was a former Mormon bishop and dentist in Idaho; accused of child sexual abuse and of having nonconsensual sex with a woman he admitting to drugging; given a withheld judgement; in December 2023, the AP reported that the Mormon church had offered $300,000 to a victim and her mother to not use her story to sue the church, and to keep the NDA secret; arrested in Virginia in March 2024

class="case-summary-title">Facts

Summary

BREAKING NEWs – March 13, 2024 – The AP reports that John Goodrich has been arrested in Virginia.

FLOODLIT will continue to update this case report regularly. We are in touch with multiple people familiar with the case.

John Goodrich was excommunicated from the LDS church in 2015.

From 2015 to 2017, Goodrich underwent the process of divorce.

BREAKING 2023-12-04: Listen to a recording where the LDS church’s Risk Management Division director Paul Rytting offers the victim and her mother $300,000. AP article 1 | AP article 2 | LDS church response

Full text of all articles is below.

Listen to two audio recordings:

Recording 1

Recording 2

Lewd conduct case: CR-2016-2005, Elmore County District Court, Idaho; filed 2016-09-06; dismissed on motion of prosecutor (the LDS church prevented Goodrich’s bishop from testifying, citing clergy-penitent privilege)

Controlled substance delivery case: CR01-17-06661, Ada County District Court, Idaho; filed 2017-02-28; pleaded guilty, but then received a withheld judgment; charges dismissed in June 2021

John Goodrich was an LDS church member and dentist in Mountain Home Idaho. In 2016, he was charged with rape, incest and sexual abuse of a child under the age of between the ages of 9-15.

Goodrich was a Mormon bishop during at least some of the time he allegedly sexually abused his underage victim. He made a confession to his own bishop in about 2015 or 2016, and was soon excommunicated.

“Goodrich, 57, was initially charged with rape, incest and sexual abuse of a child under the age of 16.”
“However, two of those charges were subsequently dropped, and he faces a single count of lewd conduct with child under the age of 16.”

As of February 2018 the circumstances of Goodrich’s case were as follows:

He was granted a withheld judgment, meaning that if he complied with the circumstances of his probation, he could go back before the Idaho court and ask to have his conviction dismissed.

In a separate case in which a former dental patient accused Goodrich of sexually assaulting her while she was drugged in his office, Goodrich pleaded guilty to distribution of a controlled substance, Halcion, and a judge sentenced him to 90 days in jail and three years of probation.

On December 3, 2023, Associated Press reporters Mike Rezendes and Jason Dearen published two stories related to this case. Key points:

  • The accused in this case was a former LDS bishop who allegedly sexually abused his daughter when she was a girl.
  • When the victim was 31 years old, in March 2017, she told Paul Rytting, the Mormon church’s Risk Management Division director since about 2002, about her father’s abuse.
  • The victim’s father had confessed to his bishop, who had called the abuse helpline (hotline / help line), and the abuser had been excommunicated.
  • The victim and her mother had then reported the abuse to Mountain Home, Idaho police, along with recordings of conversations with the allegedly abusive father in which he admitted to getting into bed with the victim while he was sexually aroused, but he insisted in the recordings that there was no direct sexual contact.
  • Mountain Home police arrested him and charged him with a variety of sex crimes.
  • Rytting flew to Hailey, Idaho from SLC to meet with the victim and her mother. They asked him if the LDS church would allow the bishop to testify at the abuser’s trial.
  • Over a four-month period, Rytting conversed multiple times with the victim, her mother, and her advocate who was a male LDS member. Rytting told them that under Idaho state law, the clergy-penitent privilege prevented the bishop from testifying without the accused’s consent.
  • The AP has recordings of these conversations, which it received from the victim’s advocate.
  • During these recorded calls, Rytting said he could find out whether the alleged abuser had previously “repented” for his relationship with Chelsea by checking Helpline records. This would seem to be a direct contradiction to his sworn testimony in another child sex abuse case against the LDS church.
  • Prosecutors dropped the case because the bishop didn’t testify.
  • Rytting then offered the victim and her mother $300,000 to not use the victim’s story as the basis for a civil suit against the LDS church, and to keep the existence of the NDA secret.
  • Chelsea and Lorraine signed the agreement.
  • The LDS church told the AP “the confidentiality agreement with Chelsea and Lorraine did not preclude Chelsea from telling her story” and “the abuse of a child or any other individual is inexcusable.”
  • As of December 3, 2023, Goodrich is a free man and a practicing dentist with access to children.
  • According to the Mormon church, “all information about child sexual abuse passed from church members to their bishops is confidential under the clergy-penitent privilege, and all information passed from the Helpline to church attorneys is confidential under the attorney-client privilege. Meanwhile, Rytting and other church officials have said in sworn testimony that the Helpline either keeps no records or destroys all records at the end of each day.”

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Images/photos

Videos

    • Video title: Mormon Church Offered Sexual Abuse Victim $300,000 to Stay Silent After Her Father Confessed: AP
    • Video description: Listen as an LDS church representative offers an Idaho woman $300,000 to stay silent after her father, a former Mormon bishop, confessed to his bishop that he had sexually abused her when she was a girl. Source: AP

Sources

  1. UPDATE: Charges amended against local dentist
    view source details | 6 Sep 2016 | Mountain Home News
  2. Mountain Home dentist accused of lewd conduct with a child
    view source details | 6 Sep 2016 | 2 Idaho News
  3. Mountain Home dentist arrested on child sex abuse charges
    view source details | 7 Sep 2016 | Idaho Statesman
  4. Mountain Home dentist accused of illegally delivering sedative, a restricted drug
    view source details | 10 Mar 2017 | Idaho Statesman
  5. Dentist says he gave woman drug for her anxiety. She says he enabled her rape.
    view source details | 1 Feb 2018 | Idaho Statesman
  6. At drug sentencing for dentist, woman's rape claim rejected
    view source details | 13 Jan 2018 | Idaho Statesman, page A1
  7. At drug sentencing for dentist, woman's rape claim rejected
    view source details | 13 Jan 2018 | Idaho Statesman, page A3
  8. Takeaways from The AP’s investigation into the Mormon church’s handling of sex abuse cases
    view source details | 3 Dec 2023 | AP
  9. Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims
    view source details | 3 Dec 2023 | AP
  10. Church responds to AP story detailing 2015 Idaho abuse case
    view source details | 4 Dec 2023 | Deseret News
  11. Public Record Information - Detail - License #D-2090
    view source details | 5 Dec 2023 | Idaho Board of Dentistry
  12. Former Mormon bishop highlighted in AP investigation arrested on felony child sex abuse charges
    view source details | 13 Mar 2024 | ABC News (AP)

Source details

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