Was Scout leader,
Unknown result,
updated Jan 18, 2025 - request update
John Doe (pseudonym) was a Mormon church member and Cub/Boy Scout leader in the United States. In the 2020s, a sexual abuse survivor identified Doe as part of a “proof of claim” submission in the massive Boy Scouts of America (BSA) bankruptcy case. The claim was one of 2,854 that directly identified the Mormon church, according to an expert analysis of the LDS church’s potential total liability for the sexual abuse allegations. The alleged abuse took place prior to the bankruptcy filing in February 2020, and may have dated back as early as the 1940s. FLOODLIT is seeking court documents and more details about these cases.
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Other Mormon sex abuse cases
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- Christopher Warnock (1950 – ) was a Mormon church member in Waukesha County, Wisconsin; pleaded guilty to two counts of 1st Degree Sexual Assault of Child and one 2nd Degree Sex Assault-Intoxicated Victim
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- Maynard McFarland (1959 – ) was an LDS church member in California and Minnesota; sentenced in 2005 to 32 years in prison for sexually abusing his daughter for many years; released from prison in 2020; as of 2024, lives in Chula Vista, California as a registered sex offender
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- Leonard Loschen (1948 – ) was a Mormon church member; sentenced in 2022 to prison in Utah for sexually abusing LDS missionaries
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- Prescott De Jean (1955 – ) was a Mormon church member and scout leader in Texas; accused of sexual abuse; convicted between 1991 and 1997 of indecency with a child by contact; victim was 6 years old at the time of the abuse; convicted in 2013 of third degree felony failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements; as of March 2024, lives in Port Lavaca, Texas as a registered sex offender
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
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- Nelson Bogero (1953 – ) was an LDS church member and Primary children's teacher in Cordoba, Argentina; accused in 2017 of sexual abuse of two girls who were in his Primary class; a local LDS leader allegedly knew about the abuse but failed to report to police; in August 2024, Bogero was sentenced to 16 years in prison
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- Roy Hunt (1959 – ) was a Mormon church member in Maricopa County, Arizona; former city manager in Snowflake and Holbrook and a public finance banker at the National Bank of Arizona; accused of child sexual abuse in 2004; pleaded guilty in 2005 to a reduced charge; sentenced to prison in Arizona in 2005
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- Kip Later was an LDS church member and scout leader in Idaho; accused in the 1980s of sexual abuse; Mormon church leaders allegedly failed to tell police about abuse allegations
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- Brigham Young (1801 – 1877) was the second president of the Mormon church; married 56 women, including a 15-year-old and three 16-year-olds; was publicly accused during his life (1801-1877) of sexual misconduct, including adultery and illegal polygamy; never charged with a sex crime; arrested and charged with adultery in 1871; not convicted
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
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- Jay Toombs (1956 – ) was an LDS scout leader and private investigator in Benson, Utah; allegedly told his stake president (a Cache County prosecutor) in 1994 that he had molested boys; three LDS bishops and stake president Jerry Toombs (his older brother) allegedly knew of abuse but did not tell police; convicted in 2000 and sentenced to five years to life in prison; released in 2025; lives in Logan, Utah
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"I felt like I was going to the authorities [by reporting to multiple bishops]. I wanted to do what was right. I didn't want to see him go to prison. I wanted him to get help. [...] I was always told to be patient with Jay, he was a good man. That's what I was told again and again and again. I was even given priesthood blessings that I had been chosen to help him."— Jane Doe, mother of abuse victim John Doe-
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- Gordon Bodily (1949 – ) was a Mormon bishop and physical education teacher in Hyrum, Cache Valley, Utah; accused in 2000 of luring a 17-year-old North Carolina girl to Utah for sex while serving as an LDS bishop; sentenced in 2001 to 21 months in federal prison
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- Mark Gum (1957 – ) was a Mormon scout leader in Oxnard, California; a 2011 lawsuit against the LDS church and the Boy Scouts of America accused him of sexually assaulting a boy scout; while the boy was living with Gum (with the consent of the boy's parents), church members visited and accepted the living arrangement, the suit said; in 2012, the Mormon church made a settlement payment for an undisclosed amount
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- James Bayless (1946 – ) was a Mormon church member in Gilbert, Arizona; pleaded guilty in 2015 to two counts of molestation of a child; as of 2024, is a registered sex offender living in Mesa, Arizona
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
- View report »
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
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- Arlin Hatch was a Mormon church member in California; accused of sexual abuse in a 2025 lawsuit against the Mormon church
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- John Doe was a Mormon church member; accused of sexual abuse
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- Michael Simms was a Latter-day Saints (LDS) church member, organist and music teacher in Oregon; accused in a 2009 civil lawsuit against the LDS church of sexually abusing a boy about 100 times between 1974 and 1976; case settled in 2010 in federal court
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
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- UNKNOWN Ross was an LDS high priest and stake seventy in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
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- John Parkinson (1931 – ) was a Mormon stake president (1981-1991) and physician in Fairfield, California; sentenced to prison in 1997 for sexually abusing two female patients, but the judge delayed the sentence pending an appeal; his conviction was later reversed
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- Cecil Cartwright (1926 – 2015) was a Mormon branch president in Orillia, Ontario, Canada; accused of sexual abuse; died in 2015
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- Melvin Johnson (1936 – ) was a Mormon seminary teacher and Brigham Young University (BYU) religion professor; accused by multiple victims of sexually abusing them when they were children; excommunicated and rebaptized; reportedly confessed to sexual abuse, but was not criminally charged; two victims filed lawsuits against him; one named the Mormon church as a defendant; it settled out of court
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- John Doe was a Mormon church member in Vernon, Utah; accused of sexual abuse
