Former Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor Paul Havsgaard, who has been accused by some 22 men and women of sexually abusing and trafficking them when they were minors living in now-defunct church-run children’s homes in Romania, has denied the allegations again and asked a court to dismiss their lawsuit against him.
On Monday, Havsgaard filed a sometimes barely legible handwritten 14-page response in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California asking for dismissal of the plaintiffs’ action with prejudice; an order that the plaintiffs take no relief from the complaint, along with any relief the court “deems fair and just.”
Havsgaard did not immediately respond to calls for comment when contacted by The Christian Post on Wednesday. Someone from the number Havsgaard listed on the filing returned a call from CP but refused to respond after the call was answered.
In a Jan. 20 letter to U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes in response to the lawsuit against him, Havsgaard said he could not afford a lawyer but said the claims against him are “ugly lies.”
“I am angry because the lawsuit states these accusations as if they are facts,” Havsgaard wrote.
“They are not. Everything I am accused of in these lawsuits are blatant, ugly lies manufactured for one purpose, to achieve a payout. If things were as bad as these accusations claim, each child could have left whenever they wanted to. In fact, the children were allowed to go and come as they pleased.”
On March 12, Sykes ordered that Havsgaard’s letter be struck from the record as an appropriate response to the lawsuit because it did not comply with Local Rule 83-2.5. It states that parties to any action “shall refrain from writing letters to the judge. … All matters must be called to a judge’s attention by appropriate application or motion filed in compliance with these Local Rules.”
Havsgaard’s latest filing appears to be an effort to comply with those rules.
Among the alleged male survivors in the case are lead plaintiff, Marian Barbu, 33; Mihai-Constantin Petcu, 40; Cristian Aeroaiei, 36; Constantin-Alin Nitu, 36; Razvan-Georghe Nitu, 38; and George-Adrian Vasile, 33; Aurelian Busca, 37; his brother Alexandru-Cristian Busca, 38; Marian Dragne, 36; Bogdan Ionescu, 35; Alexandru Badaluta, 36; and Florin Cristian Caragea, 32.
The female plaintiffs are Marian-Liviu Mihaila, 38; Alexandra-Elena Langa, 28; Ioana Cosmina Pirvu, 32; Gheorghita-Bogdana Tici, 36; Maria Ghenciulescu, 37; Denis-Vasile Otcuparu, 32; Emilia-Mariana Tudosie, 38; Roxana-Maria Turuianu, 39; Cristina-Bianca Popescu, 33; and Alexandru Ioniță, 39.
Their consolidated lawsuit alleges that from around 1998 through 2008, when they were minors as young as 4, Havsgaard and others he supervised sexually abused them on many occasions.
The plaintiffs allege that he recruited them as children off the streets of Bucharest by buying McDonald’s meals and the promise of shelter in a Harvest Home where they would be fed, clothed and educated. Other survivors interviewed as part of the lawsuit claim Havsgaard suggested they might get adopted by American families.
Instead, they claim they were groomed into a life of abuse for years before being forced back on the streets when the homes were quietly shut down in 2008, four years after an alleged investigation by Harvest Christian Fellowship at the insistence of concerned missionaries.
The plaintiffs also claim that Harvest Christian Fellowship, the church’s founder, Greg Laurie, and missions pastor Richard Schutte, were negligent for failing to prevent their abuse and covering it up for 20 years.
The lawsuit alleges that Laurie and Schutte kept Havsgaard in place in Romania with minimal oversight despite repeated warnings about abuse of children. Harvest reportedly deposited $17,000 each month into Havsgaard’s personal bank account to cover expenses associated with running the homes, but did not require detailed accounts. Havsgaard was allegedly able to “divert funds into purchases for his sexual favorites and hush money for employees.”
Havsgaard, who resides in California, also frequently returned to Harvest Christian Fellowship in California to raise money for the homes in Romania. The plaintiffs allege he sexually assaulted certain boys selected to join him on trips from Romania to the U.S.
In their 201-page consolidated amended complaint against the defendants filed in March, the plaintiffs also accuse the church of trying to cover up child sexual abuse in its international operations.
In the consolidated filing, Harvest Christian Fellowship is accused of removing videos and digital archives from the church’s website in 2018 that plaintiffs allege were evidence of Havsagaard’s fundraising and ministry work.
Even after the Romanian children’s homes were said to have been closed, Harvest Christian Fellowship is accused of accepting a large donation to support the ministry and failing to return the donation, even though Harvest Homes in Romania closed the year prior.
A spokesperson for Harvest Christian Fellowship did not respond to questions from CP regarding the amended complaint. The church’s lawyers stated in a court filing in January that they have started legal proceedings in Romania to determine whether the alleged victims’ claims are “barred by the Romanian statute of limitations.”
Contact: [email protected] Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
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