Former First Baptist deacon, in prison for child molestation, wants to keep his abuses secret

A lawyer for one of Columbia’s most notorious child molesters told a state judge Monday that his client, convicted pedophile John Hubner, doesn’t want three now-sealed civil lawsuits detailing his alleged abuses made public.

“What this is all about is money!” Hubner’s lawyer, Karl Brehmer, told Circuit Court Judge DeAndrea Benjamin.

Brehmer argued Benjamin should disregard a request by attorney John Simmons to unseal the records because Simmons might stand to make money from the records.

Hubner, 69, was convicted in 2002 in Richland County of performing lewd acts on a child while he was deacon at Columbia’s First Baptist Church. He now is serving a 36-year prison sentence.

Three civil lawsuits subsequently were filed against Hubner, First Baptist and its longtime pastor, Wendell Estep, in the early 2000s. Those lawsuits were settled in 2004 and sealed by an unknown judge. The sealed settlements are in the custody of the Richland County clerk of court’s office.

Simmons, a Columbia lawyer, hopes to get Benjamin to open the three lawsuits to help in another suit that he has filed. In that case, Simmons represents a minor child and his parents who have brought a sex-abuse lawsuit against First Baptist, Estep and a former church youth volunteer mentor, Andrew McCraw.

The new lawsuit does not involve Hubner, Simmons told Benjamin at a hearing Monday. But, since the new suit seeks to prove First Baptist has a long-standing practice of covering up child sex-abuses cases, the old lawsuits may shed light on that issue, Simmons told the judge.

Lawyers for First Baptist, Estep and the victims in the three sealed lawsuits told Benjamin they don’t object to opening the lawsuits.

All the parties agreed the victims’ names and any other identifying information would be edited out of any documents made public.

A First Baptist statement said the church has nothing to hide and does not think anything in the old lawsuits has any bearing on Simmons’ current case.

But Brehmer said one judge shouldn’t overturn an order — in this case, a secrecy order — issued by another judge.

Simmons said the court records should be open. “These are public proceedings, and all these records should be public.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 7:11 PM with the headline "Former First Baptist deacon, in prison for child molestation, wants to keep his abuses secret."