Richard Mallard was a Mormon church member in Orem, Utah; charged in July 2025 with 41 felony counts related to child sexual exploitation; in August 2025, was released on bond, despite initially being held without bail; several LDS church members sent the court letters of support on Mallard’s behalf prior to his detention hearing.
Full case report: https://floodlit.org/a/b341/
Rich Mallard was a Mormon church member in Orem, Utah.
Mallard went on a mission for the LDS church (Utah Salt Lake City South) from 2001 to 2003.
In July 2025, Mallard was charged with 41 felony counts related to child sexual exploitation.
In August 2025, Mallard was released on bond, despite initially being held without bail.
Several individuals sent the court letters of support on Mallard’s behalf prior to his detention hearing.
One letter came from Grant Jensen, dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at Brigham Young University (BYU), which is owned by the Mormon church.
In Jensen’s letter, he called Mallard “a deeply religious man” and “a tremendous volunteer.”
Mallard was a Boy Scout leader for a couple of years alongside Jensen, the letter said.
Another letter noted that Mallard “decided to serve an LDS mission and returned home with distinction.”
Floodlit obtained a copy of a police affidavit in Mallard’s case, thanks to your donations.
According to the probable cause statement, Mallard allegedly uploaded multiple videos containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to the Kik messenger app.
Describing one video, the affidavit stated that “Orem Detectives turned off the audio for the remainder of the video due to it being so egregious and unbearable to listen to.”
Mallard allegedly asked other app users for CSAM videos “many times with many different users,” according to Kik chat logs, the affidavit says.
Mallard also sent dozens of CSAM files to other Kik users, most of them depicting “prepubescent children,” according to the police statement.
