David James Gomez

Sources

1. Hunter 10th Ward Divided, West Valley View: The Green Sheet, October 30, 1980.
2. Former Bishop Arrested for Alleged Child Sex Abuse, KSL, April 20, 2004.
3. Former LDS bishop jailed on sex abuse claims, Daily Herald (Provo, Utah), April 21, 2004.
4. Former LDS bishop arrested, Deseret News, April 21, 2004.
5. Former LDS bishop charged with child sodomy, Salt Lake Tribune, April 29, 2004.
6. Sex Charges Against Former LDS Bishop Dropped, KSL, March 29, 2005.
7. Set adrift: Family struggles with alleged abuse, Salt Lake Tribune, June 10, 2006.

• 1. Hunter 10th Ward Divided

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  • News article
  • West Valley View: The Green Sheet

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  [excerpt]
  Hunter 10th Ward Divided

  [...]

  Brian Colton will continue as bishop of the 10th ward, a position he has held for almost two years.

  [...]

  Keith Morgan will serve as first counselor.

  [...]

  Dave Gomez will seve [sic] as second counselor.

• 2. Former Bishop Arrested for Alleged Child Sex Abuse

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  • News article
  • KSL

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  A West Valley Neighborhood is in shock after a former LDS Bishop is arrested for more than 100 cases of alleged child sex abuse.

  Police say the abuse happened over a decade ago, and it happened to more than one victim--police say all the victims were teenage boys.

  The suspect is in the Salt Lake County Jail tonight.

  Police say it started when David Gomez was bishop at a ward in the West Valley City area. Police say his victims would come to him for various reasons, and that's when the abuse began.

  One victim was a young boy at the time living in the neighborhood, attending the church, and putting his trust into his bishop; but now police say he's a man who could no longer live with the secret.

  Police say one of David Gomez's victims was abused an average of twice a week for three and a half years, and they say there are more victims, but won’t say how many.

  Neighbors say it has to be some misunderstanding, describing Gomez as a wonderful man who is good with kids.
  Former Bishop Arrested for Alleged Child Sex Abuse

  Kaye Kent, Neighbor: “If the kids just had trouble, they could count on Dave to help them – school or personal lives or anything – they could go to him. He was good to them. I’ve never heard a complaint about him.”

  Lyndsay Wixom, Neighbor: “He was always helping out my brothers. Like if my parents were out of town and stuff, he would make us food. He was always really nice to me. I don’t think my brothers ever had any problems like that.”

  But another neighbor who wouldn't go on camera today says he's not surprised. He says there are young boys at his home all the time, and rumors have swirled for years.

  Meantime, police continue to put together this very sensitive case, and sadly they fully expect more victims to come forward.

  Det. Craig Black, West Valley Police Department: “There are some feelings of guilt on their part. And we need to overcome that with them and get them to understand that they need to come forward and realize what happened to them is not their fault.”

  Again, the alleged abuse occurred at least 10 years ago. The suspect is employed as a division director for the Utah Department of Corrections; he's been placed on administrative leave.

  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released this statment late this afternoon:

  "The Church was shocked to learn recently of these allegations, particularly considering the relationship of trust that must exist between a bishop and the members of his congregation.

  "We express our deepest sympathy of the victim and his family.

  "The Church has cooperated fully with law enforcement officers in their investigation of this matter."

• 3. Former LDS bishop jailed on sex abuse claims

  • 20040421
  • News article
  • Daily Herald (Provo, Utah)

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  WEST VALLEY CITY — A former Mormon bishop from this Salt Lake City suburb was jailed Tuesday on allegations he sexually abused a teenage boy over a three-year span.

  David J. Gomez, 57, has not been formally charged in Salt Lake County, but likely faces numerous counts of sodomy, forcible sexual assault, aggravated sexual abuse and sodomy on a child, said West Valley City Police Capt. Craig Black.

  Kent Morgan, a Salt Lake County deputy district attorney, said he expected felony first-degree sex abuse charges to be filed against Gomez on Tuesday. The Associated Press could not confirm whether charges were indeed filed.

  The alleged abuse involves a boy whose family approached police about three weeks ago, saying he had been abused beginning when he was 14 years old and ending when he was 17. The abuse allegedly happened between 10 and 13 years ago, and included several incidences of fondling and other sexual activity.

  Police said at least one other person may have been abused.

  Gomez met the boy through church-related activities, police said.

  Gomez is the director of Utah Correctional Industries, which employs about 700 inmates to make road signs and license plates for the state, said Corrections Department spokesman Jack Ford.

