I reviewed carefully the letter of Robert C. James, counsel for the Watchtower defendants in the Berry case.

And while his factual clarifications are interesting, it does not change the fact that the Berry decision is bad law, as Attorney Bouchard pointed out in his original letter.

The Berry case stands for the proposition that: even if all the plaintiffs’ allegations were true, the Supreme Court still did not find a cause of action.

It is numbing to think that if a mother had reported sexual abuse to the leaders of her church, and those leaders did nothing to protect those children, such leaders could avoid civil liability.

Attorney James may well be right that plaintiffs could not have proven their allegations. What is wrong with the decision is that they were not given the chance.

Kenneth M. Brown

Nashua, NH

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