Hawaii Woman Sues Salvation Army, Claims Sex Abuse

A woman is suing the Salvation Army, claiming the organization moved a minister from Oahu to Maui after she reported he sexually abused her in the 1950s.

Nancy Spencer’s lawsuit filed on Maui this week claims she was 11 when Maj. Richard Taba molested her. She says her mother told the Salvation Army what happened and believed he had been terminated. But Spencer read in Taba’s obituary last year that he continued to serve as the Salvation Army’s chaplain on Maui for 40 years.

A Salvation Army spokeswoman in California said Thursday the organization will try its best to investigate the allegations.

The lawsuit is possible because of a 2012 state law that suspends the statute of limitations for sex abuse cases until April 2014.