A woman alleging she was trafficked by Atlanta Dream Center Church and Assemblies of God as a ministry student has sued them in Georgia, claiming they profit off the forced labor of vulnerable Pentecostal youth they house in deplorable conditions.
The woman, identified in the lawsuit as K.D., said she escaped the Atlanta church in 2015 severely malnourished after months of working long, unpaid shifts in kitchens and catered events. The woman, now 29, said she was tricked into participating in the church’s Atlanta School of Ministry program, then forced to live and work in filthy and dangerous environments with other students.
She alleges she was almost robbed and twice sexually assaulted by an event patron and church leader while in the program, which she joined in 2014 at age 18. The woman said she and other students were routinely sick from the spoiled food they were forced to prepare and eat.
“This is the first (lawsuit) of its kind that we are aware of, but we do represent several other individuals, and we’re aware of many more who suffered through the same sort of trafficking and trafficking conditions,” Kim Dougherty, an attorney for K.D., told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “So, this is just the first of many lawsuits that we expect to file in the near future.”
Representatives of the six church entities sued by K.D. did not immediately respond Wednesday to questions about the allegations. Georgia Assemblies of God District Superintendent John Dougherty said Friday church leaders are aware of the lawsuit and have “deep concern” about the allegations.
“While we are limited in what we can say due to the ongoing legal process, we want to be clear that we take these matters very seriously,” he said. “We are praying for everyone impacted and are trusting that healing and peace will come.”
The 85-page complaint was filed Monday in the federal trial court in Atlanta.
Kim Dougherty said she has seen reports of trafficking activity at Dream Center churches in other states but isn’t aware of related lawsuits outside Georgia. She said all her clients were involved in the Atlanta Dream Center Church and its ministry school.
The church is on Angier Avenue in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. K.D. said she was housed in a nearby apartment complex on Highland Avenue. There is a separate church in Decatur called The dReam Center Church of Atlanta, which is not involved in the case.
“The real goal is to end this type of scheme of abuse and forced labor that these young adults are subjected to,” Kim Dougherty said Wednesday. “To uncover such an extensive, co-mingled human trafficking operation should send shockwaves through our social conscience.”
K.D. alleges she was encouraged in 2012 or 2013 to join the Atlanta Dream Center Church’s ministry program by members who visited her church in Missouri, where she lived at the time. She said she joined thinking she would learn to minister, do missionary work, and enjoy activities like dance and spoken word.
K.D. said she expected some volunteering to be part of the program but was routinely forced to work 12-16 hours a day in exchange for tuition and board in a dirty one-bedroom apartment she shared with three other students in a high-crime part of Atlanta.
She said she worked in the program’s unsanitary kitchen facility preparing and serving donated food that was expired and insect-ridden. She said the church wouldn’t let her throw out food contaminated by blood and vomit, instead instructing her to rinse it with water.
K.D. said she was also forced to work unpaid as a food server at various sporting, corporate, entertainment and other events. She alleges major restaurant entities, not named in the lawsuit, make tax deductible donations to the church entities in exchange for free labor.
Mission Movement Corps, a church-based Georgia nonprofit, is accused in the suit of facilitating the alleged labor trafficking scheme. On its website, Mission Movement Corps says it supports missionaries at the Atlanta Dream Center Church and partners with major catering companies to provide volunteer staff as part of its mission to raise money for churches.
In her complaint, K.D. said she was told by Atlanta church leaders she still owed $7,000 tuition at the school, despite the hundreds of hours of free work she had done. She said the church leaders told her parents she was expelled for drinking alcohol, resulting in her being shunned by her family and home church members.
K.D. said Atlanta church leaders used shaming, religious manipulation and grooming tactics to ensure she was subservient, obedient and silent. She said she was denied basic health care and labeled as ungrateful for raising concerns about the living and work conditions.
“This case reveals a sophisticated human trafficking and forced labor operation disguised as a religious ministry,” the lawsuit states. “Young, vulnerable individuals, including the plaintiff, were recruited nationwide with promises of missionary training, only to be systematically isolated, manipulated and coerced into providing unpaid labor at sporting events, conventions and corporate gatherings across the country.”
The lawsuit alleges the church entities violated the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
Kim Dougherty said K.D. never received the college degree and ministerial certification she was promised by the church and has needed years of therapy to deal with trauma from the program. She said the church entities must be held accountable.
“It is our understanding that (trafficking in the program) is still a problem, it is still happening to people now,” she said. “We are hopeful that there might also be some legislative change that can come from this that will help protect young adults and children from this type of abuse.”
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