On April 13, 2023 a civil case was filed by G.M., and M., G., represented by Danesh, Simona, against First Congregational Church Of Los Guilicos, Kenwood Community Church, Northern California Nevada Conference, United Church Of Christ, United Church Of Christ, and United Church Of Christ Board, Inc., represented by Acain, Michael Paul, Crane, Alison Mcnaboe, and Rutman, Zachary David, in the jurisdiction of Sonoma County. Judge Pardo, Oscar A presiding.
Per the complaint document shown in Trellis:
Plaintiff G.M. (hereinafter, “Plaintiff”) is an adult who at all times relevant as herein alleged, resided in the County of Sonoma, State of California. Plaintiff is a victim of childhood sexual assault that occurred in the County of Sonoma, State of California. Plaintiff was born in 1986 and was a minor throughout the period of childhood sexual assault herein alleged.
The incidents of sexual assault, abuse, or misconduct occurred from approximately 1993 to 1996, when Plaintiff was around the age of seven (7) to ten (10) years old. As a victim of childhood sexual assault and/or sexual abuse, Plaintiff is entitled to protect her identity in this public court filing by not disclosing her full name.
FACTS COMMON TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION
Plaintiff, G.M., was the victim of unlawful childhood sexual assault and molestation and other misconduct by Caswell from approximately 1993 to 1996, when Plaintiff was around the age of seven (7) to ten (10) years old. At the time of Caswell’s repeated acts of sexual assault and sexual abuse against Plaintiff, Caswell was an adult male appointed by the Defendants to serve as a Pastor of Kenwood Community Church.
Plaintiff first came into contact with Caswell at Kenwood Community Church, where Caswell served as a Pastor, and where Plaintiff regularly attended religious services and other church related activities. Plaintiff attended Kenwood Community Church from a young age, and her family was integral in running fundraisers for the church.
Caswell used his position of authority, trust, and power granted by Kenwood Community Church to increase opportunities to be alone with Plaintiff to engage in behavior consistent with “grooming” for the purpose of committing continuous sexual assault and sexual abuse.
Caswell used his position as a Priest of Defendants’ Kenwood Community Church to manipulate Plaintiff into spending increased alone time with Caswell, on Defendants’ premises and at Defendants’ events. Caswell frequently followed Plaintiff into the changing room of Kenwood Community Church, pretending that Plaintiff needed help putting on costumes used for Kenwood Community Church activities or ceremonies. Caswell frequently called Plaintiff into Caswell’s office in Kenwood Community Church. Plaintiff often witnessed various young girls being brought into Caswell’s private office during her time attending Kenwood Community Church.
Plaintiff was approximately seven years old when Caswell began sexually assaulting, sexually abusing, and molesting Plaintiff. Several incidents of abuse occurred from around 1993 to 1996. Incidents occurred at Defendants’ Kenwood Community Church and during Defendants’ Kenwood Community Church activities and/or events.
Caswell’s acts of sexual abuse against Plaintiff included, but were not limited to, fondling of Plaintiff’s vagina, forcing Plaintiff to perform and receive oral sex, and attempting to digitally penetrate Plaintiff’s anus. Plaintiff is informed, believes, and thereupon alleges that Defendants’ priests, ministers, administrators, employees, and agents knew or should have known that Caswell was committing inappropriate behavior with minor children, including Plaintiff, as Caswell had minor children, including Plaintiff, in his private office at Kenwood Community Church for extended periods of time, alone and unsupervised, for no justifiable reason.
At all times relevant herein, Plaintiff was under the custody of Defendants, who assumed the care, custody, and control over Plaintiff’s safety and welfare. Consequently, Plaintiff was dependent on Defendants and their agents, including Caswell. Defendants, and each of them, accepted the entrustment of Plaintiff and had responsibility for, and authority over, Plaintiff. Accordingly, a special relationship existed between Plaintiff, then a minor, and Defendants. As a result, Defendants had a duty to protect Plaintiff by virtue of the special relationship between Plaintiff and Defendants.
Defendants, inclusive, also had the authority to exercise control over Caswell. Defendants appointed Caswell as a Priest of Defendants. Caswell was placed in a position where he served the parishioners, community, and closely associated with children, and remained under the direct supervision, employ, and control of Defendants.
Caswell’s position as a Priest signified to people that Caswell was in good standing and authorized by Defendants to act as an agent of Defendants.
While performing his duties as a Priest of Defendants, and for the purpose of furthering the duties required in that role, Caswell gained the trust and confidence of Kenwood Community Church members and those who attended Kenwood Community Church events, including Plaintiff.
It was by virtue of Caswell’s position as a Priest of Defendants that he met Plaintiff and established trust with Plaintiff. All the while, Caswell manipulated that trust gained by his position within Kenwood Community Church to groom, abuse, and sexually assault Plaintiff.