  Ford said Gomez has been on unpaid administrative leave since Monday afternoon, when West Valley City police officers showed up at Corrections Department headquarters to arrest him.

  This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D5.

• 4. Former LDS bishop arrested

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  • Deseret News

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  WEST VALLEY CITY — A former LDS bishop and administrator with the Utah Department of Corrections was accused Tuesday of molesting several teenage boys over an extended period of time.

  David James Gomez, 57, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Monday for investigation of 50 counts of forcible sodomy, 15 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, 10 counts of sodomy on a child, all first-degree felonies, and 50 counts of forcible sexual abuse, all second-degree felonies. He was being held Tuesday without bail.

  Salt Lake County District Attorney's spokesman Kent Morgan said he expected criminal charges to be filed late Tuesday afternoon. The Deseret Morning News could not confirm that any charges had been filed.

  Gomez is accused of raping, sodomizing and fondling several boys 10 to 13 years ago, according to police. He came in contact with the boys while serving as bishop of the Hunter 10th Ward.

  Gomez is director of Utah Correctional Industries for the Department of Corrections. He was placed on administrative leave following his arrest Monday.

  Police confirmed Tuesday there were multiple victims but declined to say exactly how many they had identified. West Valley police Sgt. Craig Black said the investigation for additional victims was continuing.

  Black said investigators also contacted at least one potential witness in addition to the victims.

  He said one of the victim's parents contacted police during the first week of April. What prompted them to come forward so many years after the alleged abuse was unknown Tuesday, Black said.

  "We believe church leaders knew about some of these allegations six or seven months ago," Black said.

  Black said church leaders never reported the allegations to detectives. Investigators learned about the accusations only through one of the victims, he said.

  However, after consulting with the district attorney's office, Black said investigators are satisfied that Utah's mandatory reporting laws were not violated.

  A spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday he could not comment on whether the allegations of abuse were known earlier than what was reported to police.

  "The church was shocked to learn recently of these allegations, particularly considering the relationship of trust that must exist between a bishop and the members of his congregation. We express our deepest sympathy to the victim and his family. The church has cooperated fully with law enforcement officers in their investigation of this matter," LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills said.

  The victim who stepped forward, now an adult, said the abuse began before he was 14 years old and continued for about three and a half years, according to a probable-cause statement filed at the time of Gomez's arrest. During that time the victim said he was abused at least twice a week, and the number of sexual abuse incidents was more than 500 during that time, according to the statement.

  While that victim was interviewed, police were led to other possible victims, Black said. Each of their stories corroborated with the others', he said. Each victim also said they were abused for several months, Black said.

  All of the victims apparently knew each other, Black said.

  The original victim who stepped forward picked Gomez out of a photo lineup, according to a jail report.

  Many neighbors in Gomez's neighborhood couldn't believe the news of their former bishop when they heard it.

  "I am totally shocked," said Kaye Kent. "I still don't believe it."

  Neighbors described Gomez as a man who would go out of his way to help others in the neighborhood. Gomez was involved with the ward Scouting program, according to neighbors.

  "He's a wonderful man," said Kent, who has two sons. "He's really good to the kids. The kids love him."

  Gomez was hired by the Department of Corrections in 2000 in human resource management. He was named deputy director of UCI in 2002 and promoted to director in 2003.

• 5. Former LDS bishop charged with child sodomy

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  • Salt Lake Tribune

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  Makes court appearance Friday: The accused is on unpaid leave from his job as director of Utah Correctional Industries

  A Utah Department of Corrections administrator and former Mormon bishop appeared in court Friday, charged with sexually abusing a teenager who sought religious counseling more than 13 years ago.

  Salt Lake County prosecutors late Thursday charged David James Gomez, 57, with three counts of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony, and three counts of child sex abuse, a second-degree felony.

  Court documents allege Gomez, on several occasions in 1989 and 1990, sexually abused the 13-year-old boy. The boy was inappropriately touched, documents said, and also engaged in oral and anal sex with Gomez. The incidents occurred in a high school parking lot, in Gomez's car and at Gomez's home, documents said.

  Police said earlier this week they had interviewed more than one victim, but only one is mentioned in a probable-cause statement accompanying criminal charges. In addition, court documents make no mention of Gomez's being a bishop, although police have said he was a bishop at the time the alleged abuse occurred and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has confirmed he served in that capacity.

  Kent Morgan, spokesman for the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office, did not return calls Friday seeking comment.

