At a news conference on Monday in Manhattan announcing the upcoming lawsuits against the church, the alleged abuse survivors’ lawyers, Irwin Zalkin, right, and local counsel Michael Barasch, left, describe the allegations of sexual abuse and the alleged negligence by the church. Photo: Jason Grant/ALM

Two ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses detailed years of alleged sexual abuse by church elders Monday at a news conference in Manhattan, as their lawyers stood next to them and outlined lawsuits that they plan to file against governing church leadership on Wednesday, when New York’s Child Victims Act is scheduled to take effect.

One of the allegedly abused, Heather Steele, now 48, told a large throng of media gathered at the news conference organized by her New York lawyer, Irwin Zalkin, that “we waited for years to get that [law] passed, and I’m very, very glad [we did] get that passed.”

The law allows sex abuse victims to launch civil cases until age 55, when previously they had been limited to age 23 for suing alleged perpetrators and to age 21 for suing related institutional defendants. And so the law will directly allow both alleged victims to file their suits.

Heather Steele and Michael Ewing as children. Photo courtesy of Butler Associates

Their complaint documents, one to be filed by Steele and the other by alleged victim John Ewing, details years of alleged abuse from the 1970s and 1980s that include alleged rape, oral sex, fondling, grooming and psychological coercion in which congregation “elders” abusing the then-minors used scripture to convince the victims that what was happening to them was OK. (Drafts of the unfiled complaints, both to be lodged in Brooklyn Supreme Court, were handed out to reporters Monday at the news conference.)

Ewing, also now 48, told a packed room of reporters and camera-people that his alleged abuse began when he was 14, when an elder who was a Ministerial Servant, an appointed position similar to a Deacon in the Catholic Church, would spend 80 hours a month with him helping him supposedly “move forward” in the religion and become “closer to God.”

Ewing was raised in the religion in Florida, he said, attending the Coral Springs East Congregation, and soon his alleged abuser began “grooming” him by showing him Victoria Secret catalogs, then later pornography.

Then, after some nine months went by, he said, he was coerced into “performing fellatio,” which over the years, he said, he had to do “hundreds of times.”

“There were a couple other occasions where it got more serious [sexually] than that,” he added.

For decades after the abuse, he said, he was lost, using drugs and becoming a “bad husband” and “not the best” father. Eventually, he divorced and later his second wife had him go to counseling for the first time in his life.

Only in recent years has he gained enough insight and awareness to enable him to bring the lawsuit, he said.

He added that he firmly believes abuse like he suffered continues today in the church, and that the high-ranking leadership never reported his abuse to the authorities.

“All these years I’ve been fighting with this,” Ewing said of the abuse’s mental aftermath, adding, “It’s scary how much of this is going on throughout this organization, and is just pushed aside.”

Although he was removed from the Jehovah’s Witnesses years ago by leadership, after he complained of the abuse, he said, he still considers himself a follower of the religion, even today, because it is the religious “structure” he has known his whole life.

Steele, who was raised in New York, said that her family was immersed in the religion since before she was born. On Monday, she spoke emotionally and often in soft tones about being abused by long-time church elder, Donald Nicholson, since “I was still in diapers,” she said, as a young child.

Nicholson was eventually convicted for his abuse, but was released from New York prison after serving three and a half years, a period that Steele now says was too short.

Steele said that eventually she was raped, at about age 10, but for many years did not know what was going on was wrong. But there came a time when “I accidentally told my mom.” She had the good fortune of having a police officer father, she said, which helped in getting Nicolson put to justice, given that church leadership at first kept the abuse and scandal private.

The lawsuits name eight members of the Governing Body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other Jehovah’s Witnesses entities as defendants. The Governing Body is the equivalent to the Pope within the Catholic Church and establishes all the policies, including those dealing with child sexual abuse reports, that govern decisions by elders and leadership worldwide, according to Zalkin of the Zalkin Law Firm.

Zalkin also said Monday that the eight-member leadership body has for years maintained a database of church sex offenders that it has kept sealed away, despite discovery orders in other suits.

The Steele and Ewing lawsuits allege negligent failure to warn and train and other negligence claims against defendants, as well as civil sexual assault and battery claims against the actual alleged abusers.

The World Headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is in Tuxedo Park and was in Brooklyn for years.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses organization declined to comment Monday. Attempts to find a contact for Nicholson were not successful.

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, a separate entity named in the lawsuits, said in a statement, “Out of respect for the judicial process and the privacy of those involved, Watchtower does not comment on the details of pending litigation. Watchtower’s stand on the subject of child abuse is very clear: we abhor child abuse in any form. Over the years, Watchtower’s publications have addressed this topic with a view to equipping parents to protect their children. In addition, Watchtower’s practice is to always follow the law, and we support the efforts of elders in congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses to do the same.”

The Zalkin Law Firm has filed 24 lawsuits around the country on behalf of childhood sexual abuse survivors against the Jehovah Witnesses, the firm said.