Mormon abuse cases

Mormon abuse cases are cases of alleged abuse by churches in the Latter Day Saint movement and its agents, including the child sexual abuse of children.

LDS Church cases

In 2001, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) paid a three million dollar settlement to Jeremiah Scott, after Scott filed a lawsuit in 1998 against the church for what his attorney described as an attempted cover-up of sexual abuse Scott suffered from church member Franklin Curtis.[1] The LDS Church denied legal liability in the case, and said it was settling the lawsuit based on "litigation economics" alone.[1]

In September 2008, LDS Church bishop Timothy McCleve pleaded guilty to sexually molesting children from his ward.[2] He was sentenced in December 2008 to one-to-15 year prison terms for the abuse.[3]

In March 2010, former LDS Church bishop Lon Kennard, Sr. was charged with 43 felony counts of sex abuse and sexual exploitation of children, and was imprisoned in Wasatch County, Utah. In November 2011, Kennard was sentenced to three terms of five-years-to-life in prison to be served consecutively, after pleading guilty to three first-degree felony counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child for sexually abusing his daughters.[4][5]

In December 2013, LDS Church bishop Todd Michael Edwards was sentenced to three years in prison for molesting two teenage girls who attended his congregation in Menifee, California. Edwards received two concurrent sentences of three years in prison for two felony counts of sexual battery and sexual penetration with a foreign object. A felony charge of witness intimidation was dismissed as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors after Edwards pleaded guilty.[6]

In January 2014, two men filed a lawsuit in the U.S. state of Hawaii against the LDS Church, alleging that they were sexually abused as children on a church-owned pineapple farm in Maui from 1986 through 1988.[7]

In January 2014, former LDS Church bishop Michael Wayne Coleman was arrested and charged with luring a minor for sexual exploitation after a forensic examination of his laptop and cellphone revealed sexually graphic conversations and an exchange of nude photographs with a teenaged student in Brazil.[8]

Child protection policy in the LDS Church

The LDS Church teaches that abusive behavior, whether physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional, is a sin and is condemned unreservedly by the church.[9] The church teaches that victims of abuse should report it to their bishop, and should be assured that they are not to blame for the abuse.[9]

Warren Jeffs

Warren Jeffs is the former President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church) and a convicted felon currently serving a sentence of life plus 20 years.[10] His prison term is the result of being convicted in 2011 of two felony counts of child sexual assault.[11]

In May 2006 Jeffs was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on Utah state charges related to his alleged arrangement of illegal marriages between his adult male followers and underage girls.[12] He was arrested in August 2006 in Nevada, and agreed to be taken to Utah for trial. In May and July 2007, Arizona charged him with eight additional counts in two separate cases, including incest and sexual conduct with minors.[13]

Beginning in early September 2007 in St. George, Jeffs's Utah trial lasted less than a month, and on September 25 he was convicted of two counts of rape as an accomplice.[14] On November 20, 2007, Jeffs was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years to life and began serving his sentence at the Utah State Prison. The conviction, however, was overturned by the Utah Supreme Court on July 27, 2010, due to incorrect jury instructions.[15]

Jeffs was extradited by Utah to Texas, where he was found guilty of sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault of children in connection with a raid of the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch in 2008.[16] After the jury had deliberated for less than 30 minutes, Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years, to be served consecutively, and a $10,000 fine for sexual assault of both 12- and 15-year-old girls.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 "Lawyer blasts LDS Church". Deseret News. September 5, 2001.
  2. ↑ "Former LDS bishop pleads guilty to sex abuse". KSL. September 24, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Ex-bishop in Harrisville gets prison for sex abuse". Deseret News. December 18, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Children's charity co-founder sentenced in sex abuse case". Salt Lake Tribune. November 3, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Heber charity co-founder sent to prison for sexually abusing daughters". KSL. November 3, 2011.
  6. ↑ "MENIFEE: Mormon bishop sentenced to three years for sex abuse". The Press-Enterprise. December 11, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Two Men File Lawsuit Against Mormon Church Alleging Sexual Abuse as Teens by Church Leader on Pineapple Farm in Hawaii". The Christian Post. January 24, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Former Mormon bishop accused of trying to lure teens". USA Today. January 24, 2014.
  9. 1 2 "Abuse". lds.org.
  10. ↑ The FLDS Church was founded in the early-twentieth century when the founders deemed the renunciation of polygamy by LDS Church to be apostate. There is thus no official connection between the FLDS Church and the LDS Church: "Polygamy". Newsroom. LDS Church. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  11. ↑ Wagner, Dennis (February 24, 2011). "Jailed sect leader retakes legal control of church". USA Today. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  12. ↑ "Have You Seen This Man? FBI Announces New Top Tenner". FBI. May 6, 2006. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
  13. ↑ CNN (July 12, 2007). "Sect leader indicted on sexual conduct with minor, incest charges". CNN. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  14. ↑ Jeffs Found Guilty on Both Counts September 25, 2007 Archived January 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ Metcalf, Dan Jr.; Vanocur, Chris (July 27, 2010). "Utah Supreme Court reverses Warren Jeffs conviction". ABC 4.com. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  16. ↑ "Jeffs arrives in Texas". statesman.com. December 1, 2010. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  17. ↑ Whitehurst, Lindsay (August 11, 2011). "Warren Jeffs gets life in prison for sex with underage girls". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
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