Three men have filed federal lawsuits claiming they were sexually abused and trafficked by a former Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor, Paul Havsgaard, while living in the now-defunct church-run children’s homes in Romania. The filings also accuse the church’s founder, Greg Laurie, and missions pastor Richard Schutte of negligence in failing to prevent the abuse and covering it up for 20 years.
The lawsuits were filed Tuesday and Thursday in the United States District Court for the Central District of California by Marian Barbu, 33, Mihai-Constantin Petcu, 40, and Cristian Aeroaiei, 36.
A Harvest Christian Fellowship spokesperson told The Christian Post in response to the lawsuits that the allegations are “serious and disturbing,” but denied that the church knowingly covered up the alleged sexual abuse. The spokesperson said that since being contacted by the representatives of the alleged victims, Harvest Riverside has reported the case to law enforcement and plans to cooperate with authorities in the investigation. Harvest also sees the lawsuits as a “form of financial extortion” and expects to “vigorously defend against these claims” in the courts of law.
The lawsuits, filed by attorney Jan Cervenka of McAllister Olivarius, allege in stark detail how Havsgaard recruited the plaintiffs as children off the streets of Bucharest with McDonald’s meals and the promise of shelter in a Harvest Home where they would be fed, clothed and educated. Other survivors interviewed as part of the lawsuits claim Havsgaard even dangled the idea of them escaping Romania through adoption by American families.
Instead of receiving hope, these men allege Havsgaard left them with a lifetime of trauma. Other survivors report developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, drug addiction and being functionally illiterate.
The men claim they were groomed into a life of sadistic sexual torture and abuse for years before being thrown back on the streets into a life of penury when the homes, which Havsgaard first began operating in 1998, were quietly shuttered in 2008, some four years after an investigation by Harvest Christian Fellowship officially confirmed the abuse at the insistence of concerned missionaries, according to the lawsuit.
Havsgaard’s alleged abuse included digital penetration, oral and anal sex, pornography consumption and trafficking of children to third parties.
“Being a child at Harvest Homes was the opposite of the settled, supportive home life Defendants advertised: it was a cruel and hypocritical jungle that taught the way to survive was to give sex to Havsgaard, and to lie. But the alternative, the children knew, would be awful: living on the street, sleeping on newspapers, dirty, always hungry, fearful, vulnerable to violence and even death,” the lawsuits read.
The men are now seeking damages for multiple forms of alleged negligence by the defendants in California in supervising and operating the children’s homes, intentional infliction of emotional distress, sex-trafficking and conspiracy.
Havsgaard could not be reached by telephone or email for comment on the lawsuits on Thursday.
McAllister Olivarius, an international law firm headquartered in both London and New York, which is representing the men, said in a statement to The Christian Post that “at least 20 other survivors are intending to file similar complaints in the coming weeks.”
The complaints allege that Laurie selected Havsgaard to run Harvest Homes in Romania due to their close relationship running Harvest Christian Fellowship, where he assumed the role of assistant pastor in charge of children’s ministry at Harvest Riverside in 1976. In the early 1980s, he left Harvest to become senior pastor at the Calvary Chapel of the High Desert in Victorville, California.
In 1998, according to the lawsuits, Havsgaard first traveled to Romania with Samaritan’s Purse to distribute shoeboxes of gifts to children in Bucharest on behalf of Harvest Christian Fellowship. He went on to suggest to Laurie after that first trip that the church set up a permanent mission in the country. Laurie approved it, according to the suit.
In his 74-page filing, Mihai-Constantin Petcu alleges he was abused by Havsgaard from 2000 through 2008, when he was 14 to 23 years old, on many occasions. He also claims he was sexually trafficked by Havsgaard.
In his 77-page filing, Marian Barbu alleges he was sexually abused by Havsgaard on many occasions from 2000 to 2008, from the ages of 8 to 16. He explains that his mother died when he was 5. His father, who was an alcoholic, died when he was 15, but had been “unable to care for him properly” before that.
After finding him living alone on the street when he was just 8, police took him to Havsgaard because he was “acutely vulnerable, desperate for food, shelter and stability.”
The lawsuit alleges Barbu tried to end his life multiple times because of the abuse until he was eventually kicked out of the home.
“Marian lived in constant fear of sexual abuse by Havsgaard, and believed that at any moment, Havsgaard would escalate the abuse to rape. He felt that he was living in a torture chamber inside a prison,” the lawsuit states.
Barbu’s complaint, which includes images of physical scars, says that around 2008, when he was 16, he accidentally broke a window while trying to fix it and cut tendons on his wrist.
“Havsgaard, believing that Marian was too troublesome, kicked him out of the homes and threw him onto the streets,” the lawsuit alleges.
Barbu is described in the lawsuit as “functionally illiterate” because he was not educated during the time he spent at the Harvest Homes.
In his complaint, Christian Aeroaiei alleges that Havsgaard sexually abused him “on many occasions” at the Harvest Homes from 2000, when he was 10, until 2007, when he turned 17.
He alleges that he was stripped and spanked by Havsgaard, who would grope his genitals and massage his anus during punishments, which appeared to sexually arouse the former Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor.
Aeroaiei, who was born in Bucharest, said he lived with his parents and brother until he was 8 years old. He ran away to escape his abusive father in 2000. He said that soon after he arrived at the Harvest Homes, Havsgaard began sexually exploiting him under the pretense of punishing him for misbehaving. He also described witnessing other children at the homes being sexually abused by Havsgaard.
Aeroaiei’s lawsuit alleges that because of the abuse he suffered at the Harvest Homes, he has “lost faith in Jesus, God, and all religion.”
“Cristian continues to exhibit symptoms from his time at Harvest. He struggles with significant depression and severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He struggles to sleep at night and has recurring nightmares. At times, he wakes up shaking with fear because of anxiety,” the complaint states.
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