Alleged victim testifies she was raped by Harmony Jehovah’s Witnesses member
A 36-year-old autistic woman testified Monday, Jan. 13 that she was raped many times when she was a young girl by Shaun P. Sheffer, who was one of 14 Jehovah’s Witnesses members charged in 2023 with sexually assaulting minors by the state attorney general’s office.
Monday was the first day of a jury trial in Common Pleas Court where Sheffer, 46, of Harmony, is facing charges of rape, rape of a mentally disabled person, rape of a person under 13 years old, indecent assault of a person under 13, indecent assault of a person with a mental disability, indecent assault and corruption of minors.
“He abused me by raping me,” the woman said.
She said he raped her 30 to 50 times beginning when she was 4 years old and ending when she was 12.
After reviewing a transcript of her testimony at Sheffer’s preliminary hearing in July 2023, while under cross-examination, she said she testified that the rapes began when she was 7 or 8 and took place both 50 to 75 times and 30 to 50 times.
After reviewing the testimony she gave to a grand jury, she said she testified that she was raped 50 to 75 times.
The woman said most of the assaults took place in a bedroom in the basement of a childhood home, but one incident occurred in an upstairs bedroom and another at a swimming pool at the house.
She said Sheffer took her clothes off, held her down on a bed and put his hand over her mouth before raping her. She said other people were in other rooms of the house or outside when some of the incidents took place.
She said she didn’t know about sex, had never seen a man naked before the assaults began and didn’t understand what was happening to her.
She said Sheffer told her not to tell anyone, and she was too afraid to tell anyone before she told her mother and one of her brothers when she was 12. She said her mother didn’t believe her. She said she didn’t tell her father about the assaults because she was afraid of how he would react and that he wouldn’t believe her.
The woman said Sheffer stopped raping her after she told him she was starting to menstruate.
Stephen Chappel, an elder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Zelienople, said Sheffer met with him and another elder in 2016 and told them about the allegations being made against him because he was concerned about them hearing about it from other members. He said Sheffer said the allegations were not true.
He said he contacted the church’s legal department, but took no other action.
The trial resumes Tuesday.