By granting Caswell a position within Defendants’ institutions, Defendants, and each of them, demanded and required that Plaintiff respect Caswell in his position as a Priest, spiritual advisor, confidant, counselor and mentor for Defendants.
Caswell portrayed himself to be a trustworthy mentor to condition Plaintiff to comply with Caswell’s direction. Caswell manipulated his powerful position leading Kenwood Community Church, to establish trust with Plaintiff. Caswell’s conduct constituted “grooming” of Plaintiff and culminated in his sexual assault and/or abuse of Plaintiff.
Caswell sexually assaulted and abused Plaintiff for his personal sexual gratification.
At seven (7) to ten (10) years old, Plaintiff was a minor during the entire period of abuse and Caswell was an adult during the entirety of the abuse period. Therefore, Plaintiff did not, and was unable to, consent to the sexual acts committed by Caswell.
Plaintiff is informed and believes, and thereon alleges that prior to and/or during each Caswell’s sexual assault against Plaintiff, Defendants, inclusive, knew, had reason to know, or were otherwise on notice of misconduct that created a risk of childhood sexual assault by Caswell for the following reasons, among others:
a) During Kenwood Community Church events, on Kenwood Community Church premises, and among other Kenwood Community Church members, Caswell took young children one-on-one, including Plaintiff, to his office at Kenwood Community Church, behind closed doors for extended period of time and for no justifiable reason.
b) Defendants knew or should have known that it was unnecessary and highly suspicious for Caswell to insist on children, including Plaintiff, to spend extended time alone in Caswell’s office, where he sexually assaulted Plaintiff.
c) During Kenwood Community Church events, on Kenwood Community Church premises, Caswell openly and frequently touched Plaintiff and other children inappropriately, including but not limited to, stroking Plaintiff’s hair, sitting Plaintiff on his lap and stroking her thighs, rubbing Plaintiff’s back, and picking up and carrying Plaintiff.
d) When Plaintiff would bend over to pick up things, Caswell would brush up close to Plaintiff and when Plaintiff would change into costumes, Caswell would insist on helping Plaintiff.
There was no justifiable reason for Caswell to touch Plaintiff and other children’s bodies, spend excessive time alone with individual children in his office behind closed doors, and insist on helping Plaintiff change clothes.
Despite such actual or constructive knowledge, Defendants, and each of them, failed to take reasonable steps or implement reasonable safeguards to avoid acts of childhood sexual assault by Caswell.
Plaintiff is informed and believes, and upon such information and belief, alleges that Defendants, inclusive, by and through their employees, agents, representatives, and/or staff, knew or should have known that Caswell was not fit to be employed in a position where he would necessarily come in contact with minors.
Sonoma County Superior Court Records indicate an Order Granting Motion for Summary Judgment took place on June 26, 2025. A summary judgement hearing is scheduled for August 13, 2025.
It appears that Kenwood Community Church Pastor Dwight Allan Caswell Jr. passed away on July 8, 2022. ‘Dwight’ is the only ‘Caswell’ referenced as a Parish Pastor on the Church’s history webpage.
The obituary stated:
May 20, 1944 — July 8, 2022 Dwight Allan Caswell Jr. was born May 20, 1944, in Washington, D.C., raised in Oregon and California, and died July 8 in Portland.
He carried God’s word with him in his heart with a desire to minister to all through his caring presence and, at times, in the official capacity of pastor. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University, and his master’s degree in theology and Ph.D. in ministry from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School.
He served as pastor to the Kenwood Community Church in Sonoma County, California, in the 1990s, and was still ministering to his beloved flock at Pioneer Presbyterian Church in Warrenton at the time of his death.
He gained a love of photography at a very early age, learning more of his chosen art from Wynn Bullock and Ansel Adams. He traveled far and wide photographing oceans, deserts, forests and mountains for the rest of his life.
He was the owner and director of a photography gallery in Saratoga, California, exhibiting his own work, along with both that of promising new photographers and well-established masters.
He insisted that he had a “low boredom threshold,” as his various activities and occupations attested to. He spent almost 15 years managing his family’s farm and vineyard, producing award-winning wines.
Having a deep love of the folk music of the 1960s, he started a folk festival in 1987 that ran until the late 1990s. He then became deeply involved with the Astoria Music Festival after relocating to Astoria in early 2000.
He loved sailing and fishing, spending more than 20 years sailing his Ericson 26 in San Francisco and Tomales bays. He had an abiding love for all God’s creation, and was deeply involved in conservation, preservation and land use issues his whole life, including acting as president of the Oregon Coast Alliance and Sonoma County Farmlands Group.
He also wrote throughout his life, with work ranging from practical information in sailing magazines, the wonders of the desert or ocean in the New Mexico and the Oregon Coast magazines, and what’s to do locally in The Astorian’s Coast Weekend.
