Kane County authorities say they’re unaware of anyone from Chapelstreet Church ever reporting potential child sex abuse involving a now-former youth leader who, along with the evangelical congregation and one of its top leaders, was recently sued by an accuser.
The lawsuit accused ex-youth leader Don Vanthournout of molesting two boys over the years.
Interim lead pastor Brian Coffey was accused in the lawsuit of knowing about at least some of Vanthournout’s alleged misconduct and doing nothing, allowing the sex abuse to perpetuate.
Members of the clergy, like teachers, are generally required under state law to tell authorities about actual or suspected instances of sexual or physical violence against minors. Not doing so could constitute a crime.
Neither Coffey nor other church officials would say whether anyone there reported Vanthournout to police.
But Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser said recently: “There were no allegations made by anyone that works at Chapelstreet Church, such as Brian Coffey, about Don Vanthournout” to the Kane County sheriff’s office or the state attorney’s office “that we have been able to find.”
Chapelstreet has four worship sites and is based in far west suburban Geneva, whose police department likewise “does not have any police reports/investigations related to the allegations made in this lawsuit, going back to 2008,” an official there said.
An official with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said: “We do not have a report of this person based on the information you provided to us.”
The megachurch, with thousands of congregants, previously released a statement saying:
“Chapelstreet Church takes this matter seriously, and remains committed to truth, transparency, and the safety of all individuals in its care. Chapelstreet Church has been named as a defendant in a recently filed lawsuit in Kane County, Illinois. The Church has been inappropriately included in this case, and it intends to vigorously defend itself through the legal process.
“The lawsuit centers on allegations of misconduct by an individual who, while a member of the congregation, was not acting on behalf of or under the authority of Chapelstreet Church. Out of respect for the ongoing legal proceedings and those involved, the Church will not be providing additional comment at this time.”
Pastors also told congregants during services after the lawsuit came to light that the church leadership team is working with “outside experts to ensure a careful and truthful evaluation of the facts.”
Church officials wouldn’t elaborate.
Vanthournout couldn’t be reached for comment.
The alleged misconduct occurred in the 1980s when Vanthournout was a young adult at a Baptist church in St. Charles and molested a boy who attended the congregation, according to the recent lawsuit.
In 2010, as an adult, that accuser attended Chapelstreet, where Vanthournout was by then serving as a youth leader. Concerned about the safety of children, the accuser told Coffey about the sexual abuse he suffered, the suit says.
The accuser “assumed Chapelstreet took appropriate measures to ensure the safety of the congregation’s children,” according to the suit.
But “between 2011 and 2018, Defendant Vanthournout” not only remained “a member of Defendant Chapelstreet,” the lawsuit says, he “held positions of leadership and authority within the church.”
During that same period, Vanthournout molested a boy whose parents were Christian missionaries based in Canada, the lawsuit states. The family stayed with Vanthournout and attended Chapelstreet while in the Chicago area.
That second accuser is the unnamed plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Though not mentioned in that case, Coffey’s brother Joe helps run another megachurch in Hudson, Ohio, and he, too, was once accused of ignoring claims of child sex abuse, with those allegations involving misconduct at an orphanage in the Philippines that was affiliated with his congregation.
An internal church investigation later concluded that “abuse likely occurred.”
“That means I made and ultimately led many of you to make the horrible mistake of discrediting an accuser,” Joe Coffey said in apologizing to his flock.
Another minister who once ran that now-shuttered orphanage, and was accused of misleading others about the abuse that may have transpired at the children’s home, preached at Chapelstreet in 2015 after that scandal erupted.