Criminal charges against a Georgetown County church's former leadership have opened the door to a wave of civil litigation, testing how far institutions can be held liable for concealing what they knew about a convicted offender in their midst.
Reviewed by Survivor Justice Alliance · Updated 2026-07-24
Figures drawn from Georgetown County court filings and sheriff's office statements as reported by WMBF News and WPDE, current as of July 22, 2026.
A church and school scandal in Georgetown County has produced four separate civil lawsuits in the span of about a week, each brought by a different family against a Pawleys Island congregation and the Christian academy it operates, which serves children as young as six weeks old. The complaints center on a man who worked as a campus custodian while registered as a convicted sex offender, and who, according to court filings, was known to church leadership the entire time.
A parent's report to authorities on July 13, 2026 set off a sheriff's office investigation. Within about a week, four people connected to the church and school were arrested, and a fourth civil suit followed on July 22, seeking damages for negligence, negligent hiring and supervision, and breach of contract. Attorneys for the families have said additional plaintiffs may still come forward.
The lawsuits describe a pattern rather than a single lapse. The offender was reportedly barred by the terms of his own probation from any contact with minors, yet he worked at the academy caring for young children on a near-daily basis. One complaint alleges the former pastor personally vouched for him to probation officials, and that a teacher who raised concerns about his presence was pushed out of her job after reporting it to school administrators.
At least one filing also points back to a 2005 lawsuit against the same church, involving a different former youth director accused of sexual assault, arguing that episode should have prompted far stricter adult-screening practices well before this offender was ever hired. Families say the school continued marketing itself to parents as a safe environment throughout the period in question.
The four people criminally charged, including the former pastor, his wife, the academy's director, and the offender himself, face counts that include obstruction of justice, unlawfully placing a child at risk, and conspiracy. Investigators have characterized the group's actions as a deliberate, coordinated choice to expose children to a danger everyone involved already understood.
Criminal charges and civil lawsuits move on separate tracks, but a criminal case built on allegations of concealment can hand civil plaintiffs a substantial evidentiary head start. Arrest warrants, investigative findings, and any plea agreements often become part of the civil record, and a defendant's silence in a parallel criminal matter can itself become a strategic factor in how the civil cases proceed toward settlement or trial.
Civil claims against churches, schools, and youth-serving organizations typically do not turn on whether abuse occurred, since that is often not seriously disputed by the time a case is filed. They turn on what the institution knew, when it knew it, and what a reasonable organization would have done differently once it had that information. Here, plaintiffs argue the answer is straightforward: leadership had the offender's full history and chose ongoing access over disclosure.
For families weighing whether to pursue a claim against an institution that concealed a known danger, the civil justice system exists precisely to test that question in court, through discovery, sworn testimony, and a jury or judge weighing the evidence. This article does not constitute legal advice, and no outcome in these pending cases is guaranteed; each claim will be decided on its own facts.
Court filings in the Pawleys Island case lay out a specific sequence of decisions that plaintiffs argue turned a known risk into repeated harm.
The Survivor Justice Alliance is an attorney alliance and advocacy organization, not a law firm; nothing here is legal advice. Attorney advertising. Referrals and consultations are free, and alliance attorneys work on contingency. Support is available 24/7 at the RAINN hotline, 800-656-4673.
Yes. Institutions can face civil liability for negligent hiring, negligent supervision, and related claims when evidence shows leadership knew of a danger and failed to act on it. Each case depends on its specific facts and the applicable state law.
Criminal and civil cases proceed independently, but findings, documents, and testimony from a criminal investigation can become evidence in the civil case. A criminal conviction, in particular, can significantly strengthen a plaintiff's civil claims.
Individuals accused of abuse frequently lack the financial resources to pay a meaningful judgment. Institutions, by contrast, often carry insurance and assets, and civil law allows survivors to hold an organization accountable for its own negligence in enabling the harm.
Complaints in cases like this typically seek compensatory damages for harm suffered and, where the conduct is egregious, punitive damages intended to punish and deter similar institutional failures.