Portland Tribune | By Anna Del Savio | February 27, 2023
A judge has refused Mercy Corps’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the international relief charity by the daughter of its co-founder.
Tania Culver Humphrey said that her father, Ellsworth Culver, sexually abused her for years, and that Mercy Corps leaders were informed of the abuse but allowed Culver to remain in his role at the nonprofit.
Humphrey’s allegations were first made public in a 2019 Oregonian investigation, which led to the resignations of multiple Mercy Corps leaders.
In September 2022, Humphrey filed a lawsuit against Mercy Corps, alleging that Mercy Corps’ own investigation, which it began after Humphrey’s story was made public, was done solely “to minimize executive misconduct, to neutralize witnesses, and to rebuild public trust based on false pretenses.”
Humphrey’s lawsuit alleges Mercy Corps, through its top officials and hired investigators, intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Humphrey through its investigation.
Mercy Corps motioned to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that Humphrey’s lawsuit did not contain facts demonstrating the Mercy Corps intended to inflict emotional distress or acted outside of “socially tolerable behavior.”
In February, a judge dismissed Mercy Corps’ motion to dismiss, meaning the case will continue.
“I tried to step forward quietly, but Mercy Corps did not respond to me,” Humphrey said in a statement through her attorney. “It was scary to stand up publicly and say things aren’t ok, that what happened to me during this last Mercy Corps investigation was terribly traumatic, and it mattered, and it shouldn’t happen to anyone else ever again.”
Humphrey participated in more than 100 hours of interviews and provided journals and documentation for Mercy Corps investigation, according to the lawsuit. Beyond the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, Humphrey alleged she was also trafficked and abused by other Mercy Corps affiliates and witnessed the abuse of other children. Humphrey’s attorneys wrote that Mercy Corps’ investigation caused additional trauma and stress for Humphrey, only for the investigative report to downplay or ignore abuse by other Mercy Corps staff and affiliates.
“By once again denying responsibility, Mercy Corps seems to want us to publicly reveal the identities of its board members, staff, donors and powerful affiliates that engaged in systemic child rape,” Kim Sordyl, one of Humphrey’s attorneys, said. “It appears that Mercy Corps wants us to publicly name those who enabled the rapists and buried the truth. By dragging Ms. Culver Humphrey through litigation, they will be exposed.”
As the lawsuit continues, Mercy Corps “will reinforce our disagreement with the complaint’s characterizations of the intentions and conduct of Mercy Corps leadership and team members throughout the course of Freeh Group’s independent investigation, conducted at Ms. Culver Humphrey’s request and with her cooperation throughout the process,” the organization said in a statement provided by communications director Lynn Hector.
“We remain grateful to Ms. Culver Humphrey for her bravery in coming forward regarding the horrific abuse she suffered as a child, and we strongly support her efforts to seek justice and accountability for the abuse she suffered. Our motion to dismiss the claim made against us was not intended to detract from those efforts in any way,” Mercy Corps said in the statement. “We have and will always accept full organizational responsibility for Mercy Corps’ failures, both in the early 1990s and in 2018, when abuse was reported to leaders of the organization.”
Michael Fuller, another of Humphrey’s attorneys, said her legal team intends “to begin deposing witnesses in the coming months.”
“I want so badly a chance to just heal,” Humphrey said. “I am so tired of having to be vulnerable, exposed in front of so many just to speak the truth and seek justice… What Mercy Corps did to me during that investigation was awful, and no victim who comes forward should have to go through this.”
