Franklin Mathias (1934 – ) was a Mormon church member and Boy scout leader in La Grande, Oregon; had a career as a schoolteacher; accused in 1987 of sexual abuse; sentenced in 1988 to four years in prison for molesting a child; he said that he had 242 victims over a 30-year period; convicted in 1997 of failure to register as a sex offender and was placed on probation for 24 months.

Franklin Mathias was a Mormon church member and Boy scout leader in La Grande, Oregon.

In 1988, Mathias was convicted of charges of sexual abuse stemming from incidents involving multiple boys.

The crimes occurred in Union County, Oregon, and were linked to Mathias’s roles as an elementary school teacher, Boy Scouts of America (BSA) leader, and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Mathias was sentenced to four years in prison.

According to Patrick Boyle in his book Scout’s Honor, Franklin Mathias estimated that he had 1100 sex acts with 242 boys over a 30-year period.

In 1986, Mathias was recognized as “Scouter of the Year” for the Eastern Oregon District. He worked with Troops 513 and 516, according to his BSA perversion file.

Floodlit has learned that Mathias was a Mormon stake high council member in La Grande, Oregon in 1986.

At one time, Mathis was a Scout commissioner (a volunteer who works directly with paid Scout executives to help run Scouting in an area).

Frank Mathias criminal case

Mathias was indicted Sept. 14, 1987, on multiple counts of sexual abuse involving at least five teenage boys. Some of the alleged abuse occurred during Scout trips to Catherine Creek State Park and at Cub Scout events.

The original charges against Mathias were nine counts of second-degree sexual abuse involving 13- and 14-year-old boys.

In 1988, Mathias was convicted of one count of first-degree sexual abuse and three counts of second-degree sexual abuse.

In February or March 1988, Mathias was sentenced for a class C felony in connection with molesting an 11-year-old boy during a Sunday School class.

Union County investigators uncovered evidence of more than 70 victims over Mathias’s adult life.

LDS church response to abuse allegations

In Mathias’s BSA perversion file, there is a letter from Larry D. Sorenson, senior district executive in the BSA’s Eastern Oregon District, to Phillip Robins, scout executive in the Blue Mountain Council.

Sorenson wrote that in June 1987, Mathias called him and said he (Mathias) “had talked with Pres. Dale Wyatt of the La Grande L.D.S. Stake and they had decided that he should resign his church callings and his Scouting positions.”

From that point until Sept. 4, 1987, when Mathias was arrested, Sorenson said he received no further information. He added:

“Apparently, to my knowledge, the only people who were appraised of the situation were key church leaders in the La Grande, Oregon Stake of the L.D.S. Church and the La Grande 2nd Ward, a church counselor and the State Police conducting the investigation, all of which held information in strict confidence.”

Floodlit is trying to find out more regarding the investigation and whether church officials communicated with police.

Frank Mathias Mormon church membership history

A 1962 psychiatric evaluation noted that Mathias joined the LDS church and Scouting specifically “to have access to victims,” according to prosecutors.

Mathias was an adult convert to the Mormon church, and did not go on a mission. He married in the Idaho Falls temple in 1965.

Floodlit is trying to find out whether Mathias ever faced any church disciplinary action. If you have any case information, please contact us.

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Sources

  1. Franklin Mathias — Boy Scouts Perversion Files, Dumas & Vaughn, June 6, 2014.
  2. Franklin Leon Mathias | Inside the 'perversion files', Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2012.

  • 1. Franklin Mathias — Boy Scouts Perversion Files

    • 6 Jun 2014
    • News article
    • Dumas & Vaughn

    In 1986, Franklin Mathias was recognized as “Scouter of the Year” for the Eastern Oregon District. Less than a year later, the Mormon Church that sponsored Troop 513 in LaGrande, Oregon, kicked Mathias out of Scouting after years of volunteering, because the state police were investigating Mathias. He was arrested three months later on 9 counts of sexual abuse and later convicted of one count of first-degree sexual abuse and three counts of second-degree sexual abuse. He was ordered to serve four years in state prison for his crimes.

    The Observer, a newspaper in LaGrande, reported that the district attorney accused Mathias of sexually abusing 70 young boys since 1962. The newspaper also reported that a psychological exam revealed that Mathias had joined the LDS Church and the Scouts in order to gain access to boys. Three of Mathias’s convictions were for abuse that had occurred at Boy Scout and Cub Scout activities.

    The Boy Scouts of America put Mathias on its “Ineligible Volunteer List” after his arrest. This process included creating an “IV File” or “Perversion File” documenting the reasons why Mathias was barred from registering as a Scout volunteer. The file contains an October 7, 1987, letter to Paul Ernst, National Director of the Registration Service, from Phillip W. Robins, a state level Scout Executive, who wrote, “So far, we are not involved and do not have any lawsuits pending against us. For the time being, I guess we wait and keep our fingers crossed.”

    It is amazing to me to read things like this from the Boy Scouts. How is it possible for Robins to state that “we are not involved” when dozens of young boys were sexually molested by a serial predator who had been a Scout volunteer for many years? Obviously, for Robins “involvement” only means a lawsuit and not the welfare of hundreds of young boys who had the misfortune of coming into contact with Mathias. The Scouts were more afraid of being sued than they were about the children – they clearly did not make any effort to contact the parents of the kids who had been in Mathias’s troops over the years.

    This letter reveals the Boy Scouts’ plan for dealing with sexual abuse. Rather than proactively seek solutions to protect children and weed out pedophiles from their ranks, they preferred to “wait and see” hoping that no one would sue them. The BSA never had a policy or practice of notifying families when the Scouts learned that one of their volunteers was a child molester, no matter how many boy that volunteer may have gone camping with or otherwise had access to.

    This is the mindset in which the sexual exploitation and abuse of children festers and grows.

  • 2. Franklin Leon Mathias | Inside the 'perversion files'

    • 24 Dec 2012
    • News article
    • Los Angeles Times

    [Floodlit has a copy of this document.]

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Timeline

  • 1934
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