$30 Million Jury Verdict for Child Abuse Survivor Against Former Lutheran Pastor

For decades, a Western New York man carried the weight of childhood sexual abuse he had never disclosed to his family. The man, identified in court filings as 'LG-54,' was abused multiple times by Rev. Douglas D. Thore beginning when he was around 12 or 13 years old. Thore served as pastor of St. Nicodemus Evangelical Lutheran Church in Marilla, New York, from 1985 until his resignation in 2004.

Thore's departure from the church followed a confession to the local Lutheran bishop that he had engaged in sexual contact with two boys in the congregation more than a decade earlier. In resigning, he acknowledged abusing five teenage boys in Western New York and two additional victims in Washington state before coming to St. Nicodemus. He had previously sought treatment but was never prosecuted, largely because statutes of limitations had expired.

New York's Child Victims Act, enacted in 2019, reopened a window for survivors to bring civil claims regardless of when the abuse occurred. Amy C. Keller of Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria filed suit on behalf of LG-54 against Thore. At trial, the plaintiff testified about the long-term harm caused by the abuse, including the fact that he had kept the secret from his family until the litigation. He became emotional on the stand recounting his experience.

On September 29, 2022, the Erie County jury returned a verdict of $30 million: $15 million in compensatory damages for pain and suffering, and $15 million in punitive damages. Media outlets including Buffalo News and WGRZ reported the award as the largest Child Victims Act verdict in Western New York at the time.

A separate lawsuit filed by the plaintiff against St. Nicodemus, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Upstate New York Synod of the ELCA remained pending at the time of the verdict.