LDS positions: Bishop's wife, Mission president's wife, Relief Society, - During alleged crime: Unknown position,
- LDS mission:
unknown - Alleged:
Multiple victims, Unknown number of victims,
Criminal case(s): Never charged, Not convicted, - Civil case(s): Dismissed with prejudice,
updated Sep 29, 2025 - request update | add info
Alleged crime: 
Alleged crime state:
LDS positions: 
Alleged:
Brenda Miles was a Mormon church member in Bountiful, Utah.
Miles and her husband Richard Miles were accused in a 2018 civil lawsuit of sexually abusing children at “touching parties.”
The lawsuit was dismissed in 2020 because the claims fell outside of the statute of limitations.
(A previous version of this case report stated that the case was overturned; it was not.)
Miles was the daughter of Mormon church president Russell Nelson.
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Sources
- Decades-old Bountiful case alleges church connection to abuse allegations,
- Supreme Court rules it can’t retroactively apply law that extends statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases,
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1. Decades-old Bountiful case alleges church connection to abuse allegations
Three of the plaintiffs allege that the plaintiffs' father and the Mileses were part of a group who sexually assaulted them as children when their ages ranged from newborn to 8 years old. The alleged assaults took place at "touching parties" at homes in the Mueller Park area of Bountiful, according to the complaint.
Within hours on Wednesday, the Mileses filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The motion said the plaintiffs' claims are "false and horrific" and are barred by the statute of limitations.
The lawsuit included nine exhibits. Six are declarations made by the children or stepchildren. The other three are from their mothers and a psychiatrist who treated the children in 1986.
Three children allege in signed exhibits that they remember being sexually assaulted in the touching parties by their father, their paternal grandmother, the Mileses, a teenage babysitter and numerous others.
Two stepchildren say they were raped by their stepfather.
One child and one stepchild say they don't remember being assaulted but were told they were by their siblings, parents and therapists.
A seventh child provided an exhibit, but she is not listed as a plaintiff in the suit.
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2. Supreme Court rules it can’t retroactively apply law that extends statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases
The Utah Supreme Court has ruled that a plaintiff’s claims in a high-profile child sex abuse lawsuit against a former federal judge aren’t valid because the claims fall outside of the statute of limitations, despite a 2016 law change meant to give alleged victims of child sex crimes more time to bring up accusations.
Documents
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Criminal case documents
We believe this person was never criminally charged, so no related criminal case documents exist. If you have information that suggests otherwise, please contact us.
Civil case documents
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Other Mormon sex abuse cases
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- Larry Deutsch (1966 – ) was a Mormon bishop in Missouri; arrested in 2020 and charged with possession of child pornography (child sexual abuse material, or CSAM) and accused of luring an underage teenager from Arizona to Missouri; pleaded guilty; sentenced in 2021 to 12 years in federal prison plus a lifetime of supervised release; in 2024, the victim filed a civil lawsuit against the LDS church
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