Steven Katsaris v. Jim Jones

Steven A. Katsaris v. Jim Jones, Sandra Bradshaw, Peoples Temple, Paula Adams et al. was a defamation case that sought damages of $15 million from the Temple.

Steven Katsaris’ daughter Maria had joined the Temple and eventually emigrated to Jonestown, where, according to the lawsuit, she and all other residents of the settlement were required “to terminate all meaningful family ties (except those likely to yield inheritance monies for … Peoples Temple).” The effort to isolate Maria began even before she left, though, when Temple leaders coached her to accuse her father of child molestation should he ever try to meet with her alone. The plan did not go into effect until the following September when – against Maria’s wishes as she expressed them over the Jonestown radio – Steven went to Georgetown. Maria refused to see him. Instead, according to an affidavit Steven filed in conjunction with the case, an Embassy official passed along “background information” from the Temple that “I was a child molester and had sexually abused my daughter and offered that as a reason that Maria did not want to see me.”

The Temple later repeated the defamatory remarks in an open statement it issued in response to the Concerned Relatives’ Accusation of Human Rights Violations. “Included in the [Concerned Relatives] group,” the lawsuit quotes the release as saying, “are people … who have molested children, including their own, such as Maria Katsaris just publicly exposed her father.”

Charging that the statement disseminated by the Temple was “false [and] libelous on its face,” the Katsaris lawsuit was filed on May 18, 1978 – about a week after the press release was issued – and lists Tim Stoen as the only attorney for the plaintiff.