Douglas Edwin Holyoak

Case report

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Doug Holyoak was a Mormon bishop in Sycamore, Illinois from about 1999 to 2004.

In 2024, Holyoak was accused in a civil lawsuit of sexual assault of an underage girl in his office at church when she reported sexual harassment by other youth.

Holyoak allegedly covered up the assault with the help of a stake presidency counselor (Michael John Evans).

The lawsuit was filed by the sexual abuse victim against the Mormon church, Holyoak and Evans.

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In 1999, when the victim was 14 years old, she and her family moved to Sycamore, Illinois, where she became an active member of the Sycamore Ward, according to the complaint.

Over the next year, several boys in the ward youth program “repeatedly bullied, ridiculed, and sexually harassed [the victim] about her physical appearance, especially her developing breasts.”

On a Wednesday evening in 2000, the victim went to Bishop Holyoak’s office at the church building in Sycamore to report the harassment to him, the complaint said.

She “was wearing an oversized men’s shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes” as part of a routine concerted effort to “cover her developing body and avoid sexual attention,” according to the lawsuit.

Instead of offering help or counseling, Holyoak “endorsed the male members’ inappropriate behavior and told Plaintiff that the male youth would not make such offensive comments ‘if her breasts were not so big.'”

The lawsuit said Holyoak “blamed Plaintiff and blatantly told her that her breasts were a ‘distraction’ for the male youths at the Sycamore Ward.”

Holyoak “then reached over and slapped Plaintiff’s breasts.” She “immediately started crying,” the suit said.

In reply, Holyoak allegedly “feigned shock at the sight of Plaintiff’s tears and said he did ‘not understand what was going on.'”

A week later, the victim went to a counselor in the Rockford Stake presidency, Michael Evans. The lawsuit said she told Evans that Holyoak had sexually assaulted and harassed her.

Evans told the victim to wait in his office, left briefly, and returned with Holyoak, the complaint said.

Evans and Holyoak then lied to the victim, “telling her that nothing had happened,” according to the complaint.

Evans “then pulled Plaintiff aside and reiterated that ‘nothing happened’ and Defendant Holyoak never touched her as she claimed.”

When the victim tried to explain that Holyoak sexually assaulted her, Evans “promptly dismissed” her “and ordered her to ‘behave’ herself,” the lawsuit said.

Evans also told the girl that “she needed to conduct herself as a young lady and ‘control her urges,'” the complaint said.

When the teenager again tried to explain that Holyoak sexually assaulted her, Evans allegedly dismissed her and ordered her to “behave” herself.

Holyoak and Evans “added that any harassment Plaintiff experienced at the hands of male youths occurred because she dressed “promiscuously,” according to the suit.

About a year later, a male youth ward member again sexually harassed the victim, who tried to report the incident to “Sister Mel,” a female adult supervisor of the ward’s youth program, the suit said.

The supervisor told the victim that Bishop Holyoak “needed to handle the situation because it involved a male Church member.”

The victim reluctantly went to Holyoak’s office to report the harassment “out of pure desperation”, according to the lawsuit.

When she arrived at the bishop’s office, Holyoak shut the door behind her, isolating them in his office, the complaint said.

After she explained the youth member’s harassment, Holyoak allegedly “told her that he would not help her given her ‘failed attempt’ to have him ‘shunned.'”

The victim tried to tell her parents about the assault and harassment, but, the complaint said, “they too believed she was making it up.”

The lawsuit also said, “when Plaintiff’s parents were convinced Plaintiff was suffering from a mental health disorder, Defendant Holyoak encouraged them to send Plaintiff to a Mormon therapist.”

The victim said she “endured so much backlash at the Sycamore Ward and at home that she abruptly moved away — even missing her high school graduation.”

The complaint said that, as a result of these incidents, the victim blamed herself for years and continued to experience “a range of mental health issues” up to the time she filed the lawsuit.

She “struggled with severe bulimia, depression, and suicidal ideation — even going so far as to attempt suicide.”

In October 2001, Holyoak was quoted in an Illinois newspaper article as saying, “Those who are responsible for evil (should) be held accountable for their actions,” in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Holyoak’s LinkedIn profile said he was “knighted by Pope Francis into the Pontifical Order of Pope Saint Sylvester” and “inducted into the Archconfraternity of Papal Knights” in 2019.

The profile also said Holyoak was “awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Star of Ethiopia (GCSE) in November 2019 by His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie of Ethiopia.”

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