PORTLAND - A lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks more than $120 million from the Mormon Church for 12 victims it says were molested as children by a church elder in the 1970s and 1980s.
Later damage claims could reach $12 billion.
The lawsuit seeks $10 million each for physical and emotional pain and dysfunction plus payment for psychological treatment and diminished earnings of at least $850,000 each.
It announces the intent of the plaintiffs to amend the suit to seek punitive damages of $1 billion each.
The 12 are identified only by initials in the lawsuit. Attorney David Slader, who filed the suit, said it involves the late Franklin Curtis, who was convicted of repeatedly abusing Jeremiah Scott when Scott was 11.
Scott was 22 last fall when he settled out of court against the church for $3 million.
"The abuses were mostly in the Portland area however some abuse occurred in other states and some of the victims now live in other states," Slader said. "But we're looking at a pattern that primarily took place in the state of Oregon. We're looking at the late 1970s and the early 1980s."
"Curtis' molestation of plaintiffs was malicious or the result of a reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm and a conscious indifference to the plaintiffs' health, safety and welfare," the suit charges.
It claims two plaintiffs, identified only as BB and SR, told their bishop that Curtis had molested them and that the bishop "responded by humiliating and shaming BB and SR and blaming them for the abuse."
"With respect to the litigation, the church absolutely denies it has any responsibility for the conduct of Franklin Curtis," said Steve English, an attorney who handles the church's legal matters in Oregon.
"Mr. Curtis was never more than a member of the church. He was never a member of the clergy and he never held any other position of leadership.
"Some of these men were never members of the church. These activities took place off church premises involving some kind of obviously inappropriate activity between Mr. Curtis and these young boys. The church condemns child abuse of any kind."