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WORLD June 22, 1999 VNN4145 See Related VNN Stories | Comment on this story Notorious Pedophile To Defend ISKCON In Calcutta High Court BY VISHNUMURTI DAS INDIA, Jun 22 (VNN) — The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is soon to face its biggest legal challenge in India in a case over the legitimacy of its 70 gurus. Yet the person they have chosen to represent them in the Calcutta high court, Stanley Fedderof a.k.a. Satadhanya das, is himself a perpetrator of crimes the likes of which are causing even bigger problems for the movement in the USA. On April 29th this year the Governing Body Commission (GBC) of the ISKCON, better known as the Hare Krishna movement, sent out a media release headlined: KRISHNAS PLEDGE ONE MILLION DOLLARS TO CHILD PROTECTION This release details the efforts the GBC are supposed to be taking to 'assist and protect' victims and potential victims of child abuse within the movement. But there are certain facts, not mentioned in the release, that suggest the GBC's latest efforts are simply crocodile tears, prompted more by self-preservation than any genuine concern for abused children. There is a disturbing history of child abuse within ISKCON stretching back over 20 years, yet only now have the GBC decided to do something about it. Interestingly their decision coincides with a planned class action law suit in the USA by many of the abused youth, who are now young adults, and have got themselves organised with lawyers and documented evidence. The law suit is to be filed against the perpetrators, on behalf of the abused victims. A recent report stated the following: " a meeting took place on Wednesday, May 5th, at the Law Offices of Windle Turley, P.C. (http://www.wturley.com, 800-692-4025, turley@wturley.com), regarding their proposed child abuse lawsuit against ISKCON. The Turley law firm is famous for having won the largest sexual child abuse judgement in history: $120 million for a case involving 11 altar boys who were sexually abused by a Catholic priest. Attending this meeting were Ms. Pam Reeves (pamr@wturley.com), a legal assistant, and Ms. Lori Watson, an attorney. Both ladies are from the law firm's criminal negligence department, and both have been working on this case for the past several weeks. In addition to Mr. Turley himself, various paralegals were also present. I was able to contact Ms. Reeves concerning the results of this meeting. When asked whether Mr. Turley had decided to go ahead with this case, she emphatically stated, "Yes, he has!"" Thus the GBC's recent pledge of $1 million dollars to help victims seems more like a cynical ploy to look good, and perhaps save themselves a far bigger pay-out should they lose the case. When one considers the alleged scale of abuse in ISKCON, and the fact that only 1 priest and 11 altar boys led to the $120 million judgement against the Catholic church, their fears may be well founded. This trait of only acting to save their own skins is highlighted in another court action that has already been brought against the GBC, and is currently being heard in the Calcutta High Court. This case threatens to be another big headache for the embattled leadership and concerns the efforts of reformers wishing to rid ISKCON of its current 'Guru' system; a system which incidentally has resulted in much of the abuse being perpetrated in the first place. Some of the gurus, current and ex, either directly or indirectly perpetrated or allowed the abuse to go on unpunished. What is interesting in this case is that before the legal action began, the GBC had voted overwhelmingly to expel some of the leading reform members from ISKCON. However 2 days after the case was filed on 25/3/99 in the Calcutta High Court, the same GBC voted just as overwhelmingly to re-instate those expelled. This shows how the GBC respond when threatened with the 'L' word (lawsuit). The same case also reveals further evidence of the GBC's underlying disregard for child abuse victims, despite all its noises of concern. The case for the GBC is being handled by one Stanley Fedderof, a.k.a. Satadhanya das, who has been appointed directly by the GBC to represent them in court, and indeed is the only individual named in their affidavit-in-opposition. Within days of the child abuse media release, in the affidavit filed on behalf of the GBC, Stanley immodestly describes himself as a 'devotee' and 'Vaisnava'; but he does not mention: a) He has no legal qualifications or formal legal training. b) There are others in ISKCON who do have legal qualifications and training. Why then was he chosen? The mystery is revealed when the other facts about Fedderof are noted: * Just a few years ago he was found guilty by the GBC themselves of anal intercourse, and other gross acts of paedophilia against young boys. * So bad was the abuse that he had to pay heavy reparations to the victim, one boy needing stitches. So concerned where the GBC themselves about Fedderof, that they publicly passed the following resolution about Fedderof at their annual general meeting: 57) That to live on ISKCON property, Satadhanya dasa must first have a "risk assessment." If he receives a "low to no risk" approval, he can live on ISKCON Mayapur property. The assessment should be done by experts approved by Yasoda dasi. [GBC Resolution, 1995] What is also revealing is that Stanley was one of the main associates of an ex-guru paedophile, who was the product of the very guru system the Calcutta case is trying to remove. All this is made even more grotesque by the following statement made in ISKCON's child abuse media release: "The Governing Body Commission (GBC) [...] today announced it has pledged an additional $750,000 for ISKCON's Office of Child Protection (OCP). [...] Another quarter million dollars was allocated previously to the OCP. [...] Actions against past abusers can include mandatory payment of reparations to victims, mandatory professional counseling, and banishment for life from Krishna temples." It was Stanley's victim who received the 'mandatory payment of reparations to victims', as mentioned above, and the victim currently lives in Alachua, USA, in the Krishna community where the above-mentioned OCP is situated. A state of affairs that makes the following statement from the press release, a fine summing up of the hypocritical humbug in operation here: "We can't change the history of suffering that some of our children underwent. But, we must continue to do everything we can to help the healing process," So do the GBC feel they will help the 'healing process' by entrusting one of their most important and high profile court cases, one that may change the very course of their movement, to a notorious class A paedophile? A man who until recently was not even allowed to live in certain ISKCON communities! And so an abuser is brought in to defend the very system that led to much of the abuse. The only message that the above sorry state of affairs from the GBC sends out is: "We will continue to actively foster and support paedophiles, and we don't really care about the suffering of the child abuse victims, or anything else for that matter. But if you take legal action against us, we will do what is necessary to cover our asses." Related VNN Stories | Comment on this story | Contact VNN about this story | Send this story to a friend
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