Jehovah's Witness elders who failed to report child abuse got bad advice, say local pastors, attorneys

In 2006, a Crystal Lake man confessed to the leaders of his church that he was sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl.It was not that confession, however, that McHenry County Judge Mark Gerhardt considered when convicting the two church elders of violating the state’s mandated reporter law.Instead, he relied on information provided to Michael M. Penkava, 72, and Colin Scott, 88, elders at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Crystal Lake, by another congregant, sidestepping the question of whether the man’s confession was protected by the First Amendment and the doctrine of clergy-penitent privilege, which protects confessions from further disclosure.The confession of a serious and ongoing crime puts a pastor in a “tight spot,” said the Rev. Mark Buetow of Zion Lutheran Church and School in McHenry.Confessions between a church member and pastor are sacred, he said, but in the case of child abuse, the child must be protected. A church member cannot use the confession as a way to avoid being held responsible, Buetow said.”From a pastor’s perspective, we want to do the right thing and get that child help. We have got to do everything we can to keep kids safe,” Buetow said. “You can confess to me and I will absolve you, but there will be consequences. I will be as welcoming as the Lord wants me to be, but not with my kids.”In the case of Penkava and Scott, Penkava called attorneys at the Jehovah’s Witnesses world headquarters in New York for advice, according to testimony during the pair’s bench trial in March. He was told he did not have to call authorities, so he did not. Instead he and Scott prayed with him, in line with their teaching, according to trial testimony.In 2018, the girl, then 18, told church elders the abuse never stopped, and Penkava helped her report it to police.Arturo Hernandez-Pedraza, 44, was subsequently convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, criminal sexual assault, sexual relations within families and domestic battery. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison.Gerhardt “avoided” that complicated issue in the Penkava and Scott case, said Mark Brown, a Chicago-based attorney who has handled child abuse cases involving churches and youth organizations for the past 14 years.”I would hope, on a general level in any court, if there is knowledge by a clergy of child sexual abuse and they failed to report it — whether or not they got bad advice from an attorney — they failed to report that and they should be charged,” Brown said.The Rev. Gabriel Bardan, pastor at Cary-Grove Adventist Fellowship Church in Fox River Grove, has been involved in situations in which the police had to be called.He said a person’s sin — when repetitive and hurting others, such as viewing child pornography, which he believes is an addiction that often leads to child sexual abuse — must be acknowledged.”If we don’t acknowledge this, reality is (that) there is no chance of change,” Bardan said.He said he believes a person who has sinned or committed a crime can be transformed, and he will continue to work with that person. But, he said, he also will work with police if that sin is repetitive and causing someone else harm.”Even if the person goes to jail, we continue to talk to them. They are not a pariah,” Bardan said. “It is our responsibility to bend down and lift up those who have fallen, and I can fall tomorrow.”He currently is working on forming a team of counselors to work in the church’s lifestyle center in Elgin. He said he bought a program on addiction and is trying to build a team of counselors skilled in issues such as sex addiction, weight loss, depression and anxiety.