Gillispie Law Firm

06/16/2026

Some people walked out of a residential treatment program twenty or thirty years ago and have never told a single soul what happened to them inside.

Not a spouse. Not a sibling. Not a therapist they have trusted for years.

If that is you, here is something worth sitting with: the silence was never a flaw in your character. These places were built on control. The adults you would have reported to answered to the same boss as the person you would have reported. You were a teenager, labeled before anyone heard a word you said. Of course you stayed quiet. Staying quiet was how you survived it.

Waiting years or decades to talk about it is not rare. It is one of the most common responses there is. And the thing you have carried alone almost certainly happened to others in the same hallways.

This piece does not ask you to do anything. It just meets you where you are.
https://gillispielawfirm.com/blog/when-something-happened-at-a-residential-treatment-facility-and-you-never-told-anyone/

06/11/2026

For some survivors, the hardest part isn't naming what happened. It's naming where it happened.

When the church that raised you is the same place where you were harmed, the wound carries layers most people never see. The pastor you trusted. The pew your parents sat in. The hymns you grew up singing. The community that taught you what love and goodness were supposed to look like.

Survivors who have spoken publicly through the Guidepost Solutions report, through court testimony, and through years of investigative reporting have described this exact dislocation in their own words. The act itself was one injury. The loss of the faith community was another. The slow work of figuring out whether your faith and your wound can coexist is something many describe as taking decades.

This article isn't asking you to do anything. It isn't pushing toward any decision. It's a quiet read for anyone who has ever felt that strange grief of missing the place that hurt you, and wondering if anyone else has stood where you're standing.

You're not the first. Read what survivors have said.

https://gillispielawfirm.com/blog/when-your-faith-and-your-trauma-come-from-the-same-place-what-southern-baptist-abuse-survivors-often-experience/

06/09/2026

You were probably told this fight has narrow limits. That the only people who could ever answer for what happened to you were the individual who did it and maybe the local church.

That is not what the law actually says.

The Southern Baptist denomination operates at four levels. Local church. Local association. State convention. National convention. Every one of those levels is a potential avenue of accountability in a civil case under Arkansas law, depending on what the facts show.

The Guidepost Solutions report, commissioned by the SBC's own Executive Committee, documented findings that are now part of the public record.

Survivors and their attorneys can point to that report when they ask hard questions about what the institution knew and how it responded.

Arkansas law has also expanded the civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse. What was once barred may now be viable. The only way to know is to have someone qualified look at the facts of your case.

A confidential conversation costs you nothing. The decision stays yours.

Read the full breakdown of your rights and options here: https://gillispielawfirm.com/blog/southern-baptist-church-abuse-survivors-in-arkansas-your-legal-rights-and-options-explained/

06/05/2026

You were told you were the problem. That's why you were sent there. That's why nobody listened when you tried to say something was wrong.

Decades later, you're starting to put words to what actually happened inside those walls. And you're wondering if you're the only one.

You're not. Not even close.

For two decades, researchers, investigators, and courts have documented the same pattern across residential treatment facilities, ther**eutic boarding schools, and faith-based youth programs in state after state. Arkansas cases, including the Lord's Ranch litigation, reflect the same structural conditions that show up everywhere these programs operate. The isolation. The credibility suppression. The way reporting itself got turned into evidence against the kids who tried.

If you're a survivor finally naming what happened, or a parent whose child came home different and later said something that stopped you cold, this article is for you. No pressure. No clock. Just the validation that what you remember fits a pattern thousands of others remember too.

Read the full breakdown here: https://gillispielawfirm.com/blog/sexual-abuse-in-residential-treatment-facilities-a-documented-pattern-and-what-arkansas-cases-reflect/

06/03/2026

Most families call the first lawyer they find. Then they spend the next two years wondering if they made the right choice.

If you're considering a civil claim involving a residential treatment facility in Arkansas, the consultation belongs to you, not the firm. You're not auditioning. You're evaluating.

There are specific questions that reveal whether an attorney has actually handled this type of case or is learning on yours. There are clauses in the fee agreement worth reading slowly. There are things the firm should be doing in the first 90 days that you'll never see unless you know to ask.

This guide walks through all of it, written for parents and adult survivors who want operational clarity before they pick up the phone.

Read it before your first call.

https://gillispielawfirm.com/blog/residential-treatment-facility-sexual-abuse-claims-in-arkansas-what-families-should-know-before-hiring-an-attorney/

06/01/2026

You spent years asking yourself why you stayed quiet about what happened in that church.

