According to the court papers filed under the Child Victims Act in New York State Supreme Court in Monroe County Monday, the church allowed and even encouraged multiple men with known histories of sexual abuse to serve on staff and look after girls in unsupervised settings.
The window to file cases under New York’s Child Victims Act, which allowed adults to file civil lawsuits for sexual abuse that occurred when they were under 18, closes on Aug. 14.
The three women are seeking judgments against Victory Baptist Church with compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial, according to the filings.
Victory Baptist Church, now operating under the name Victory Church, is now pastored by Alex True, who is not named in the lawsuits.
Between 2017 and 2021, both the church’s founding pastor, Joe Burress, and his son Paul Burress, who pastored the church in the mid-2010s and was known for combining spirituality and mixed martial arts, were charged with sexual abuse related to multiple allegations from women and girls.