Details
Case summary
Add info | Back to topMark Porter was an LDS church member and former Mormon stake presidency counselor who was arrested and charged with sex crimes in Utah in 2022.
Married in the Logan Utah LDS temple in 1965. Divorced in 2018.
He was a returned missionary from the Central Atlantic States.
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from Cache Valley Daily:
“Mark Chadwick Porter booking photo from the Cache County Jail.
LOGAN — An 80-year-old transient man has confessed to groping several women at a Logan grocery store last December. Mark Chadwick Porter waived his rights to a preliminary hearing and fair trial, accepting a plea deal that could keep him in jail for up to two years.
According to court records, Porter was in 1st District Court for a preliminary hearing Monday afternoon. He waived his rights and pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual battery, amended to a class A misdemeanor.
Porter was arrested after Logan City Police officers responded to the grocery store, on report of two women being assaulted by an elderly man.
The mother and teenage daughter explained how they were shopping, when Porter approached them and asked if he could give them a hug. The man said he was lonely and missed his family.
The women told police, they agreed to allow Porter to hug them. He then continued to keep talking to the women and asked for additional hugs.
The next time, the women said Porter grabbed and squeezed their breasts. He then showed them a metal rod and told them he used it to determine what god wanted him to do.
During these contacts the women were able to take a photograph of Porter, capturing his attire minus his face. They reported the incidents to store employees, who called police.
When officers arrived, Porter was gone.
The next day, store employees called police again when Porter returned. He was arrested in the parking lot getting into his vehicle. He was dressed in the same clothes observed in the photograph the women had taken but refused to answer any questions.
During Monday’s hearing, Porter was ordered to remain in jail and complete a presentence report, compiled by probation agents, about his criminal history. He was scheduled to be sentenced April 25.”
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Sources
- New Stake Presidents Called to Serve (archive) - LDS Church News - 7 Jul 2014
- Man arrested and charged with allegedly groping women in Logan grocery store (archive) - Cache Valley Daily - 16 Dec 2022
- Man pleads guilty to groping mother and daughter inside Logan grocery store (archive) - Cache Valley Daily - 8 Mar 2023
Alleged victim(s)
Add info | Back to top- Number of alleged victim(s) - note if approximate:
- Average age of alleged victim(s) at time of alleged crime(s):
LDS church response(s)
Add info | Back to top- Alleged failure to report by local LDS leaders? unknown
- Alleged misconduct by local LDS leaders? unknown
- Alleged misconduct by global LDS leaders? unknown
FLOODLIT is not aware whether the Mormon church paid any settlement amounts related to this case.
