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This week’s listings on the back page
Final Four duke it out in Burger Madness
Zookers
Sly’s
Rincon
The Spot
Coastal View News has charged readers with a task both delicious and difficult: decide who makes the best burger in the land. Thus far Burger Madness has seen two weeks of NCAA-style competition and a winnowing of 25 contenders to this week’s Final Four. This quartet of craving quenchers—from left, Zookers Restaurant (Nicholas Rodriguez), Sly’s Restaurant (James Sly), Rincon Brewery (Saul Santiago) and The Spot (Marcelino Bustillos)—landed at the top thanks to the preferences of voters at coastalview.com. And now the competition is really heating up. Next week’s final round will lead to the crowning of a burger champ, to be announced in the April 2 issue of CVN. Don’t forget to vote.
Second lawsuit filed against church, Bristol Victims from criminal case pursue civil case BY PETER DUGRÉ
In a lawsuit that mirrors one filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court on March 3, two additional plaintiffs allege that Carpinteria Community Church was negligent in its handling of former employee Louis Bristol, who was convicted in 2013 of sexually assaulting the two plaintiffs, who were 14 and 16 at the time of the crimes. Bristol was 28 when perpetrating the crimes. The new lawsuit, filed on March 10, also lists Presbytery of Santa Barbara, Synod of Southern California and Hawaii and Presbyterian Church USA, which are parent organizations of Carpinteria Community Church. Holiday Inn Express, where Bristol was employed as an assistant manager and where the crimes were committed, is listed as a defendant as well. The lawsuit alleges that while employed or representing the church Bristol groomed victims for sexual abuse or abused them “in course or scope of duties performed on behalf of all defendants.” The church and hotel had the opportunity to warn, train or educate the
plaintiffs but failed to do so, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit attempts to develop a pattern of cover-ups committed by the Presbyterian church dating back to at least 1984, when then intern pastor Jeff Peterson Davis was accused of sexual abuse at Santa Barbara Presbyterian Church but the complaint was never brought to the attention of law enforcement. Peterson Davis went on to several other churches and faced allegations from an additional five victims but was never prosecuted, according to the lawsuit. Santa Barbara law firm Nye, Peabody, Stirling, Hale & Miller is representing all three plaintiffs in the two lawsuits and has built a reputation for suing organizations that have harbored sexual predators. The firm has successfully sued both the Los Angeles Diocese of the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts of America on behalf of sexual abuse victims. The lawsuit alleges that the church had some prior knowledge of Bristol’s inappropriate relationship with a youth
group member in 2004—the plaintiff in the first lawsuit—and did not take proper action. Inaction led to Bristol’s ability to groom further victims as an agent of the church and leader of the high school age youth group. “Time and again the Presbyterian Defendants have had the opportunity to end the cycle of abuse by reporting perpetrators such as Bristol to law enforcement ...,” states the lawsuit. Attorney Tim Hale representing the plaintiffs said, “The defendants had the opportunity to stop Bristol in his tracks, and it didn’t happen.” Carpinteria Community Church released a statement regarding the suit: “We are aware of a civil suit filed against Carpinteria Community Church, the Presbytery of Santa Barbara and other defendants regarding Luis Bristol, who was previously on staff at Carpinteria Community Church. Mr. Bristol has been processed through the criminal justice system. The church has completely cooperated with law enforcement. We
can unequivocally state, contrary to the allegations in the lawsuit, that neither the Church nor the Presbytery had any knowledge of any inappropriate activity during Mr. Bristol’s employment. In keeping with the church’s commitment of providing safety for the congregation and the community, the allegations against Mr. Bristol were immediately reported to authorities. Due to the nature of these allegations and respect for the privacy of everyone involved, there will be no further statements made by the church at this time.” “Our hearts go out to all of those affected by this situation. We will be keeping them in prayer and invite the community to do so as well throughout this process,“ said Pastor Jarrett Johnson of the Carpinteria Community Church.
For further details, see “Community Church faces sexual abuse lawsuit,” CVN, page one, March 12.