SAN JOSE — A nonprofit director is suing a San Jose church — for which he once served as a youth pastor — to recover nearly half a million dollars in legal fees he spent to defend himself against sexual abuse charges by a group of congregants, a case that ended with his acquittal last year.
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Brett Bymaster, who runs the Healing Grove Health Center in San Jose, spent a year-and-a-half fighting accusations that he abused two girls under his mentorship while working at The River Church, a job that ended in 2019 amid the allegations he has consistently denied.
A corresponding trial ended in November 2025 with a jury clearing him of the 10 felonies he faced, after he mounted a defense portraying a scheme by church families to vilify him and secure a large settlement from the church that was predicated on his conviction.
In a filing posted in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Tuesday, Bymaster stated he was holding the church liable for the $443,515 he spent to fight the charges, and was not pursuing any punitive damages. His attorneys contend that under California labor law, the church has a statutory obligation to compensate him for losses he incurred as a result of him lawfully carrying out his duties for his employer.
“I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending myself against false accusations, and I was found not guilty on all counts,” Bymaster said in a statement Tuesday. “My family drained our retirement savings, and my in-laws also helped us financially by drawing from their retirement savings. We are simply asking to be made whole for the legal expenses we incurred.”
Church officials did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.
Both Bymaster and the church administration — through a bulletin sent to its congregation — have indicated that the two parties were in talks to reach an out-of-court settlement prior to the filing of the lawsuit. Both sides alluded to reconciliation in the context of their Christian faith, but they were divided on the idea that the church owed Bymaster money.
In its August message, the church stated that “we remain open to biblical reconciliation using Christian mediation that focuses on relational understanding and excludes threats of litigation and monetary demands.”
In his statement Tuesday, Bymaster emphasized how he was not, as is typical in lawsuits like his, seeking compensation for any emotional or reputational harm he suffered from the case, but that he still believes he should be made whole.
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“I can believe in forgiveness and reconciliation and still believe that an employer should be responsible for employment-related legal expenses as required by California Labor Code. … Those aren’t contradictory,” he said. “Because we have tried without success to have a reconciliation, the lawsuit has proceeded; but that does not mean I would not welcome the opportunity to meet to try and resolve it if the River Church becomes interested in that.”
Five years after he left the church, Bymaster was arrested in April 2024 after a woman told San Jose police that he sexually assaulted her between 2013 and 2019 when she was a minor. The woman’s older sister then came forward with a similar allegation of abuse against him.
His defense attorneys characterized the criminal case as being built on fabrications by influential church families scapegoating the church for problems with their children, and inflaming existing tensions within the church community about Bymaster’s teaching and leadership style, including accusations of him being a bully and ideologically rigid.
He was also scrutinized for reported comments about girls’ bodies and the topic of masturbation and a past porn addiction, which prosecutors argued was indicative of grooming behavior, but which his attorneys asserted were given as confessionals to reveal personal failings to open up candid conversations about sex.
The criminal case did not gain momentum until 2024, when the congregation learned that a previous 2021 inquiry into Bymaster did not explore sexual abuse, prompting a new probe that coincided with the revival of a police investigation that had earlier stalled after claims against him were recanted.
Two church leaders alluded to the police and legal case when they resigned from the church in March 2025. That included former lead pastor Brad Wong, who wrote in a publicly posted resignation letter at the time that “a significant portion of my energies have gone toward the exploration of harm experienced by River youth” and that the experience was “exhausting and painful.”
A six-week trial concluded on Nov. 19, 2025, after jurors reached an acquittal decision on one charge but initially deadlocked 11-1 in favor of acquittal on the rest. But late into the evening, after being presented with the prospect of restarting deliberations on account of one juror’s travel plans and the need to install an alternate juror, the panel reached a consensus that found Bymaster not guilty on all counts.
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This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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