What Menlo did for its investigation in November was hire employment lawyer Fred W. Alvarez. Critics note that while Alvarez has experience defending employers, he has no experience working with churches or with cases of abuse. According to RNS, church elders have acknowledged that the investigator did not do the following:
-talk to parents at the church whose kids had contact with Johnny
-talk to volunteers who worked with Johnny
-talk to groups outside the church where Johnny had worked with kids
-ask church staff about Johnny’s behavior
-interview Johnny
Furthermore, the investigator did not even disclose Johnny’s name to the interviewees. In a statement to RNS, church elders said, “We did not disclose the name of the volunteer during the investigation due to the confidentiality requirements of an ongoing investigation. Once the investigation closed, the results found that there was no indication of wrongdoing.”
“I don’t know how you can investigate 16 years of volunteer work in about five weeks over the Christmas holidays,” said Lavery. “I’m not naming Johnny out of malice, but he cannot be trusted to set the terms of his work with children.”
Lavery and Lavery’s spouse, Grace, who is also transgender, have extensively documented online how the situation has unfolded. In a thread she has since deleted, John Ortberg’s daughter Laura Turner accused Lavery of “half-truths, lies, and exaggerations,” but did not elaborate on her accusations.
