Judge gives Kanakuk, sex abuse victim's lawyers, deadline to set trial date

U. S. District Court Judge A. Joe Fish has given attorneys representing Branson-based Kanakuk and its CEO Joe White and the sex abuse victim who is suing them a deadline of next Thursday, March 8, to set a trial date that will work for both sides.

In the order, which was issued Friday, Judge Fish said if the two sides are unable to agree on a date, they should submit a list of dates that are not convenient and an explanation of why those dates would not work.

The trial had originally been scheduled to begin in June 2013, in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, but attorneys for Kanakuk and White said that would be inconvenient because many of the witnesses would be Kanakuk officials who would be needed to run their camps and because the lead lawyer has a vacation scheduled. The Kanakuk attorneys asked for an August 2013 trial date.

Attorneys for the Texas, who was one of the many sex abuse victims of former Camp Director Pete Newman, said the August date would not work because the victim will be starting his senior year in high school at that point.

Newman is currently serving two life sentences in a Missouri prison