Summary
1994 – Dallas, Texas
Gene Guinn “was excommunicated by the LDS Church for sexually assaulting at least two children Guinn was sentenced to 68 years in prison. Guinn appealed his case on the grounds that the testimony of Bishop Porter and President Harshaw should be stricken from the record. “Guinn admitted he had sexual contact with a nine-year old girl from his church”
“Guinn confessed he had inappropriately touched other young girls.” He appealed his case but the Court ruled that “In a proceeding regarding the abuse or neglect of a child, evidence may not be excluded on the ground of privileged communication except in the case of communications between an attorney and client.”
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from the Dallas Morning News on July 18, 2000:
“A Dallas County jury found a Mormon high priest guilty Tuesday of indecency
with a child for molesting a 10-year-old girl.
Gene A. Guinn, 68, was being tried on a charge of aggravated sexual assault
of a child in connection with the August 1994 incident in her Cedar Hill
home, but jurors convicted him on the lesser indecency charge. The deliberations
took nearly six hours over two days.
Mr. Guinn’s defense attorney argued that the victim, now 16, gave varying
accounts of the incident and that Mr. Guinn never went as far as the girl
most recently alleged.
Mr. Guinn still faces up to life in prison because he has a 1975 conviction
for involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors immediately began presenting punishment-phase testimony from
four other women who said Mr. Guinn had fondled or assaulted them when they
were children. All had met Mr. Guinn through church, including a young woman
whose baptism had been organized by the defendant. Two testified that he
fondled them in a church building on Kiest Boulevard.
Testimony outside the jury’s presence showed that the trial was delayed
for nearly two years while prosecutors and attorneys for local and national
branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints battled over
subpoenaed records and testimony.
The church excommunicated Mr. Guinn after he admitted the molestation to
at least two church officials and during a church disciplinary hearing,
according to testimony the jury heard. The judge ordered various church
records turned over to prosecutors.
Also at issue was whether Mr. Guinn was a church official. Prosecutors contend
he was a leader in the church through his position as a high priest and
through his active role in various church deeds. The now 16-year-old victim
and her family testified that they looked up to Mr. Guinn and considered
him a leader in the church.
However, attorneys for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints say
that Mr. Guinn was simply a regular church member. They say that all older
male members of the Mormon church can become high priests and that the title
doesn’t connote clergy duties or mean he was a leader.”
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Alleged coverup- Criminal: Convicted, Found guilty, Jury trial, Prison,
- Civil: No civil case,
- Positions: High priest,
- During crime: High priest,
- When accused: Unknown position,
- Crime: 1990s, in Texas,
- Convicted: 2000, 2000s,
- Crime scenes: LDS building, Victim's home,
- Victims: 6 victims, Multiple victims,
-
Born: 1932
Died: 2008 - Mission: no
- Places: Texas,
Sources
- Ex-Mormon leader on trial for sex assault charges,
- Mormon high priest convicted of indecency,
- Mormon priest gets 68 years for molesting,
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1. Ex-Mormon leader on trial for sex assault charges
DALLAS A Mormon church leader is on trial after being accused of the repeated molestation of a 10-year-old girl from his North Texas tabernacle. The girl, now 16, testified Wednesday that Gene A. Guinn stopped abusing her only after her brother walked into the family's Cedar Hill living room in August 1994 and found the clergyman assaulting her as she sat on his lap.
The brother testified that church officials asked his mother not to call the police. Cedar Hill is suburb of Dallas. The 68-year-old Guinn, who was a leader from a church in neighboring Duncanville, has pleaded innocent to charges of aggravated sexual assault against a child. His lawyers contend that the girl has given varying accounts of what happened and that Guinn never went as far as the girl claims, according to The Dallas Morning News. Prosecutors told the jury that the girl's family initially trusted their church to handle the situation but went to the police because Guinn continued to associate with children despite undergoing church-ordered counseling.
Kristine Schwan, the lead prosecutor, told jurors that Guinn admitted the molestation to church leaders and two counselors when they confronted him. Court records indicate that he was later excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During testimony, the victim said she'd known Guinn her entire life and considered him a grandfather figure. Guinn would visit her home and ask her to sit on his lap, she said, but she never spoke out about the alleged assaults.
"I didn't say anything because I didn't think anyone would believe me," she said. "I was 10. and he was a friend of my mom's." The trial comes after a long, behind-the-scenes battle over local church records and church leaders' testimony subpoenaed by the Dallas County district attorney's office. In a hearing before testimony started, attorneys for the Mormon Church argued unsuccessfully that records of talks between Guinn and church officials were confidential and shouldn't be entered as evidence.
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2. Mormon high priest convicted of indecency
[FLOODLIT is looking for the original text]
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3. Mormon priest gets 68 years for molesting
DALLAS (AP) A Dallas jury Tuesday sentenced Mormon high priest to 68 years in prison after convicting him of indecency with a child, who was 10 years old at the time of the offense. The jury found that Gene A. Guinn, 68, molested the girl in August 1994 at her family's home in Cedar Hill, a suburb of Dallas. Five women testified in the punishment phase that Guinn also fondled or assaulted them at church, most recently the Dallas Seventh Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Documents
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Criminal case documents
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