was a Mormon branch president and leader at a youth program picking pineapples in Maui, Hawaii; accused of sexual abuse

class="case-summary-title">Facts

Summary

04/03/86 Maui, Hawaii

Brian Pickett at the LDS Maui Land and Pineapple Company.

This LDS company “recruited youths from Mormon communities in Utah and southern Idaho
to go to camps in Maui to pick pineapples in the 1970s and 1980s, which led to them being
sexually molested.”

“The lawsuit claims that Mormon men in their 20s, who qualified for supervisory positions
after completing their two-year missions, ran the camps, which recruited minors from church
wards and scouting organizations.” And claims that one man, who was appointed camp
coordinator, branch president and stake high counselor for one of the camps, molested the
two boys from 1986 until 1989.”

“Jacob Huggard and Kyle Spray said they were molested by a coordinator who oversaw
hundreds of boys at a camp from 1986 to 1988. Both men are now living in Pleasant Grove,
Utah. According to the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the church recruited hundreds of teen boys
from Utah and southeastern Idaho to work in Maui pineapple fields in the 1970s and 1980s.
The camps closed in the 1990s.”

Spray died by suicide in 2017.

Videos

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Sources

  1. Lawsuit: Mormon church covered up sexual abuse at Hawaii camps
    view source details | 23 Jan 2014 | The Salt Lake Tribune
  2. Abuse as Teens by Church Leader on Pineapple Farm in Hawaii
    view source details | 24 Jan 2014 | Christian Post
  3. Kyle Spray, Victim (died by suicide in 2017)
    view source details | 23 Jan 2014 | YouTube
  4. Jacob Huggard, Victim
    view source details | 23 Jan 2014 | YouTube
  5. obituary of victim Kyle Spray, who died by suicide
    view source details | 1 Feb 2017 | Legacy.com

Source details

Browse the Mormon Sexual Abuse Database

FLOODLIT.org has a free public database of hundreds of reports about people who committed or allegedly committed sex crimes, including sexual abuse, while they were active Mormon church members. You can browse the entire database by LDS church position, number of victims, places where crimes took place, criminal/civil case results, and other criteria.

View the Mormon Sexual Abuse Map

International map of locations where active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints perpetrated or allegedly perpetrated sexual abuse or other sex crimes, or where LDS leaders failed or allegedly failed to help abuse survivors.

 

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