At his death, he had several works in progress, variously based on Neolithic monuments and the shift of community surrounding them, historical fiction based on native and pioneer dynamics in the Northwest, and a compilation of his sermons as they followed the three-year cycle of church scripture. He also has an unpublished comical murder mystery.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Dwight Allan Caswell Sr. and Doris Helen Rayburn; and two brothers, Chris and John Caswell.
He is survived by his brother, Philip Caswell; sister, Mary Walsh; wife, Rhonda Grudenic; stepsons Nicholas, Michael and Galen Grudenic; and step-grandchildren, Eli and Leah Grudenic.
He loved well and was deeply loved.
Per an April 23, 205 article in The Press Democrat:
Mr. Caswell’s father, Dwight Allan Caswell Sr., was a microwave physicist and early Silicon Valley tech pioneer, who died April 12, 2015, shortly after taking ill at his Occidental home. He was 93.
The Eugene, Ore., native parlayed his research on microwave technology for the military and aerospace industries into one of the valley’s earliest technology firms, forming Cascade Research in a Los Gatos warehouse in 1953.
The company specialized in designing microwave devices made of ferrite, a high-resistance magnetic material that has many applications in the computer and communications industries.
“He came in on the ground floor of some cutting-edge technologies,” said his son, Philip Caswell. “It’s a super specialty.”
Caswell was born in 1921 into an academically accomplished family.
Both his parents were Stanford University graduates, and his father, Albert Caswell, was the dean of the physics department at University of Oregon, where Dwight Caswell earned his undergraduate degree in physics.
He met his wife, Helen, in high school, and they married right before the war when he was 21. They remained married for 72 years. Helen Caswell is an accomplished artist in Occidental, and they lived together in their home right up until his death.
“Unlike most obituaries that say ‘He was a devoted husband,’ he really was,” Philip Caswell said.
After joining the U.S. Navy, a chance visit with a family friend got Caswell reassigned to the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he worked on the development of sonar and hydroacoustics, critical technologies for submarine warfare.
After his service, he followed in his father’s footsteps and studied physics at Stanford, earning his master’s degree. He worked on an early version of Stanford’s linear accelerator. He considered completing his Ph.D., but with two kids and a third on the way, he figured he needed to earn a better living for his family.
So he went to work for the Hughes Aircraft Co. in Santa Monica, probably designing guidance systems, though he never really talked about his work much. He told his family simply that he made “gadgets,” Philip Caswell said.
After a few years, he decided to strike out on his own, something that sounds ambitious but which was almost expected of him.
“In that family, they were trained to believe you could do anything,” Philip Caswell said.
He chose to locate his new company in Silicon Valley in part because of its proximity to the area’s aerospace firms. He later sold Cascade Research and started another company, Caswell Electronics. During this period he experimented widely, patenting, among other things, the variable compression ratio piston for the internal combustion engine. But the company struggled and later went bankrupt.
The family moved from Saratoga to Occidental in the early 1980s, and because there wasn’t much of a local tech industry, he started a third company in Forestville, called Sonoma Scientific. An industry veteran at that point, Caswell partnered with a younger microwave engineer just as the field of mobile phone technology was emerging. Motorola had released its first handset and Caswell and his partner, who were working to supply Motorola with components for what were then brick-sized devices, “were terrifically excited about it,” Philip Caswell said.
“I didn’t really get it, and he said, ‘You have no idea! This is going to be biggest thing ever!’?” Philip Caswell said.
His father later sold out to his partners and retired, devoting his time to his family, hiking and his church, all of which meant a great deal to him. Unlike some scientists, Caswell never viewed his work as being at odds with his faith.
“My father always took the view that all science was a description of the wonders of creation,” Philip Caswell said.
In addition to his wife, Caswell is survived by four of his five children, Dwight Caswell of Astoria, Ore.; Philip Caswell of Occidental; Mary Caswell Walsh of Vallejo; and John Caswell of Turlock.
His son Chris Caswell, a noted Celtic harpist and luthier, died in 2013.
Mr. Caswell Jr.’s interest in photography in conjunction with allegations of child sex abuse is concerning due to the rising child pornography industry.
Why did The Press Democrat publish the obituary of Dwight Allan Caswell Sr., but make zero mention of his son’s alleged sexually predatory behavior? Why does local media continue to swipe potential sex offenses under the rug if they are not involved in protecting predators?
I am currently being sued by Sonoma Valley Boys & Girls Club for protecting over 40+ Latino children who were raped at the Club by former Athletic Director Paul ‘Dwayne’ Kilgore. Although the predator is serving 150 years in prison, the plaintiffs’ attorneys claim that I have made defamatory statements. Until Esquires Erin Carlstrom, Davin Bacho and Susannah Noble dismiss their fraudulent and frivolous lawsuit, I will continue to call out every single Sonoma County predator, and their entire bloodlines.
Sonoma Undocumented Child Raped at BGCSV, Deported & Unalived
As Sonoma County’s liberal politicians and constituents feign outrage over unwarranted deportation of undocumented individuals, the virtue signaling is vomit inducing.
