Two Romanian men have filed lawsuits accusing a former pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, of sexually abusing and trafficking children at a shelter he operated in Bucharest for nearly a decade. The lawsuits also name Harvest and its prominent pastor Greg Laurie for alleged negligence in failing to prevent the abuse.
The complaints filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in California by Marian Barbu, 33, and Mihai-Constantin Petcu, 40, allege that Paul Havsgaard, a former Harvest missionary and pastor, subjected them and dozens of other children to severe abuse at the shelter.
First reported by La Prensa Asociada, the lawsuits claim Havsgaard lured vulnerable street children with promises of fast food, shelter, and education, only to subject them to “a torture chamber.”
Havsgaard, El cristianismo hoy primero disclosed, was listado on an archived Harvest staff web page in 2001, but his name was gone by spring of 2002. The magazine said he first went to Romania in 1998, but by 2002, reports of abuse were already surfacing.
According to the complaints, the men are “hurt, angry and still suffering from PTSD and social difficulties,” said Jef McAllister, a London-based lawyer representing Barbu and Petcu.
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El Informe Roys (TRR) does not name individuals who claim to be victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Barbu and Petcu have.
The allegations detail a pattern of abuse at the shelter, described by Barbu as “a torture chamber inside a prison.” The lawsuits claim Havsgaard regularly appeared in the bathroom while boys were showering or undressed, staring at them or masturbating in their presence.
Both plaintiffs accuse Havsgaard of “pimping out” older boys for sex work via video chats or at bathhouses, taking a cut of their earnings. The complaints further allege physical abuse, including forcing children to kneel on walnut shells or tying them to beds or radiators.
According to the lawsuits, Havsgaard justified his actions by telling the children, “I know what God wants; what I want, God wants.”
Responding to a comment request from TRR, a Harvest Christian Fellowship, via a spokesperson, called the allegations “serious and disturbing” but argued that the lawsuits wrongly target the church and Laurie.
The church stated, “This misplaced lawsuit wrongly targets Harvest and our pastor as a form of financial extortion. It does not seek the truth, nor does it seek to stop the purported wrongdoer.”
Harvest further asserted that “most of what is in the lawsuits about our church is absolutely and entirely false; some of it is plainly slanderous.”
The lawsuits accuse greg laurie and other church leaders of failing to supervise Havsgaard despite repeated red flags raised by donors, visitors, and others who suspected abuse and observed poor living conditions at the shelter.
According to the complaints, the church deposited $17,000 monthly into Havsgaard’s personal bank account. The church also allowed him to return to California with some of the children, using his work with street children in Romania to raise funds for Harvest, the lawsuits state.
Harvest acknowledged it provided financial support to Havsgaard’s initiative “for a period of time,” as it has supported numerous missionaries worldwide. However, the church emphasized that the Romanian organization was separate from Harvest, accusing the plaintiffs of misrepresenting the shelter as part of the church.
“Yet, on countless occasions, the lawsuit’s authors mislabel the very name of the foreign organization to give the misimpression that it was one and the same as Harvest. It was not,” the spokesperson said.
The church stated it has attempted to engage with the plaintiffs and reported the allegations to law enforcement but claimed the men and their lawyer have refused to cooperate with U.S. authorities.
“It is telling that, even though they are making criminal allegations against the perpetrator, the alleged victims have refused to even grant voluntary interviews with law enforcement in the United States,” the Harvest spokesperson added.
McAllister, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, told the news agency he expects to file additional lawsuits in the coming weeks on behalf of at least 20 others who claim they were abused at the shelter.
“Some of them are still illiterate even though they lived in these homes where they were supposed to get an education,” he said. “They have issues with trust. They look after each other.”
Most of the alleged victims live in poverty and seek financial help and vindication, McAllister noted. He added, “They’ve had a hard slog. They would really like to get some sense that they’ve been heard and that the injustices they’ve suffered are recognized.”
Harvest said it intends to “vigorously defend” against the claims in court, citing its belief in God’s Word and referencing Scriptures such as 1 Peter 2:23 and Matthew 5:11, which speak of entrusting oneself to God and enduring false accusations.
Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the Correo de Nueva York and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for el tiempo de washington. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.
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16 Responses
“the men and their lawyer have refused to cooperate with U.S. authorities.”, never a good sign that they any real evidence to stand on. The police in both countries should have been involved first, not reading about it on the internet.
If no one helped you as a child, why would you trust anyone as an adult?
“The church stated it has attempted to engage with the plaintiffs and reported the allegations to law enforcement but claimed the men and their lawyer have refused to cooperate with U.S. authorities.”
First of all, the church shouldn’t try to engage with the victims.
Ruth, what do you suggest the church do, just sit on their knowledge of disturbing but unsubstantiated allegations regarding a former staffer and supported missionary, and wait to be sued?
Piénsalo.
I TOO was abused by my own father when I was a child, but how can I prove it? I’m thankful that God took care ot if. One day when I had just turned 15, I raised my shaking hands to heaven, and with tears streaming down my face, prayed, “God, help.” Think what you want, but 10 days later, I wondered why my father didn’t come to my bedside and molest me. I climbed the stairs, hearing his alarm still going off. My 38 yo father had died in his sleep of a blood clot in his aorta.
Very true. And it seems many authors keep misrepresenting Paul as current pastor while in Romania. When I’ve read he left harvest in the 80s to be a senior pastor at Calvary Chapel Victorville. Many evil exists in this world, Greg Laurie is not one of those evil ones.
I keep re-reading article, where does it say he is current pastor, everything points to 2001 and prior while on staff? Just trying to clarify what I read or missed.
It happened while he was employed at harvest. Leaving your position doesn’t exonerate you from what you did while working there
Not an evil one? Really? Serving himself, his fame and Mammon? Too greedy to even give some water to these who were harmed Narcissist serving himself and acting like a goat. He could settle out of court and help these people, but will he?
Ralph, suspend your default prejudice against evangelical leaders long enough to read the article beyond the click-inducing headline. Then, maybe go read the AP and CT reports it links to and looks like it was probably cribbed from, both of which contain details and context that are missing here. Then, get back to us to pronounce definitive judgment about disputed matters.
Going forward, and as others have mentioned within this web site. Churches and Faith bodies that wish to carry out community services, whether domestically or more broadly, must always include within their budgets, monthly expenses and general funding. Proper due diligence of all staffing and volunteers and the ongoing training and service practices that entails ethical codes of conduct for ALL staff & volunteers.
If financial funding cannot, or will not, be allocated for sound vetting & recruitment plus ongoing accountability and training for the purpose of providing competent and ethical service. Then a community service or ministry – whatever shape or form it may be – must not even be considered, let alone undertaken.
Love and duty of care demand proper policies, systems and regulations.
Greg L. needs to launch a 3rd party investigation as these are very serious & heinous crimes against children! He & his church should have been more attentive! Now your named, so clear your name & help these victims get justice, healing etc. Help their lawyers get justice for the victims!
It seems that churches and the Church have been taken over, at least in the Western world, by lawyers first and then pastors. Whether the charges leveled by the alleged victims are true or not or somewhere in-between, the first response of a confident organization would be “please help us understand more of what you are saying.” The Christian churches do seem to have a problem with vetting their shepherds. That’s obviously real, whatever the case is at Harvest.
Greg, this is fair and rings true to the worst problems in my church’s denomination, as well as to this still-unfolding story regarding Harvest and that church’s response, be it them or their lawyers or their apparently hired PR firm. Taken by itself, your comment here is also a depressingly rare and welcome example of clear-headed, non-prejudicial, above-the-fray analysis seldom seen in online media comment sections.
I didn’t see this story until today, and my first thought was I would have expected to have seen this story on the Roy’s Report. Not sure how I missed this piece since it was published over a week ago. As terrible as these reports are, keep up the good work! I sincerely, appreciate all the hard work you and your organization are doing to be salt and light in an increasingly dark world.
Ally Carter was right. And this will lead to GL himself