I want to address the frequency of the abuse that I endured. It has been said that it happened “multiple times” and at one point said things happened for just a few months. When in fact, both of those are wrong. The sexual abuse was constant and happened for years. But saying things like “a few times” “multiple times” or “just a few months” it makes it sound so much better and can be easily portrayed as a moment or two of weakness for Kevin. But if it’s constant and spans over the course of years, that image is harder to create.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the teachings of this church and others like it, I think it is important to explain. Within these circles a man and woman who are not married and aren’t like immediate relatives, you were NEVER allowed to be alone with one another. Just for accountability reasons.

So as a young woman who was not related to anyone in this family, you would assume I was never left alone with any of the men. But that is where you would be wrong. I would frequently come home from babysitting or running errands and Kevin would be home and the little kids would be downstairs napping or tucked away in the study watching a movie. Or we would all go to church but we couldn’t all fit in one car and I often drove mine. After we had dinner at church most every Sunday Teri, Brittanie, and Stephen and 1 or 2 of the little kids would all be leaving. I would be left with a child or two and Kevin to take home in my car. These things were not rare occasions, I was essentially left alone with Kevin multiple times a week minimum. Whether that was in the house or to drive to or from somewhere. The church members who were not family were completely unaware of this as they would have been outraged by this. I know because they have told me after finding everything out.

As horrible as my abuse was, it was unfortunately not a rare occasion. I was left alone with Kevin many times a week. Even if we weren’t left alone he would be in his study working on his sermons late at night and for a while his study was downstairs in the basement right beside my room. He would text me random questions about my dreams or something and tell me if I couldn’t sleep to come talk to him about them. I would walk in his office and he would pretty immediately turn his chair and spread his legs apart motioning me to come around his desk.
When we would ride home from church together there would be a young child in the backseat. Within 5 minutes of the car ride his hand would be on my legs and fairly quickly he would have his hand up my skirt or in my pants. He would often get me to put my hands on his lap and give him a handjob after he unbuttoned his pants.
There were countless times that he would be doing all of that and if there wasn’t a child in the backseat he would have me give him a blowjob. We would pull into the parking lot even for church and he would be able to walk in and go preach a sermon like nothing happened.

In the house, every time I turned a corner and he was in the room he would grope me, rub his body against mine even as his wife and children were right around the corner. There was not a day that went by in that house for me that his hands did not touch me unless I was violently ill all day or one of us was gone obviously. There was even a time I was standing behind a recliner on the edge of the living room watching Stephen play a game on the tv and Teri and Brittanie were gone at that time and the little kids were in bed. Kevin came up beside me and was talking with Stephen about the game and slipped his hand up my skirt all while talking with his son. I had to just not move and focus so not making a face and standing perfectly still so not to call attention to anything.

Many nights Kevin would make up an excuse to go downstairs at night, whether the kids room was down there at that time or his study. Everyone else would be upstairs watching a show. In the beginning he would text me, as the months went along he didn’t need to say anything, I knew what he was doing. He wanted me to come up with a reason to go downstairs shortly after him. He would text Teri something about how the kids were being rowdy and he was going to stay down there for a minute to make sure they were settling down. The unfinished basement was full of junk. So he would position himself mostly behind stuff but in a spot where he could see the door to the basement and make sure I shut it on my way down. Then he would have me give him a blowjob or one of the many other combinations of things.

This abuse was not just a one time or a few times of a lapse of judgment. Nor was it strictly the doing of just Kevin Dodd, Teri constantly was taking the other adults out of the house with her or leaving just me and her husband places with only one car to get home in. Teri also was constantly telling the other women in the church how I had horrible boundaries, how due to my previous abuse had the emotional intelligence of a 12yr old. I am now good friends with one of the women Teri confided in regularly about this. That woman’s advice to Teri was frequently that she needed to protect her home and kick me out. As a matter of fact this family confronted the Dodds about how they felt it was unwise to keep me living in that home with them. They tried to present other options for me and where I could live. Kevin and Teri always ignored this advice, they didn’t like it and didn’t want anyone else mettling in their business.

Now, as I am writing this, I have been told that part of the churches defense they have been telling other people that during this timeframe, I dressed provocatively, would throw myself on the couch and let my skirt ride up or shirt would show my stomach. I was constantly throwing myself at the men in the household according to the family.

So let me ask you, if you had a young woman living in your home with your teenage son and husband and she was constantly throwing herself at the men, dressing provocatively, and didn’t have a good understanding of boundaries, would you be leaving that woman home alone several times a week with your husband? Would you even let her continue to live in your home?
This abuse was not just from Kevin Dodd, he had help. This abuse did not just take place a couple times over the course of a couple months. Once it started less than a year after I moved in, I rarely went a day without Kevin’s hands on me at some point if not multiple times a day. We would be alone several times a week where things went further depending on the timeframe in which we were left alone. This hell was my reality for over 3½ yrs…


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