  Gomez was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Monday but has since been released on a combination of $25,000 bail and Pre trial Services supervision, authorities said. He made an initial appearance Friday before 3rd District Judge Glenn Iwasaki and was ordered to refrain from contacting the victim, the victim's family and any witnesses.

  A roll call hearing is set for May 20 before Judge William Barrett. Gomez's attorney, Mark Moffat, did not return a call Friday.

  Gomez is on unpaid administrative leave from his job as director of Utah Correctional Industries for the Utah Department of Corrections.

  The prison work program uses about 700 inmates to make license plates, furniture and highway signs, among other jobs.

  Gomez's current and former neighbors have expressed shock and disbelief at his arrest.

  "It just seems so unreal to me," former neighbor Rebecca Draney of Eloy, Ariz., told The Salt Lake Tribune. "It's just incredible. I would consider him a close personal friend. Even now, I feel like I could call him up and ask him for anything, and he would do it.

  "You could call him at the drop of a hat ... he would come help you," Draney said. "It didn't make any difference if he was the bishop or not. It didn't make any difference if you were Mormon or not."

• 6. Sex Charges Against Former LDS Bishop Dropped

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  • KSL

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  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Prosecutors say legal technicalities have forced them to drop child sex abuse charges against a former Mormon bishop -- despite their insistence that he committed the crimes.

  Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Paul Parker said Monday that the prosecution was frustrated by the state's definition of sexual abuse of a "child" as someone younger than 14 years of age, the time limits on prosecuting sex crime cases and day planner records from David James Gomez, the accused 58-year-old.

  "It's not about whether or not it occurred. It's the time frame," Parker told 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton during a hearing Monday.

  Gomez, who was charged with three counts of sodomy on a child and three counts of child sexual abuse, was accused of abusing a boy on several occasions in 1989 and 1990 after the boy sought counseling from him at the age of 13. The alleged victim did not report the abuse until 2004.

  By that time, a four-year legal deadline to prosecute Gomez for adult sex crimes had already passed. Gomez, who was also an administrator for the Utah Department of Corrections, was instead charged under a 1991 law allowing child sex crime charges to be filed within four years of when an adult victim reports them, regardless of when they occurred.

  Although the alleged victim in the case against Gomez says he can recall the events, he is less clear about the exact dates they occurred, according to court documents. Parker said in court he had hoped to use information from a witness who kept a journal entry to prove Gomez sexually abused the victim in the spring of 1989 before his 14th birthday.

  But Gomez produced old day planner entries and correspondence that cast doubt on whether the abuse occurred during that time frame, Parker told the court Monday.

  Lawmakers this year extended the deadline to file charges of rape from four to eight years after the alleged crime. But Parker said that extension would not have helped in this case, because the victim came forward about 14 years after the alleged abuse. He said only increasing the age of a child under Utah's child sex crime laws could have helped his case.

  Gomez's defense attorney, Mark Moffat, said the statues of limitation "are there to provide some fairness and finality in people's lives.

  "It becomes incredibly difficult for people to defend against criminal actions in cases where years have elapsed," he said.

• 7. Set adrift: Family struggles with alleged abuse

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  • Salt Lake Tribune

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  As victims of child abuse come of age, religious and legal concerns collide

  EDITOR'S NOTE: Although The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not identify alleged child abuse victims, Casey and his family agreed to the use of their first names. Only the first name of the alleged abuser is used because charges against him were dropped.

  Dave was a Mormon bishop, a family man, a bank vice president known for getting neighborhood kids jobs.

  "I could sit here for probably two hours and tell you all the things he did for our family," said his former neighbor, Linda. "He did it for tons of families."

  But when Linda's teenaged son, Casey, turned to Dave for advice, prosecutors would charge years later, the bishop would sexually abuse the boy.

  Casey kept that secret for years, finally confiding in a friend. His parents were devastated when he told them.

  Now 29, Casey says Dave stole something from him that he can't get back. "I believe I would have been a completely different person if it hadn't happened to me," he says.

  Dave's ecclesiastical leaders would excommunicate Dave, but they did not report Casey's allegations to police. Those leaders say there were good reasons for that decision, but the family feels betrayed.

  It was Casey's mother who reported Dave, and in April 2004 he was charged with six felony counts of child sexual abuse. A year later, prosecutors delivered another blow to the family: Because of a legal technicality, Dave could not be brought to trial.

  Now Casey no longer considers himself to be a Mormon. Linda struggles to reconcile her faith with her frustration. His father, Neil, still believes his church is true, but sometimes wonders about its earthly representatives.

