Arsonist Sues Pastor For Talking He Claims Minister Violated Confidentiality Of Confession

A man who torched a Grangeville, Idaho, building is suing his pastor for telling police he committed the crime.

Convicted arsonist Damon Young, 25, filed a lawsuit against Rev. Steven Sessions and the Church of God on Thursday, according to Kootenai County court records.

The Grangeville man claims Sessions violated the minister/penitent relationship.

Young was charged with arson in 1993 after a building containing three apartments and three businesses caught fire on Main Street.

Emergency workers found Young inside the building, claiming he was trying to save lives, according to a Grangeville police report.

However, Young’s Grangeville pastor - Steven Sessions - later told investigators that he had talked to Young after the fire. Sessions said he could not tell the officers what Young had told him because of pastor/confessor confidentiality, according to the police report.

But the clergyman told the investigators he would try to convince Young to release him from the confidentiality bond.

The next day, Sessions and Young came to the police, according to the report. Sessions told the investigators that Young had released him from the confidentiality bond. The pastor then told police that Young had confessed to setting the fire.

Young later pleaded guilty to first degree arson and was ordered to spend seven months in jail and 120 days of inpatient alcohol treatment.

Young claims that Sessions coerced him into allowing the confidentiality bond to be broken, according to the lawsuit. As a result he was forced to spend time behind bars, the suit claims.

Efforts to reach Sessions and Young for comment were unsuccessful.

, DataTimes