Part 1 of a series on lawsuits alleging sexual abuse coverups by Mormon officials.
FLOODLIT.org, a non-profit organization investigating sexual abuse in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has learned that the church spent nearly $60 million over five years to defend and settle a 2013 West Virginia lawsuit by child sexual abuse victims.
The church, widely known as the Mormon church, racked up $27 million in legal fees before a $32 million mid-trial settlement – the largest known payout tied to abuse within the church.
FLOODLIT.org analyzed 2,700 pages of court records to uncover why the Mormon church spent heavily on the West Virginia lawsuit, far exceeding its prior $4 million reported high for abuse cases. Spanning from 2004 to 2013, the allegations detail repeated sexual offenses against at least 20 children, enabled by church officials’ negligence and interference.
Conviction in Utah, initial abuse victims in West Virginia
In late 2004, 13-year-old Michael Jensen was arrested in Utah for sexually abusing two girls at school. Despite felony charges, he pleaded to misdemeanors, allegedly aided by his grandfather, Blaine Jensen, a senior church official with ties to its presidents, who reportedly attended key proceedings that secured a lenient probation and a sexual appropriateness class.
Jensen’s church bishop was in the courtroom and aware of the charges. In a sexual behavior risk assessment submitted to the court, a psychologist warned that Jensen would reoffend if given the opportunity, but Jensen faced no stricter consequences.
After the Jensen family moved to West Virginia in 2005, Jensen’s mother frequently arranged for him to babysit for other Mormon families.
From 2007 to 2011, Jensen allegedly raped or molested at least 14 children, aged 2 to 12, in Mormon homes. During much of that time, Jensen’s mother was a ward Relief Society president, and his father was a stake high council member.
Despite an alleged stake high council meeting in 2006 or 2007 about Jensen’s behavior, church leaders took no significant action. Multiple bishops allegedly dismissed complaints or denied knowledge, even when confronted by parents.
Church officials permitted Jensen to give the sacrament, serve as a bishop’s assistant, teach young children in Primary, and begin a church mission, despite being kicked out of his family’s home for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old sibling, the lawsuit said.
In 2010, Jensen’s parents banned him from their home, allowing him to stay in a tent in their backyard. Another bishop in the stake gave Jensen keys to a church building so he could sleep inside, while allegedly knowing he had been tried out of state for assault.
Jensen was approved in June 2011 for a church mission to Arizona, and became a full-time missionary later that year.
A bishop’s alleged call to the Mormon abuse “help line”
In January 2012, two of Jensen’s victims told their mother he had abused them in 2007, and she reported the abuse to the West Virginia State Police. The church sent Jensen home within about a week, but church officials did not report Jensen’s abuse to West Virginia authorities as required by law, the complaint said.
Instead, a bishop allegedly told stake president Steven Grow he had called the church’s abuse help line to consult with Church officials in Utah about the police investigation.
According to the lawsuit, Jensen fabricated a story that he returned early from his mission due to a bicycle accident, and Grow did nothing to correct the fabrication.
Jensen’s father was deployed when Jensen returned home, and because his mother did not want him living at home without his father there, a stake high council member agreed to let Jensen live with him and his wife, the suit said.
Stake president allegedly called abuser a “good role model”
Grow allegedly encouraged a Mormon family with young children and a teenage son to allow Jensen to live in their home, saying Jensen was a “good guy” and that he would be a “good role model” for their teenager. At the time, Stake President Grow was allegedly “counseling” Jensen on a regular basis.
Between May and August 2012, Jensen lived with that family and assaulted three children aged 6, 9, and 12, according to the suit.
In October 2012, Jensen was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse by a custodian. The charges related to his abuse of two young children in November 2007.
In February 2013, after a two-day jury trial, Jensen was found guilty of two counts of sexual abuse by a custodian and one count of first-degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to 35 to 75 years in prison.
That September, six families sued the church and local leaders for negligence and conspiracy. After a grueling five-year legal process that reached the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, a $32 million settlement released the defendants from all claims. 12,000 pages of documents were sealed.
Mormon church sued its insurance companies
In 2021, the church sued two insurance companies who refused to reimburse its defense and settlement costs in the West Virginia case.
The church’s law firm, Kirton McConkie, said “public disclosure of the settlement amounts or terms […] would cause severe and irreparable harm to the church and its financial interests.”
In seeking reimbursement for all payouts beyond a $15 million self-insured limit, the church cited at least 378 settlement payments it made for sexual abuse or other injuries that allegedly occurred from 2006 to 2012.
If it won, the church stood to get up to about $90 million from the two insurers: $27-plus million in defense costs from each, and nearly $36 million in combined settlement reimbursements.
The result of that litigation remains unclear. The docket has not been updated since an August 2023 ruling to seal a hearing set to address motions for summary judgment.
Shine a light on sex abuse in the Mormon church
The Mormon church has not published a list of known sex offenders in its ranks.
Since its launch in 2022, FLOODLIT.org has documented over 4,050 abuse reports within the church, including nearly $51 million in settlements in 15 cases. 11 other cases involve secret settlement amounts.
In 2024, FLOODLIT broke the story when roughly 100 sexual abuse survivors filed lawsuits against the LDS church in California. Nearly all are still ongoing.
Part 2 coming soon.
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