Last week, Christian County judge Jessica L. Kruse ruled against motions made by Kanakuk Kamps and ACE Insurance Co. in a fraud case filed against them by sexual abuse survivor Andrew Summersett. Despite their arguments that Summersett’s claim was filed after the statute of limitations, the case will proceed.
Summersett is suing Kanakuk, ACE and other individual parties for fraudulent concealment and civil conspiracy related to sexual abuse he experienced as a child at the hands of Kanakuk camp counselor Pete Newman.
Newman was a serial offender during his tenure at Kanakuk and is currently serving two life sentences plus 30 years for sexual abuse against children.
This decision follows a contrasting decision made by another Christian County judge, Raymond M. Gross, in a lawsuit filed against Kanakuk and other relevant entities by Logan Yandell, who also was abused by Newman while at camp. Yandell’s case recently was dismissed for being “time-barred” and unable to “establish actionable fraud or conspiracy.”
However, an appeal of this decision was filed shortly after, so litigation in the case may still proceed.
Evidence in both cases shows defendants were aware of Newman’s tendency to abuse children as early as 1999, yet Newman was allowed access to children through leadership roles at camp. This led to the abuse of what attorneys believe may be hundreds of victims until his confession and arrest about a decade later.
According to other survivors who talked with BNG last year about their camp experiences, Kanakuk brushed abuse under the rug before Newman even came onto the scene, with some telling BNG that disclosing experiences of abuse to camp leadership did nothing to prevent further abuse.
