May 22, 2026, 12:32 p.m. EDT
This article is part of “Shepherds and prey” a series of investigations into allegations of sexual abuse in the Assemblies of God.
More than a decade before police discovered dozens of videos of naked children on longtime children’s pastor Tony Waller’s computer, the girls at his Assemblies of God church in Arkansas repeatedly warned adults about what was happening behind closed doors, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
THE extensive civil complaintfiled by six women in Craighead County Circuit Court, accuses Refuge Church of Jonesboro, as well as regional and national Assemblies of God leaders, of dismissing reports of Waller’s abuse — allowing him to secretly groom, molest and film girls for 15 years.
When they were still children, the women say, they told pastors about the existence of hidden cameras in church bathrooms. About Waller’s practice of making them take off their clothes and do stretches. About the discomfort that passed through them when he placed his hands on their bodies.
The first reports about Waller reached Church leaders in 2000, according to the lawsuit. Time and again in the years since, the complaint claims, church leaders took little action. A senior pastor briefly suspended Waller around 2004 after girls discovered a hidden camera pointing into a church bathroom, then quickly returned him to ministry, where he continued preying on children for another decade, according to the lawsuit.
The abuse finally ended in 2015, when Waller’s wife went to police after finding images of naked children on her computer. A year later, Waller pleaded guilty to raping two girls and was sentenced to life in prison.
Tony Waller was sentenced to life in prison in 2016.HOOKStephanie Davis, who says her family went to a senior pastor after Waller drugged and secretly recorded her naked around age 12, said she filed the lawsuit to hold church leaders accountable and force the Assemblies of God to adopt stricter policies to protect children.
“Tony is in prison for the rest of his life, and that’s good,” Davis said in an interview. “But he is not the only one responsible for what happened to us.”
NBC News uncovered numerous allegations in the lawsuit last year as part of a yearlong investigation into sexual abuse in the Assemblies of Godthe largest Pentecostal denomination in the world. The report revealed a half-century trend in which churches accused ministers reinstated, did not alert the police and calmly brought the attackers back to positions of authority. NBC News has identified approximately 200 Assemblies of God pastors, church workers and volunteer leaders accused of sexual abuse over the past 50 years.
NBC News also discovered that the Assemblies of God resisted repeatedly imposing mandatory child protection measures – including background checks and mandatory reporting of abuse – instead leaving those decisions to local churches.