  Casey's whole family worries that both church and state sometimes fail the victims of child sexual abuse.

  "That's why we want to talk about it," says Linda. "We want people to know how it's working now."

  Go to the bishop

  Linda and her husband, Neil, described their West Valley City neighborhood in the 1980s as the perfect place to raise their eight children.

  Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the couple taught their children its values. Linda told them if they couldn't talk to her about a problem, they could always go to their bishop.

  So in 1989, 13-year-old Casey did. "I went to him with a question about the feelings I was having toward men," he said.

  Before becoming bishop, the charismatic Dave had helped to guide the ward's large number of young teenagers on "Super Saturday" events. Linda and Neil were pleased when the two began spending time together.

  Casey said he once confided in a female friend and his sister about the abuse, but swore them both to secrecy. "It was really awful, and for years I would try and bring it up," said his sister, Emily. "But he wouldn't really even talk about it at all."

  Casey would later tell police, and prosecutors would later charge, that Dave molested the teen at various locations over two years.

  Dave, who has never been convicted of any kind of child abuse, and his wife declined to be interviewed, his wife saying only that their own family has "been through hell."

  'Keep this low key'

  Casey has long since moved out of state and says he has accepted that he is gay. But the past came rushing back in 2003 with a call from the old friend he had confided in.

  She was worried, Casey said, about the risk to others if what he said was true. She contacted Lamont Crabtree, the bishop at the time, but didn't disclose Casey's identity. Casey felt relieved. "I wasn't responsible for a secret anymore."

  In October 2003, Crabtree and stake president Bill Schaefermeyer summoned Dave to a church disciplinary hearing. Linda and Neil say they read a statement from their son. Dave was excommunicated "within a month following the report of his abusive conduct," the church said in a statement to The Tribune.

  Casey and his family said they assumed church leaders would contact police, believing state law and church policy would require it. But as months passed without a call from investigators, Linda recalled a conversation with Schaefermeyer after the church hearing.

  "He said to me, 'Well, we'd like to keep this low key,' " Linda said. "I should've not been so naive. I should have known then, because I said to him, 'What do you mean? We want it to be known.' "

  Crabtree said he and Schaefermeyer consulted with church advisers and didn't call police because there were concerns about protecting Casey's privacy.

  "As I understand it, it was all based on the fact that [Casey] is an adult and we can't usurp his rights to privacy," he said.

  Linda eventually contacted police herself. Schaefermeyer did not return phone messages left by The Tribune seeking comment.

  While investigating Casey's allegations, West Valley City police took statements from another man, Kevin, who also claimed Dave abused him when he was a teenager. Kevin, who also agreed to The Tribune's use of his first name, said Dave had taken an interest in him after his parents' divorce.

  Charges filed - and dropped

  Salt Lake County Assistant District Attorney Paul Parker, a veteran prosecutor of child sex crimes, took Casey's case even though the legal deadline, or statute of limitations, to file an adult sexual assault charge had passed.

  Parker instead used a 1991 Utah statute that allows child sex crime charges to be filed within four years of an adult victim's report, as long as the abuse occurred when the now-adult was younger than 14.

  The law could not be used in Kevin's case because he had been older when he was allegedly abused. But Parker thought the friend Casey had confided in could help him prove Casey had been younger than 14 when his alleged abuse occurred.

  In April 2004, as reported in The Tribune, Dave was charged with three counts of sodomy on a child and three counts of child sexual abuse. Then an administrator for the Utah Department of Corrections, Dave pleaded innocent.

  But as the investigation continued, Dave pointed to day-planner entries and other records that cast doubt about Casey's age when the first incident of alleged abuse occurred - 13 or 14.

  Casey couldn't really remember. Parker said the law left him no choice but to drop the case.

  The scenario isn't uncommon. Mary Leary, director of the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse, said prosecution deadlines account for many of the 200 calls her group receives each month.

  In March, Idaho joined 11 other states that have no limits on prosecuting most sexual offenses against children. Deadlines in other states hinge on the seriousness of the offense or when the alleged abuse is reported: how many years after a victim's 18th birthday, for example, or after a first report to police.

  Defense attorney Kent Hart, president-elect of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, says defending against any accusation gets harder with fading memories and lost physical evidence. At some point, he said, potential defendants must be able to move on.

  "I know the public doesn't want to hear that, because if it involves a child, they are going to be concerned," he said. "But at some point the Legislature and common sense would agree that enough is enough, the government shouldn't be allowed to keep hounding you indefinitely."

