A former female youth pastor has filed a lawsuit against a San Jose church, claiming it ignored reports that another youth pastor sexually harassed her and abused girls in the youth ministry.

Dana Huang filed the civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of the State of California in Santa Clara County on July 29, citing retaliation and whistleblower protection. She is suing The New River Church Community Inc. and its parent organizations, Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church, and the Evangelical Covenant Church.

At the center of Huang’s lawsuit is 47-year-old former youth minister Brett Bymaster of San Jose and his employment with The River Church Community.

Bymaster isn’t named in the civil lawsuit, and the church distanced itself from Huang’s lawsuit telling The Mercury News, “We respectfully dispute many of the allegations and conclusions contained in the lawsuit, and look forward to the opportunity to defend ourselves in court.”

During Huang’s employment with the church, Bymaster subjected Huang and other youth church members to unwanted sexual harassment, abuse, and misconduct, the 21-page complaint alleges.

Huang started working as a youth minister in January 2017 under Bymaster’s supervision. She resigned after her complaints about Bymaster fell on deaf ears, the complaint states.

“Huang often felt her concerns were minimized invalidated, and not investigated,” the complaint states.

On March 19, 2021, Dr. Jean Cheng Gorman with the Pacific Southwest Conference agreed that an investigation into Bymaster’s actions was necessary, the complaint states.

Huang soon learned the church’s plan “was to keep the allegations and investigation internal and on a ‘need to know’ basis in fear of retaliation,” the complaint states.

Huang’s superiors maintained that Bymaster was “an influential and dominant youth pastor.”

“Despite the egregious conduct being reported by multiple youth community members at River Church, Huang felt efforts were being made to protect and validate Bymaster,” the complaint states.

Church leaders would chastise Huang saying Bymaster was her “spiritual parent” and she “had a lot to learn from him,” the complaint states.

Huang’s lawsuit includes a laundry list of complaints that were allegedly ignored by The River Church Community, including:

• In July 2017, during a mission trip to the Yakama Nation, Bymaster and his wife, Angie, allegedly encouraged everyone, including the youth members “to shower naked in communal showers at a public pool.”
• During the same year, Bymaster is accused of holding multiple private conversations with Huang about sexual topics where he divulged intimate details of his marital sex life and inquired into Huang’s personal sexual experiences.
• Bymaster reportedly made disparaging comments about women’s genitals and inquired about the frequency Huang and her husband engaged in sexual activities. He disguised the discussions as if they were mentoring conversations, the lawsuit says.
• During a youth mission trip during the summer of 2018, a female youth member was allegedly “slut shamed” by Bymaster. During the mission trip, Bymaster singled out the teen and criticized the teen for wearing a white shirt over her wet bathing suit, accusing her of exposing her breasts, the lawsuit said. Bymaster reportedly suggested that the female youth member needed to be careful with what she wore so as not to provide someone an invitation. Upon returning from the mission trip, the youth member attempted suicide.
• Bymaster allegedly made several inappropriate comments about Huang’s attire, particularly when she wore dresses and made comparisons between Huang’s physical appearance and Bymaster’s wife.
• During the drive to a restaurant, Bymaster reached over and slapped and squeezed a teen’s inner thigh, subsequently looking at her and smiling, the suit says.
• Bymaster would reportedly describe sexual acts in front of youth, engage in inappropriate touching and use scripture to justify physical or emotional abuse.

The River Church hired The Stier Group, as a third-party investigator to investigate the church’s youth ministry from 2014-2019 and “to explore the harm students and volunteers experienced during that time.”  

Youth Pastor Arrested

San Jose Police Internet Crimes Against Children/Child Exploitation Detail Task Force detectives opened an investigation into Bymaster and arrested him on April 11 on a complaint of sexual assault of a minor, according to a statement released by the San Jose Police Department.

The Mercury News reported the former youth minister was arraigned on six felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a girl between 2013 and 2019 and is free on $50,000 bail.

The alleged victim was 8 to 14 years old during the reported assaults, the newspaper reported.

Bymaster’s wife denied the allegations, and his attorney said the charges and lawsuit are to discredit and embarrass him, The Mercury News reported.

The newspaper reported Bymaster’s lawyers argue that some of the claims against Bymaster are missing important context. Some of his comments were part of a church-approved curriculum for promoting abstinence from sex and pornography, Bymaster’s lawyers say.

Bymaster resigned from the church to start a health clinic after a less than stellar job performance review in 2019, the lawsuit states.

Much to Huang’s chagrin, the complaint states River Church provided Bymaster approximately $250,000 to establish his own ministry.

Huang’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, the complaint states.

Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.