Pa. attorney general charges five Jehovah’s Witnesses with rape, sexual abuse of children

Five Jehovah’s Witnesses have been charged with raping and exploiting children as part of a Pennsylvania grand jury investigation into the organization’s handling of sexual abuse cases.

State Attorney General Michelle Henry announced the charges Friday and said the cases were connected to Witness congregations across the state, and that some of the sexual assaults occurred decades ago.

The incidents shared a common thread, Henry said: Each of the abusers found their victims through the church and then exploited them.

“The five defendants that we have charged today were all adults in positions of trust with these victims,” Henry said at a news conference. “They violated that trust and they abused these children. Children are some of our most vulnerable members of society and they should be nurtured and protected. But instead of protecting these children, the defendants violated and abused them.”

One victim told investigators she had been raped 50 to 75 times between the ages of 7 and 12, according to court documents.

Among those charged was David Balosa, 61, of Philadelphia.

A family at a Witness congregation in the city’s Olney neighborhood invited Balosa to stay with them after he moved to the area from Angola. Balosa, then 35, sexually abused their 4-year-old daughter in the basement, according to court documents.

Balosa has not yet been apprehended by authorities.

Another suspect was an elder, the equivalent of a priest, at an Upper Darby Witness congregation, according to the grand jury presentment.

In an emailed statement, the United States branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses said any sexual abuse, whether of a child or adult, “sickens” the organization, but declined to comment specifically on the charges announced Friday.

“That having been said, the news of someone being sexually abused, whether a child or an adult, sickens us. Child sexual abuse in particular is a twisted act of evil.”

The statement also said the organization works to remove “unrepentant perpetrators” from the congregation. The community also educates and warns parents about abuse and offers support and pastoral care to victims, the organization said.

“Anyone who has been victimized has the full support of the congregation to report the matter to the authorities,” Witnesses said in the statement.

Friday’s charges are the latest development in an ongoing and expansive investigation by the Attorney General’s Office into sexual abuse in the Witness community.

That investigation followed a 2018 Inquirer report that found that Witness leaders have, for decades, worked to prevent information about child sexual assaults from becoming public, and ostracized victims who reported abuse to police.

» READ MORE: Silent Witnesses: An insular culture and archaic rules have created a "recipe for child abuse."

Asked if Witness officials had discouraged victims’ families from contacting law enforcement officials, Henry declined to comment.

Since last October, the Attorney General’s Office has charged 14 men from the Witness community with sexually abusing minors.

The five charged Friday were Balosa; Errol William Hall, 50, of Delaware County, an elder at the Upper Darby congregation; Shaun Sheffer, 45, of Butler County; Terry Booth, 57, of Panama City, Fla.; and Luis Ayala-Velasquez, 55, of Berks County.

All but Balosa were in custody. It was unclear if any of those charged had retained lawyers.

Henry praised the bravery of the victims who came forward to report the abuse.

“Many of these incidents and offenses happened a long time ago, even decades ago. But as a longtime child abuse prosecutor, I can tell you that the trauma endures for these victims,” she said.

The Attorney General’s Office encouraged anyone with information about the investigation to call the office’s hotline at 888-538-8541. Reports of child sexual abuse can also be made to ChildLine, at 1-800-932-0313.