CHARLESTON -- Four men are suing the Church of God, alleging they were the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a former pastor at a church in Shrewsbury.
Michael Bradley, Jose Strickland, Michael Lewis and David Mullins filed lawsuits July 8 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the Tennessee-based Church of God and Sandy Martin Cook, a former pastor.
Bradley lives in Newton Falls, Ohio; Strickland in Ripley; Lewis in Cedar Grove; and Mullins in St. Albans.
The plaintiffs says that their families were members of the Shrewsbury Church of God located in Belle. They claim that during the early to mid-1990s they were victimized by Cook when each was between 12 and 16 years of age.
The acts were reported to authorities in August 2007 and a jury convicted Cook on Feb. 27, 2009, for sexually related offenses.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Tammy Bowles Raines is representing the plaintiffs. The cases are before Kanawha circuit judges James Stucky, Charles King and Louis Bloom.
Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers: 09-C-1229 through 09-C-1232
Victims sue church, former pastor over sex abuse
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