By AP/St. Louis Public Radio
COLUMBIA, Mo. –
A nonprofit group and a western Missouri church facing a civil lawsuit in a child sex abuse case have responded by suing the victim's parents.
The dueling lawsuits follow an October 2009 guilty plea by 58-year-old Michael J. Landy of St. Joseph to second-degree felony sodomy.
Landy was a regional director of OATS Inc., a statewide nonprofit that provides transportation for the elderly, rural residents and people with disabilities.
Landy was also a youth minister with the New Life Bible Church of Easton. His victim, now an adult, claims that some of the abuse occurred on property owned by the Columbia-based nonprofit.
OATS and the church responded by asking a Buchanan County Circuit Judge to hold the parents of the victim partially responsible. Their claim says the girl's parents breached their duty by negligently putting their daughter under Landy's supervision.