A Texas pastor has been ordered to pay millions of dollars to a woman he met online after giving her a sexually transmitted disease.
A Harris County jury found Ralph Douglas West II, the assistant pastor at The Church Without Walls in Houston, liable for knowingly having herpes before he had an unprotected sexual tryst with a woman in 2018 and then lying about it afterward.
According to KPRC 2 Studios in Houston, West sought out the unidentified woman on Facebook, and the two soon had a rendezvous that resulted in sexual intercourse. According to the court documents and testimony, the woman almost immediately experienced physical symptoms consistent with genital herpes and consulted medical professionals who confirmed it.
After testing positive for the STD, the woman immediately knew the assistant pastor gave it to her because she said she had not had sex in over two years.
When the female victim confronted West, he initially lied and said he was not a carrier of herpes. However, she could confirm that he was the carrier through medical records. West later admitted that he got the disease from the mother of his children.
The jury found West guilty of battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraudulent concealment. The jury’s verdict included $1,450,000 in compensatory damages and another $1,000,000 in exemplary/punitive damages because the woman will have to live with the STD for the remainder of her life.
The woman’s attorney, Shaun Murphy, said the jury’s judgment relieved and vindicated his client. However, Murphy hastened to say that “you can’t fix it” because “she’s got it for the rest of her life.”
West is no longer listed on the megachurch website, but no one from the church has returned repeated inquiries for comment.