The truth is, the silence was not a failure on your part. Researchers studying clergy abuse have been documenting the same pattern for decades. Survivors of church abuse are among the slowest to come forward of any group studied, and many wait twenty, thirty, even forty years. The tighter the church, the more spiritually significant the person who harmed you, the longer the silence tends to last.

If you grew up Assemblies of God, you already know why. The pastor was not just an adult. The church was not just a building. Speaking up did not just mean telling a secret. It meant risking everything that held your world together.

You were not on the wrong timeline. You were on the only one you could survive.

Read what the research shows about delayed disclosure in clergy abuse cases, and what it means for survivors from Assemblies of God churches.

https://gillispielawfirm.com/blog/why-survivors-of-clergy-sexual-abuse-often-wait-years-to-come-forward-and-what-that-means-for-assemblies-of-god-cases/

05/30/2026

The church may have known. And kept quiet anyway.

If you are a survivor of sexual abuse in a church setting, you already know that what happened to you was not just one person’s failure. In many cases, there were people in leadership who received complaints, saw warning signs, or quietly moved an offender to another role rather than removing him entirely.

Civil law has a specific remedy for that kind of institutional conduct. It is called punitive damages, and it exists for exactly this reason: to hold organizations accountable when their behavior goes beyond carelessness and crosses into deliberate choice.

This article breaks down what punitive damages are, what Arkansas law requires to pursue them, and why early legal consultation matters if you believe the institution that failed you knew more than it ever admitted.

If that describes your situation, read this before you decide your case is not worth pursuing.

https://gillispielawfirm.com/blog/what-are-punitive-damages-in-a-church-sexual-abuse-case-and-when-do-courts-award-them/

05/24/2026

If you or someone you know spent time at Lord’s Ranch in Warm Springs, Arkansas, this name may mean something to you.

Emmett A. Presley served as the Director of Social Services at Lord’s Ranch for more than two decades. He is now the prime defendant in multiple federal civil lawsuits filed by former residents who allege he used his position as their counselor to sexually abuse them as children.

The complaints describe specific tactics, specific victims, and a facility leadership that the plaintiffs allege was fully aware and did nothing.

One plaintiff lost both parents before arriving at the Ranch. According to the filed complaint, Presley told him that if he submitted to abuse, he would be allowed to call his grandmother. Then he pretended to dial.

If you were there, you deserve to know what the court record says. Read the full breakdown at the link.

https://gillispielawfirm.com/blog/emmett-presley-arkansas-state-university-faculty-member-and-lords-ranch-defendant/

05/22/2026

KATV is reporting on the civil lawsuit we filed this week on behalf of six women who allege they were sexually abused as children by Tony Waller, the former children's pastor at Refuge Church of the Assemblies of God in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

The Assemblies of God General Council told KATV it first became aware of the Waller situation in 2015. Our complaint alleges they were directly involved in handling the matter as early as 2004, when a hidden camera, a written list of n**e exercises, and direct reports of sexual assault were brought to church leadership. The evidence is in the complaint.

"They'll fight, they'll kick and scream, they'll deny, they'll explain away. But at the end of the day, there's no putting this cat back in the bag for Assemblies of God," said attorney Joshua Gillispie.

If you attended children's programs at Refuge Church, knew Tony Waller, or have information relevant to this case, please reach out to us confidentially. Speaking with an attorney does not obligate you to take any action.

Read the full KATV story here:

Six Arkansas women are suing an Assemblies of God church in Jonesboro, as well as state and national denomination leadership, alleging church leaders covered up

05/21/2026

KAIT8 is reporting on the civil lawsuit we filed yesterday on behalf of six women who allege they were sexually abused as children by children's pastor Tony Waller at Refuge Church of the Assemblies of God in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

The complaint alleges that church and denomination leadership were warned as early as 2000 and discovered direct evidence of abuse in 2004. Waller continued in his role for another decade. He is now serving a life sentence for child r**e.

If you attended children's programs at Refuge Church, knew Tony Waller, or have information relevant to this case, please reach out to us confidentially. Speaking with an attorney does not obligate you to take any action.

Read the full KAIT8 story here:

Six women filed a civil suit May 20 in Craighead County alleging church officials allowed children’s pastor Anthony “Tony” Waller to sexually abuse them despite warnings years earlier, the complaint says.