Lawsuits allege Florida churches failed to protect children from convicted predator

Two lawsuits filed in Florida allege that Edgewater Alliance Church and Warner Christian Academy failed to protect children from Matthew Clark Graziotti, a former youth pastor and teacher currently serving a 210-year federal prison sentence for child sexual exploitation. The legal actions, brought by the Herman Law Firm on behalf of two survivors, claim that church leadership allowed Graziotti to work with minors despite receiving prior warnings regarding his conduct.

One lawsuit, representing Richard “Tucker” Tripp, alleges that Edgewater Alliance Church hired Graziotti even after being alerted to a 2004 police investigation into his behavior with young boys. The suit claims that despite these warnings, the church permitted him to supervise youth and chaperone mission trips, providing opportunities for the alleged abuse to occur. A second lawsuit, filed on behalf of Camron Armstrong, names Warner Christian Academy, a ministry of the White Chapel Church of God, as a defendant. The plaintiffs state they are pursuing these cases to address the trauma they experienced as children.