HOUSTON (BP) – The jury trial against Paul Pressler, the SBC and the SBC Executive Committee has been delayed until Oct. 16. Judge Ravi Sandill granted the request of plaintiff Gareld Duane Rollins on Thursday (May 5). The trial had been set for May 15.
Pressler, a former SBC Executive Committee member, former SBC first vice president (2002 and 2003) and former Texas legislator and judge, is being sued by Rollins. In the suit originally filed in October 2017, Rollins alleges Pressler raped him in 1980, when Rollins was 14 years old and attending a Bible study at Pressler’s church. According to the affidavit, Pressler continued to rape Rollins, “over the course of the next 24 years or so” as Rollins progressed into his 30s.
The case had been dismissed in 2018 on grounds that the statute of limitations had expired, but the Appellate Court ruled in 2021 that Rollins had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, thus modifying the statute of limitations for reporting the alleged abuse.
Rollins is seeking $1 million in damages.
The case also names Pressler’s wife, Nancy, Jared Woodfill, Woodfill Law Firm F/K/A Woodfill & Pressler, L.L.P., and First Baptist Church of Houston as defendants.
