Lawyer: Plaintiffs in gay conversion trial ‘flat-out liars”

JERSEY CITY, N.J. | A lawyer representing a New Jersey nonprofit that offers so-called “gay conversion” therapy called several men who sued the group “flat-out liars” during closing arguments of a civil trial Wednesday.

The lawsuit filed in 2012 accuses Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing of violating New Jersey’s consumer fraud laws by promising to turn gays into heterosexuals. To prevail, the plaintiffs need to convince a jury that JONAH, as it is called, engaged in unconscionable practices or made false promises or misrepresentations.

The trial began in early June and has featured testimony from the men about JONAH’s methods, which they said included using a tennis racket to beat a pillow that was meant to represent one man’s mother and engaging in role play that included a locker room scene where gay slurs were used.

The original four plaintiffs, three from Orthodox Jewish families and the fourth a Mormon, allege JONAH exploited them with false promises as they struggled with their same-sex attractions in those environments. Their attorneys have told jurors JONAH offered “junk science and so-called cures.”

In a more than two-hour closing argument Wednesday, defense attorney Charles LiMandri dismissed plaintiffs’ insinuations that JONAH was a cult-like group as “ludicrous in the extreme.”

The plaintiffs, LiMandri continued, each left JONAH after less than a year, well short of the two to four years the group said is required to achieve change. They spoke in positive terms of their time there when they left, he said, and began changing their stories and “making stuff up” about what they were forced to do only after joining with activists seeking to shut the group down.

“They are flat-out liars,” he told jurors, his voice rising. “Shame on them.”

LiMandri described JONAH as a group founded to help people who are struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction and voluntarily want help.

“None of them wanted to identify as gay when they came to JONAH,” he said. “They have a right to seek help and my clients have a right to provide that help.”

Though co-founder Arthur Goldberg testified that he believes homosexuality is a disorder caused by emotional wounds occurring in childhood and adolescence, LiMandri stressed to jurors that plaintiffs never offered any evidence in emails or writings to back up its claim that JONAH refers to homosexuality as a mental disease or mental disorder.

He offered emails from JONAH that said the therapy wouldn’t work for everybody and suggesting other alternatives, evidence, he said that contradicts the characterization of JONAH as a group trying to force its views on people. The plaintiffs were told, and signed forms reflecting that, there was no guarantee of the desired results.

“Who comes in to court and sues after being told four times that there’s no guarantee and no promises are being made?” he asked.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys were scheduled to make closing arguments later Wednesday afternoon.