WALHALLA — The School District of Oconee County faces a civil lawsuit next month in Pickens County that arose from litigation begun four years earlier in Oconee County surrounding allegations of abuse involving two minors at a Baptist church in Salem by individuals who included a local school bus driver.

The parents of the alleged victims not only named the school district in a lawsuit filed June 24, 2004 at the Oconee County Courthouse, it also accused local and state law enforcement officials of negligently failing to investigate complaints of abuse against the minors.

In an interview Friday, Phil and Karen Collier spoke for the first time about their ordeal in Oconee by phone from their new home in Colorado Springs, Colo.

That ordeal included Karen Collier’s arrest on Sept. 10, 2003 based on a complaint filed by former Tamassee-Salem assistant school principal George R. Rhodes. Collier was charged with interfering with the operation of a school bus.

The school bus driver involved in the incident that had Collier arrested was actually going in the wrong way on a one-way street. She also was the same female bus driver accused by the Colliers of abusing one of her sons. The bus driver was a member of the Salem church.

A magistrate court’s hearing held in Oconee, presided over by a Pickens County judge at the request of Collier’s defense lawyer, exonerated Collier.

The Colliers lawsuit against the bus driver and other individuals accused of molesting the Colliers’ children at the Salem church was settled in a “compromise agreement” reached between the parties and approved by Circuit Judge J. Cordell Maddox on Jan. 23, 2006.

The agreement gave the Colliers $15,000 to cover any medical or psychiatric expenses, lost wages and any other claims. In return, the Colliers were barred from making any other claims against the individuals or the church.

The Daily Journal/Messenger declined to identify the defendants in the case because the allegations of abuse never produced any arrests or charges.

What made the experience all the more traumatic was that Phil Collier was pastor of the Salem church during the time of the alleged abuse — from July 1997 through September 2000. He and his wife said they settled because they did not want to put their son through another round of interrogations and because their attorney at that time wanted $50,000 up front to continue the case.

Phil Collier said he brought his family to Salem from Indiana to build a house on property he bought in Salem. Although he had been a minister in Indiana, Collier said he moved to his new surroundings with the idea of just being a carpenter.

Karen Collier said shortly after they arrived, the pastor at this Baptist church had left. She said her husband was invited to preach one Sunday, and before they knew it, he was pastoring the congregation.

Phil Collier said he first became aware of the abuse problem literally by accident. He was working on a project at home when a beam fell on his younger son’s hand. While driving to the hospital, he almost ran off the road. The injured son yelling in pain, and the other son was yelling because he thought the vehicle was going into a ditch.

“I said, ‘Guys be quiet,’” Collier recalled. “My older son snapped and said, ‘Don’t ever talk to me the way they did.’”

Later that day, Phil Collier said he questioned his son. For the first time he heard from his mouth about the sexual, physical and mental abuse he had been subjected to.

Collier said he filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office and complained to the Solicitor’s Office but got nowhere. He said he pleaded with a school district official to change the bus driver’s route so she wouldn’t come within a mile of their house.

Phil Collier said he even wrote letter to Gov. Mark Sanford and Attorney General Henry McMaster but only got back a form letter.

“I’m so glad my family is out of South Carolina,” Phil Collier said.

The Colliers must return Aug. 11 when their jury trial against the school district is scheduled to begin. Karen Collier claims in the lawsuit that she was falsely imprisoned and maliciously prosecuted.

Assistant Superintendent Michael Thorsland said Friday that the school district’s insurance company has been handling the case. Thorsland said it would be the insurance company’s liability and not the school district’s.

“All the facts will come out,” Thorsland said.

Karen Collier said she was not looking forward to returning for a trial that would rekindle memories she’s trying to get over.

“We returned in March for a hearing,” Karen Collier recalled. “When I came back home

I cried and cried.”

Phil Collier said the only consolation is that the trial would not have to be in Oconee.