United Presbyterian Church in Plainfield, which is where the Elizabeth Presbytery is based out of.
NICK MUSCAVAGE/STAFF PHOTO
“We talked about what Heaven must be like, that Jesus is always there for us and we are never alone,” he wrote in the statement. “We would pray together during the sessions, usually at the end.”
During the next few sessions, Weaver began to introduce certain gemstones that he said were supposed to help sense the spirits clearer. Weaver told him the stones helped “ward off evil spirits,” according to his letter. Weist remembers feeling his tensions ease, and thought the sessions were helping.
“I was able to now have those memories and not get upset by them, so I thought it was all helping,” Weist said in the letter.
Then events took an unexpected turn.
Weist was set to marry his fiancée in February 2000 and he was struggling with his relationship with his mother, whom he said never fully supported the relationship. Weaver eventually presided over the wedding.
After the wedding, Weist’s meetings with Weaver took place either in the church office or Weaver’s home, where they met in the family room. Their talks became focused on Weist having to defend himself from evil spirits.
Weaver, according to Weist, would talk about old Native American rituals that were supposed to prevent evil spirits from harming him. Weaver instructed Weist to sit quietly with gemstones or magnets placed in his hands and on his head. Weaver would light candles “strategically placed” in the room. He told Weist the ritual was based on the Ephesians bible verse of the Full Armor of God.
'I just couldn’t face what had happened to me'
About a month later, in the spring of 2000, Weaver told Weist that in order for the ritual to be more effective, they had to go upstairs where he could lay down with more stones and candles.
“I felt uneasy, but I took his word that this was necessary,” Weist wrote in his statement. “It wasn’t long after that where I now had to have my shoes off with gemstones placed on my ankles, and my shirt off as well.”
Over the next few visits, Weaver informed Weist that he had suffered “hits” from the spirit world and they needed to be brought out through his semen by oral sex.
Weaver told Staunton he had to lay still, with the stones on and around him, and let the reverend "get it out."
“Feeling mortified was an understatement, but I didn’t want to say he was wrong, after he helped me to this point,” Weist said in his statement. “I was so confused and upset I remember praying to God please let me get this over with!”
The “hit” finally passed and Weaver repeated the Full Armor of God verse.
Weist returned the following week hoping that the worst was over, but Weaver told him he had suffered another hit.
“This time was different as the only way to get it fully out was for him to draw it out with his mouth,” Weist wrote in his statement. “I was so afraid and scared.”
I was so confused and upset I remember praying to God please let me get this over with!
William Weist, one of the men claiming to have been sexually abused by Weaver
Weist remembers screaming in his mind for God to help him.
“When it was over,” Weist said in his statement, “he showed me what looked to be a tiny metal ball and said that was what he got out of me.”
He said Weaver was able to take advantage of him because he was at such a low point in his life.
“I was so scared with everything that I was dealing with,” Weist said. “I just felt scared, it was very raw.”
When Weaver told Weist he had evil spirits inside him, Weist believed him and became even more frightened and panicked.
He remembers thinking: “I’m scared to death now there’s something else wrong with me. There’s something wrong with me that I can’t help. This is Biblical.”
But after a few more sessions, Weist stopped meeting with Weaver.
“I felt so small and worthless, like a piece of trash in the street,” Weist said. “I just couldn’t face what had happened to me.”
He trusted Weaver and saw him as a religious leader.
“This is a man of God,” Weist said.
The case against Weaver
On Oct. 8, 2018, members of the Elizabeth Presbytery's investigating committee wrote in official Presbytery charges that the Rev. William Weaver committed “multiple acts of idolatry and sexual misconduct” against three men.
The church charges claimed that in one of the counseling sessions, Weaver “professed” he was one-eighth Cree and had received “secret training” by Cree elders.
The Cree are one of the largest groups of first nation Native Americans in North America and mainly live in Canada. In the United States, the Cree have historically lived west of Lake Superior and today live mostly in Montana on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, which they share with the Ojibwe.
The Elizabeth Presbytery defines sexual misconduct as an abuse of authority and power, breaching Christian ethical principles by sexually misusing a trust relationship, according to the Presbytery's policy. It has no bearing on the more familiar secular courts where civil and criminal trials are held.
The Presbytery, in its policy, said sexual abuse occurs "whenever a person in a position of trust engages, with or without consent, in a sexual act or sexual contact with another person to whom s/he owes a professional and pastoral responsibility."
The church charges say Weaver used rose quartz, angel coins, buckeyes and a feather to remove small objects from victims’ nude bodies through bodily tissue, without bleeding or injury, to their *****es and “removed them by means of ejaculate induced by manual or oral stimulation.”
The church charges also claim that Weaver downloaded multiple videos from a pornographic website that caters to gay men to a church-owned computer in his office at the Linden Presbyterian Church in February 2018.
In addition to the three men who claim to have been victimized by Weaver, the charges list two other people Weaver counseled between 2001 and 2007 by removing the “hits” through their navels by using his mouth.
Inspired by spiritual healing?
Dr. Timothy Thomason, a licensed psychologist, professor at Northern Arizona University and a member of the Society of Indian Psychologists, has written many scholarly articles about counseling with Native Americans.
One of the main differences in modern medicine compared to cultural Native American medicine is that Native Americans, like many other cultures, believe illnesses can be caused by spirits and possession.
Inside the Watchung Reservation in Union County.
~FILE
In a 2008 research paper titled "Possession, Exorcism, and Psychotherapy," Thomason wrote, "Many Native American tribes believe in spirit possession, and healers often suck illness-causing spirit objects out of patients." The paper does not detail any sexual interaction. Thomason declined to be interviewed for this article.
A.J. Meeker, one of the three men who made allegations against the Linden Presbyterian minister, remembered that Weaver had said there were “individuals based around the Watchung Reservation” who were engaged in spiritual warfare to attack people with evil energy.
It’s unclear why Weaver believed there was a war against evil spirits in the Union County park bisected by Route 78. In the early 1970s, a 16-year-old Springfield girl named Jeannette DePalma was found dead at the Houdaille Quarry right outside of the Watchung Reservation. Newspapers began to run stories about occult symbols found near the murder scene.
That murder has never been solved.
A question of consent
Robert Fuggi, of the Fuggi Law Firm in Toms River, a lawyer who specializes in litigation brought by victims of sexual abuse, said he believes Weaver's alleged conduct could be viewed as criminal.
"If you look at the sexual abuse statutes, they talk about unlawful, unwanted, non-consensual contact, and certainly the argument would be that this pastor manipulated his position of authority," said Fuggi, who does not represent any of the men who claim to have been victimized by Weaver. "In the guise of practicing care and counseling to these individuals, he manipulated them for his own sexual purposes."
Fuggi said he believes the victims were "unwilling and unwitting" and "did not consensually engage in the sexual assaults, they consensually engaged in what they thought was a pastoral counseling session."
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