  A duty to report?

  Casey and his family feel church leaders should have alerted all ward members, especially parents, and police about the allegations.

  "It's shaken my belief to the very core," Neil says. "The question I have is, are they really protecting their youth?"

  Utah law requires any "person, official, or institution" to report suspected child sexual abuse. A court ruling makes an exception when an abuser confesses to a clergy member.

  LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills would not comment on church policy when a victim is 18 or older. In a statement, the church notes Casey's friend initially refused to identify Casey, and that she was urged to have him go to the police.

  Once Dave's identity was known, Bills said, church leaders confirmed that Casey's family and "those close to" Dave were told, Bills said. Dave also "was immediately released from his church service responsibilities and action was taken to restrict his access to youth," Bills said.

  Since 1995, the church has said, it places a notation on the membership records of "known abusers" to make sure they do not serve in any positions that would put them in direct contact with children.

  Utah's reporting statute is silent on the issue of a duty to report child abuse after the victim turns 18, and no state court rulings address it.

  West Valley City Police Detective Mike Powell, who investigated Casey's case, called it a frustrating one. "I'd be outraged as well if it were my child," he said. "I feel for the family."

  Powell said police discussed the state's mandatory reporting laws with prosecutors, but "the decision was made that there were not going to be any charges filed."

  'A tragedy for all parties'

  Neil and Linda have moved out of their old ward, believing they were shunned for accusing a bishop of such a heinous crime. Sermons on forgiveness, so soon after what they had endured, were hard to take.

  Crabtree said he saw "expressions of love" for both families. "The only thing I can say is that it's a tragedy for all parties," he said. "My heart goes out for both families."

  Brad Burt, 58, was and is a ward member. His sons and daughters were Casey's friends, and Dave was a friend as well. But Burt says he disagrees with ward members who think church alone can heal abusers. As a recovering alcoholic, he said, it took years of treatment to get where he is today.

  "You just don't start healing," he said. "They need extensive counseling and help."

  Burt said he was often frustrated with the attitudes of some ward members when Dave continued to attend services after the excommunication, as the church allows.

  "They hug [Dave], they love [Dave], but I'll guarantee you they don't hug [Casey's family]. They have a gay son," he said. "Casey always was different, and they knew."

  Stung by the support she saw Dave getting, Kevin's mother, Jill, said she, too, is searching for her faith. Kevin, now 36, said he was afraid to tell anyone what he had been through.

  "It's not that I thought [my parents] wouldn't believe me," he said, "but I knew the rest of the ward wouldn't believe."

  He has struggled with depression and alcoholism, but has started praying again.

  The episode has left members of Casey's family to work through their thoughts and feelings.

  "I hope that someday I can [return to church], because it's been such a big part of my life," Linda said. "But right now . . . I don't feel it's fair for me to go over there because I feel other people might feel my anger, and I don't have a right to screw it up for everybody else."

  Neil, the only one still attending church, says he knows he is "trodding on untrodden paths" by questioning the church's handling of the case. The ordeal has changed their family, but also drawn them closer, he said.

  Casey no longer considers himself Mormon, but said he believes in God and maintains a "personal spiritual relationship."

  He and his brother, Aaron, 32, say the church needs to be more forthright in dealing with suspected child abuse of any kind.

  "They are acting like a business or a corporation or something trying to protect themselves," Aaron said. "I don't think they followed their own teachings."

  ---

  [...]

  Handling of a similar case in Texas

  There is no legal precedent in Utah on whether there is a duty to report child-abuse allegations after the possible victim turns 18. In 1997, a Texas appeals court considered a law similar to Utah's reporting statute and ruled churches were not meant to have a duty to report possible molestation to police once a victim turns 18.

  " . . . If a 60-year-old woman reveals to her minister that she was abused as a child some 50 years ago, this minister could be either prosecuted or sued for failing to report the abuse to the proper authorities," which the law did not intend, the Texas court said.

  David Clohessy, a victim of child sexual abuse and national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), disagrees. The same rationale, he said, has been cited by the Catholic Church, facing hundreds of adult victims who have claimed priest abuse.

  "If a 50-year-old woman reported to a church official that she had put a bomb in a day-care center, no church leader would claim that an adult's alleged privacy rights trump the physical safety of dozens of kids," he said. "The alleged privacy rights of any grown-up pale when you are talking about the safety of kids being threatened."

  Clohessy's group, which provides support for victims, has lobbied lawmakers nationwide to abolish legal deadlines for prosecuting child sexual-abuse cases.