A supervisor at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and School in Houston forced an employee to have sex with him at knifepoint multiple times, according to a demanda judicial filed recently in Harris County, Texas.

The employee, Jane Doe, claims her supervisor sexually assaulted and abused her for months and the church failed to respond to evidence of his inappropriate behavior. The majority of assaults allegedly happened behind closed doors in the supervisor’s office in 2021, the lawsuit said.

El Informe Roys (TRR) is not naming the former supervisor because he has not been charged with a crime. However, the Houston Police Department told local news outlet KPRC 2 that the Special Victims Division is currently investigating the case.

Jane Doe worked in the accounting department at the school for two years, the lawsuit states. After she was first hired, the supervisor allegedly told her that the school requires staff to take new employees to dinner and she should “wear a nice dress.”

When she arrived for dinner, only her supervisor was there at a table for two, the suit states. He reportedly had already purchased a $700 bottle of wine for them, using the school’s credit card.

After this, the man’s relationship with Doe continued to escalate with more inappropriate behavior, the suit states. On one occasion, he reportedly told Doe he had a “sex addiction.”

The supervisor then began to assault Doe, first groping her in his office and later forcing her to have sex at knifepoint multiple times, the suit states. He allegedly threatened her by saying she would lose her job if she did not comply. 

The lawsuit said Doe told no one of these incidents as she was “traumatized by the assaults and terrified of losing her job as a single mother.”

After two months of abuse, Doe reported her supervisor’s behavior to the school and church leaders, the suit alleges. They reportedly did not let him go until several weeks later.

When he was let go, the school did not conduct a sexual violence investigation, the suit says. Instead, the school reportedly investigated the supervisor’s mismanagement of school accounts. The lack of sexual violence investigation violated school insurance policies, the lawsuit claimed.

Sin embargo, en un Nov. 18 letter to the school community, Rev. Lisa Hunt, Rector at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, wrote that the former supervisor was “immediately” placed on a leave of absence when the church learned of the allegations. The letter added that the man resigned immediately after being questioned.

The letter also stated that school asked Doe if she wanted to report the allegations to police, but she declined to do so.

According to the lawsuit, the school found the supervisor had misappropriated tens of thousands of dollars, including using the school’s credit card to pay for “happy ending” massages.

Rev. Hunt’s letter similarly states that the school discovered “misuse of its credit card, which was reported to police.”

The lawsuit alleged that the school tried to use this information to release Doe from employment, questioning her qualifications for her role.

However, Hunt’s letter states that the school provided Doe “with pastoral care and support, as well as professional counseling,” and it claims that Doe resigned voluntarily to take another position.

Lawsuit claims school ignored “warning signs”

After news of Doe’s assaults came out, other coworkers shared there had been “long speculation” about the supervisor’s conduct, according to the lawsuit. Coworkers reportedly said he typically hired “beautiful brunette women” that were employed for no longer than six months.

“Despite the warning signs exhibited in (the supervisor’s) behavior long before Doe arrived at St. Stephen’s, he carried on his inappropriate and criminal acts without supervision or consequences,” the lawsuit said.

For Doe, the experience has resulted in a struggle with PTSD, according to the lawsuit.

“She just was in a state of shock and terror and disbelief that this was happening to her,” Doe’s attorney, Jessica Dent, told KPRC 2.

However, Doe now has a new job and hopes her story will empower other women, Dent said.

“There’s always a way for you to seek justice and perhaps change that and keep that from happening to someone else in the future,” Dent told KPRC 2. “The lawsuit is seeking accountability and hopefully change within the institution so that if something like this were to happen again, they would follow their own policies and procedures and they would handle that individual who is coming forward to them saying that she feels victimized with a little bit more thoughtfulness and care.”

Court records show that no answer to the lawsuit has been filed by either the former supervisor or the school.

Freelance journalist Liz Lykins escribe for WORLD Magazine, Christianity Today, Ministry Watch, and other publications.