Children's theater director found dead days after allegations of sexually assaulting male actors emerge
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: A children's theater director, who faced multiple sexual abuse allegations over his 30-year career, was found dead on Saturday, December 24.
Jeff Church, 63, was found dead by local law enforcement at his residence on West 63rd Street in Kansas City Saturday afternoon, shortly after The Coterie Theater announced it had accepted his resignation. Church had reportedly worked as the artistic director at the theater for over three decades, and directed and produced a number of plays and musicals around the city. The sex abuse allegations from several young male actors and theater staffers began to surface on December 20, when a former actor claimed Church sexually assaulted him at a pool party in 2017 when he was 22. The medical examiner's office is yet to determine the cause of death and authorities are still investigating the case at the time of publication.
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The former actor, who leveled the accusations, named Dashawn Young, said in a now-deleted video that he and Church had been on two dates but that their relationship had ended at that time. According to Young, he went into Church's bedroom after the party to change out of his swimsuit when the former tried to have sex with him, according to The Pitch. The outlet reportedly spoke to almost a dozen former employees of The Coterie, all of whom described Church's predatory behavior as "Kansas City theater’s worst kept secret."
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing retaliation from Church, told the outlet that he used "the promise of career advancement, in combination with social, professional, and physical pressure, to enact predatory behavior on young male actors." Church's alleged victims claimed the limited size of Kansas City's theater scene meant he had considerable power and he used it to manipulate young men.
Young told the Pitch that the only interaction he'd had with anyone from the theater about his predicament was when an employee asked him not to tag their account in his accusations on social media. A couple of days later, however, local radio personality Mark Manning leveled his own allegations against Church, accusing him of assaulting him when he was 27 in 1991. Manning reportedly said that he knew of others, who had been abused by Church, and that three of them had reached out to him after he posted his accusations on Facebook saying they's had similar experiences.
Speaking to the Kansas City Star, Manning said that he wanted to support Young and any other victims who were afraid to come forward. "It’s been going on for over 30 years," he said, adding, "Most of these people were young theater artists trying to find their way through their theatrical career and a person in a very great authority position of directing them and deciding who gets paid and who gets the job [was] interfering in people’s lives."
Another actor who worked with Churchh, KC Comeaux, responded to the allegations with his own statement on Facebook. He said Church "groomed, abused, and assaulted" him while he was in his early 20s. He urged any other victims to step forward and assured them that he and "countless others" were there to support them.
The Coterie announced on Friday, December 23, that it was placing Church on "administrative leave" pending investigation. Shea Coffman, another performer at the theater, told The Pitch that he'd had a "series of unwelcome encounters" with Church back in 2007. Coffman, who was reportedly 19 at the time, said he believed he was removed from a production at the theater because he rejected Church's advances. The theater eventually announced on Saturday that it had accepted Church's resignation but that they would independently investigate the matter. "We want you to know that we are taking these allegations extremely seriously and will move forward with the investigation immediately, despite the impending holidays," they wrote on Facebook. Church's biography has since been taken off the theater's website.
According to The Pitch, a complaint had been filed against Church alleging he had used the Coterie Theater's Instagram account to send sexually explicit messages. The outlet wrote that they found it "difficult to believe that Coterie’s board has not been made aware of their artistic director’s accused actions in the past." The complaint also alleged that Church continued to make staffers uncomfortable and that there was barely any oversight against him. However, by the time the theater made its statement, authorities had found him dead. Kansas City police responded to a call of a dead body at around 1.42 pm local time Saturday. Responding EMT crews pronounced Church dead at the scene, The Daily Mail reported.