Pennsylvania’s acting attorney general is charging five men from Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations across the state with child sexual abuse crimes.
Acting AG Michelle Henry said Wednesday her office will prosecute men from Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lancaster counties for allegedly abusing children between 1998 and 2009.
Henry said after four other men from Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations were arrested last October on sexual abuse charges, a grand jury investigated whether sexual abuse had happened elsewhere in the church.
“These cases…are disturbing and sad, but this one in particular digs deeper, because in this case, all of the defendants and all of the victims come from the same religious organization,” Henry said.
One survivor was as young as 5 when they were assaulted. One man allegedly abused his own grandchild. Another was an uncle. Another was a 30-year-old, claiming he wanted to marry a 15-year-old girl. Church elders approved their courtship so long as they were chaperoned, but the man managed to meet with her alone and assaulted her.
A survivor identified as L.S. in charging documents, who was no older than 10 when she was abused, told the grand jury how her grandfather sexually assaulted her. She explained she did not recognize what had happened to her until she was in her mid-20s. She felt her religion discouraged her from reporting the abuse to the police, because she believed it would “bring reproach to Jehovah.”
Though some of the crimes date back decades, prosecutors can bring charges in child sexual abuse cases up until the survivor reaches age 50. Pennsylvania abolished its criminal statute of limitations in 2019, but only for crimes that happened from that year forward.
“Our office will never stop working to bring justice to those who were victimized,” Henry said. “We will continue to investigate and prosecute anyone who takes advantage and harms the most vulnerable in our society.”
Henry declined to say whether the Attorney General’s office is investigating the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations that the men belonged to.
Four of the five men have been arrested. They are: Marc Brown, 65, of Allegheny County; Raymond Shultz, 74, of Beaver County; Abimael Valentin-Matos, 42, of Lancaster County; Kevin Isovitsch, 51, of Butler County; and Norman Aviles, 44, of Lancaster County.
The state Attorney’s General office said Aviles is still at large.
