LDS positions: Church employee, - During crime: Church employee,
- LDS mission:
unknown - Alleged:
1 victim,
Criminal case(s): Convicted, Jail, Pleaded guilty, Released, - Alleged church actions: Excommunicated,
updated Feb 9, 2026 - request update | add info
LDS positions: 
Alleged:
Criminal case(s): 
David Novak was a Mormon church member who worked for LDS Social Services as a counselor for child sex abuse victims.
He sexually abused a girl from when she was 11 years old to when she was 13.
He was sentenced to jail, and released after serving about 40 days.
“I will make sure that I will never, ever harm anyone again,” he told the judge.
Floodlit has searched but was unable to locate the court records.
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Sources
- Former LDS social worker is released from jail,
- Former counselor is accused of sexually abusing girl,
- Judge allows ex-LDS therapist to leave jail Novak promises no further harm, will get counseling,
- W. Bountiful social worker admits to sexually abusing 13-year-old girl,
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1. Former LDS social worker is released from jail
FARMINGTON (AP) - A former social worker who was employed by the Mormon church has been released from jail after serving about 40 days for sexually abusing a child.
A judge granted David Novak's request for release on Tuesday.
"The experience being here haas been the hardest experience in my life," Novak told 2nd District Judge Jon Memmott.
"I will make sure that I will never, ever harm anyone again."
Memmott placed Novak under the supervision of the sex offender unit of Adult Probation and Parole.
Novak pleaded guilty in December to forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, for assaulting a 13-year-old girl. He was sentenced to one year in jail and three years probation at a Feb 16 hearing.
"I just don't think jail is going to serve any purpose here," his attorney John Walsh told the court.
Novak must complete an intensive sex offender treatment program.
"I want, more than anything to change," Novak told the court.
"Therapists sometimes need therapy."
He was a counselor of child sex abuse victims for LDS Social Services.
Novak surrendered his license as a clinical social worker to the Utah Department of Occupational and Professional Licensing on March 7. He cannot reapply for five years.
Novak also has been excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which Walsh said "he dearly loved and which he admitted he shamed."
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2. Former counselor is accused of sexually abusing girl
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3. Judge allows ex-LDS therapist to leave jail Novak promises no further harm, will get counseling
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4. W. Bountiful social worker admits to sexually abusing 13-year-old girl
Documents
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Criminal case documents
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Other Mormon sex abuse cases
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- DeRon Olsen (1944 – ) was a former Mormon bishop and stake presidency counselor in Spokane, Washington; in 2024, pleaded guilty to one felony count of child molestation and one felony count of child rape; sentenced to prison
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- Douglas Hall (1952 – ) was an LDS bishop and retired Utah Highway Patrol sergeant in Monticello, Utah; pleaded guilty in 2001 to two third degree felony counts of attempted forcible sexual abuse; pleaded guilty in 2002 to one second degree felony count of sex abuse of a child
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- Wendell Thompson (1963 – ) was a former LDS bishop and stake presidency member in Clinton, Mississippi; convicted in 2011 of felony child sexual abuse (gratification of lust); some of the abuse took place while Thompson was in an LDS stake presidency role
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