Bishop Ann Sherer and former District Superintendent James Ireland, who were named in the suit. The conference did not follow through with plans in March 1998 to monitor the pastor and have him undergo training regarding sexual misconduct, according to testimony.

Dan Craig, one of Norris' attorneys, said a civil lawsuit has been filed against Finestead, who accepted a three-year suspension, then left the denomination. He is now as pastor of First Baptist Church of Louisburg, Kan.

His daughter, Kathie Finestead, said her father is dying of cancer, which she blames partly on stress caused by the accusations.

"It's never really been over for him," she said.