
About Paul Adams
- Latest update: 2023: multiple victims are involved in a civil lawsuit against the LDS church
- Lived: 1982 - 2017
- LDS positions: unknown | Add info
LDS mission: no
LDS temple marriage: unknown | Add info
Criminal case result:
Personal information sources
Paul Adams Mormon Sex Crime Case Summary
Paul Adams was excommunicated from the Mormon church in 2013. He died by suicide while awaiting trial.
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from the Associated Press on August 4, 2022:
“MJ was a tiny, black-haired girl, just 5 years old, when her father admitted to his bishop that he was sexually abusing her.
“The father, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an admitted pornography addict, was in counseling with his bishop when he revealed the abuse. The bishop, who was also a family physician, followed church policy and called what church officials have dubbed the “help line” for guidance.
“But the call offered little help for MJ. Lawyers for the church, widely known as the Mormon church, who staff the help line around the clock told Bishop John Herrod not to call police or child welfare officials. Instead he kept the abuse secret.”
from the Associated Press on December 22, 2022:
“Six years before the video surfaced in Auckland, Adams, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, confessed to his bishop that he abused his daughter, identified by the AP as MJ.
“But a prominent church lawyer told the bishop to keep the abuse secret. And as a result, MJ was brutalized for seven more years. Today, she continues to be victimized almost daily in a different way, as the video, and others Adams took, circulate on the internet. Details of the Mormon officials’ cover-up of the Adams rapes were reported in an AP investigation in August.
[…]
“Lynne Cadigan, one of several attorneys representing three of the Adams children, said MJ will seek compensation from the child pornographers.
“But she and Salminen, the girl’s adoptive mother, lay most of the blame for the sexual abuse on officials of the Mormon church, who knew Adams molested MJ as early as 2010 and did nothing to stop it.
[…]
“Attorneys for the church say the bishops who knew that Adams abused his daughter — John Herrod and Robert “Kim” Mauzy — did nothing wrong by taking a lawyer’s advice and withholding the information because Adams told Herrod about the abuse during a spiritual confession, triggering the privilege.
“In a statement to the AP, the church said it had no knowledge Adams was recording himself abusing his two daughters and posting the material on the internet until 2017. “The Church had no idea that these videos were being created or circulated until after Paul Adams was arrested,” the statement read. “The church supports all efforts to prosecute anyone who possesses or distributes these heinous and disturbing videos.””
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Online sources
- Leizza Alcantara Adams
- Seven years of sex abuse: How Mormon officials let it happen
- Utah lawmaker told Mormon bishop not to report child sex abuse, docs show
- Sex-abuse video victimizes child long after abuser is gone
- Bisbee church at center of sexual abuse claim
- Judge Recuses Self From Lawsuit Against LDS Church, Failed To Disclose Membership
- Video: Sex abuse video spreads after Mormon church inaction (5m 39s)
- 4 takeaways from AP’s Mormon church sex abuse investigation
- Presentence Hearing and Sentencing - Bisbee, Arizona - CR-201700425 - 247-page PDF
- TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS MITIGATION HEARING and SENTENCING - PART ONE - 117-page PDF
- Failure to Report Sexual Abuse—Bisbee, Arizona
Online sources excerpts
-
Leizza Alcantara Adams
Source type: News article
Publisher: FLOODLIT
Date published/accessed: 5 Dec 2023
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listSeven years of sex abuse: How Mormon officials let it happen
Source type: News article
Publisher: Associated Press
Date published/accessed: 4 Aug 2022
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listUtah lawmaker told Mormon bishop not to report child sex abuse, docs show
Source type: News article
Publisher: Associated Press
Date published/accessed: 10 Sep 2022
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listSex-abuse video victimizes child long after abuser is gone
Source type: News article
Publisher: Associated Press
Date published/accessed: 22 Dec 2022
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listBisbee church at center of sexual abuse claim
Source type: News article
Publisher: KVOA
Date published/accessed: 30 Nov 2020
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listJudge Recuses Self From Lawsuit Against LDS Church, Failed To Disclose Membership
Source type: News article
Publisher: Arizona Daily Independent
Date published/accessed: 16 Jul 2021
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listVideo: Sex abuse video spreads after Mormon church inaction (5m 39s)
Source type: News article
Publisher: CBS News
Date published/accessed: 23 Dec 2023
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources list4 takeaways from AP’s Mormon church sex abuse investigation
Source type: News article
Publisher: Denver Post
Date published/accessed: 4 Aug 2022
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listPresentence Hearing and Sentencing - Bisbee, Arizona - CR-201700425 - 247-page PDF
Source type: News article
Publisher: Mormonleaks
Date published/accessed: 13 Aug 2018
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listTRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS MITIGATION HEARING and SENTENCING - PART ONE - 117-page PDF
Source type: News article
Publisher: Mormonleaks
Date published/accessed: 7 Jun 2018
archive 1 | archive 2 -
back to online sources listFailure to Report Sexual Abuse—Bisbee, Arizona
Source type: News article
Publisher: Mormonr
Date published/accessed: 6 Jan 2023
archive 1 | archive 2
Videos: Paul Adams Mormon sex crime case
- Video title: How Mormon church 'help line' hid child sex abuse
- Video description: "One victim was 5 when her father told his bishop that he was sexually abusing her. The abuse went on for seven more years even though Mormon church leaders used a so-called help line to report her abuse." - Associated Press
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