Supervisors at the Campbell United Methodist Church in Missouri had allegedly received complaints about Pastor David Finestead before the choir director told them about the inappropriate comments he was directing at her.
But when those complaints went unheeded and Teresa Norris decided to resign in March 1998, she claimed Finestead punched, raped and sodomized her in her parish office.
A jury began hearing Norris' claims in March 2005 in Greene County 31st Circuit Court, more than six years after she filed suit against Finestead and the Missouri West Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1999 over his alleged behavior.
No one ever reported the incidents to police because they were ashamed, says Norris' lawyer, Michael Fletcher, and Finestead was never criminally charged, which is one reason he was dropped from the suit in March 2005.
Instead, Norris sued the Missouri West Conference of the United Methodist Church for unspecified damages for failure to supervise an employee.
"We're going after the church for not doing anything, they could have prevented this," Fletcher told Courttv.com. "Finestead was uncontrollable, and the only one who could have controlled him was the church, his boss."
Finestead arrived in Campbell in 1995 after he was transferred from the Central Methodist United Church in Kansas City, Mo.
In his opening statement, Fletcher plotted dates of other alleged complaints on a chart going back to 1995, suggesting Finestead had been transferred as a result of them.
Jurors also heard from Norris, who calmly testified that, on more than one occasion before the alleged attack, Finestead attempted to engage her in conversations regarding "female problems" and her ability to "lose weight in all the right places."
She claimed he often subjected her to "prolonged gazing and staring at her breasts and other portions of her anatomy."
The plaintiff also described an uninvited and unwanted neck rub in which Finestead moved his hands down her chest toward her breasts.
The suit alleged the defendant received similar written and verbal complaints from other female parish staff members before the March 25, 1998, assault on Norris.
Two of those women testified during the trial that they told district superintendent Reverend James Ireland that Finestead "was dangerous" and "was going to hurt somebody."
In response, the church's attorney, Patrick McGrath, addressed each letter and verbal complaint in his openings and said none of them suggested Finestead was a rapist.
McGrath told jurors that the complaints were all considered to have been resolved and had no connection to the transfer.
"This is not a case of a sexual predator being moved from one church to another," said McGrath, adding that the church took immediate action after Norris reported the alleged rape more than two months later.
Finestead was removed from the Campbell United Methodist Church after the complaint and his minister credentials have been suspended.
Fletcher says his client underwent extensive psychological treatment and even attempted suicide since the alleged incidents.
The suit contends the defendants "ratified" Finestead's behavior by allowing him to continue working "after the creation of a hostile work environment" to the point where members of the staff parish were told their superiors "would not tolerate any complaints against Finestead and that Finestead had the full support" of the church hierarchy, according to the suit.
Lawyers for the defendants attempted to claim immunity from the intentional failure to supervise clergy allegation through the Doctrine of Church Autonomy in the U.S. Constitution.
In their response to the complaint, they also wrote that Norris failed to show that the church's sole intention through its conduct was to cause emotional distress to the plaintiff, and asked to dismiss her claims.
The defendants also called into question Norris' past history of mental illness and extra-marital affairs.
Norris' husband, Sid, also filed suit against the church for "the loss of companionship, society, comfort, assistance, family support, economic support and consortium of his wife" as a result of the defendant's conduct.
But after he admitted to having an extramarital affair in a pretrial deposition, his suit was dropped.