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- Terry Allen (1943 – ) was an LDS church member in California; in 1987, was found guilty of sexual abuse of a child and was sentenced to six years in prison; was assigned to multiple trusted church positions, including Sunday school president, despite the Mormon church being aware that he had raped a teenager; LDS leaders were accused of hiding his abuse from local church members; as of 2024, lives in Grapevine, Texas
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- Christian Bearnson (1963 – ) was a Mormon church member in Los Angeles, California in the early 1990s; molested a 13-year-old girl; in 1993, the Mormon church was found liable for child sexual abuse by a jury in a civil lawsuit; the LDS church then settled with the two plaintiffs, reportedly for millions of dollars (US), and had the court records sealed
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- Steven Murdock (1963 – ) was a Mormon stake high council member and former LDS bishop in Holladay, Salt Lake County, Utah; allegedly sexually harassed multiple women in his ward while he was their bishop (he was bishop from 2013 to 2017); in 2019, was caught taking photos of a young woman in a dressing room in Tennessee; pleaded guilty in November 2019; sentenced in 2019 to one year probation, 48 hours community service
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- David McGhie (1963 – ) was an LDS church member in Utah; convicted in 2000 of child sexual abuse; an LDS bishop was accused of failing to report the abuse
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- Paul Burdick (1972 – ) was an LDS bishop and drivers education teacher in Oregon; arrested in 2019 and charged with child sexual abuse; pleaded guilty to third-degree sex abuse involving underage female students in his job as a drivers ed teacher
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- Karey Zimmerman (1962 – ) was a Mormon church member in Utah and Nevada; in 2025, was accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse that allegedly took place in Nevada and Utah; the Mormon church was also named as a defendant; the lawsuit said a Utah bishop failed to report abuse allegations to police
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- Rowan Ellsworth (1948 – ) was an LDS church member and schoolteacher in Arizona; allegedly molested a 14-year-old girl at an LDS girls camp in mid-1990; the abuse was reported to a bishop Burgess, who allegedly failed to report to police, but instead encouraged the victim to forgive; sentenced to prison in 1999 for two counts of child sexual abuse; released in 2007
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- James Hogan (1939 – ) was a Mormon church member and scout leader in Oregon; in 1989, was sentenced to five years in prison for child sexual abuse; released in 1994; in 2011, a victim filed a civil lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America, seeking $5.2 million; the Mormon church settled with two victims for $800,000 and $75,000
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- Thomas Evans-Southall was an LDS bishop in Charlottesville, Virginia; originally from England; accused of sexual abuse; convicted in 2018 and sentenced to two consecutive terms of two years in prison
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- Marvin Harker (1968 – ) was an LDS bishop in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in 2016; reportedly confessed to his mission president in 1987 to sexually abusing multiple children; also reportedly confessed to his bishop; both leaders told him not to report to police, according to records in a 2016 criminal case; convicted in 2019 (alleged abuse 1986-93); sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison; registered sex offender
- View report »
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
- View report »
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- John Doe was a Mormon church member in Tacoma, Washington; allegedly sexually abused a preschooler in his ward in the 1980s; the LDS church settled with the abuse survivor for $1.1 million in 2023
- View report »
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
- View report »
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- Bishop Baldwin was a Mormon bishop in Pittsburg, California in 1989; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse that allegedly lasted from 1989 to 1997, when the victim was 5 to 13 years old; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
- View report »
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- Matthew Doyle (1973 – ) was an LDS bishop in Copperas Cove, Texas (2nd Ward) in the 2000s; was a high school basketball coach; convicted in 2011 of sexual assault
- View report »
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- Virgil Larson was a Mormon church member and first counselor in an LDS ward bishopric in Chubbuck, Idaho; arrested in September 2024 and charged with sexual abuse of five boys, ages 12-15; he knew the boys from LDS ward activities and was their priesthood leader; as of March 2025, a jury trial was scheduled for April 8
- View report »
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- John Doe was an LDS church member in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
- View report »
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- Ronald Kerlee was a Mormon seminary teacher, Sunday school leader and youth leader in Corvallis, Oregon; convicted of Sodomy III (Class C Felony) for sexual abuse of a child; accused of sexually abusing multiple children; was also a licensed counselor in Oregon until his license was revoked in 2014 after he allegedly engaged in sexual activities with a male client
- View report »
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- Dennis Schult (1935 – ) was a Mormon church member and scout leader in southern California; pleaded no contest to two counts of child molestation as part of a plea agreement wherein six other molestation charges were dropped; sentenced in 1991 to eight years in prison for sexually abusing two of his scouts for several years; as of 2024, registered sex offender living in Granada Hills, California
- View report »
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- Steven Hammock (1941 – ) was an LDS church member in Utah; pleaded guilty in 1983 to two counts of forcible sex abuse of a child and served six months in an inpatient treatment facility; the LDS church excommunicated him, but during a civil suit filed in 1989 by the victim, it refused to divulge information that Hammock gave to church officials; in 1997, a federal judge awarded $150,000 in damages to the victim
- View report »
"When is everyone going to realize that this shit's got to stop?"— Jane Doe, abuse survivor-
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- Matthew Anderson was an LDS church member in West Haven, Utah; accused of sexual abuse; convicted
- View report »
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- Juan Flores Atenco (1955 – ) was a Mormon branch president in West Valley City, Utah for five years, including in the early 2000s; accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl in his office and another room at an LDS church building; convicted in 2012 of misdemeanor forcible sexual abuse and unlawful detention; sentenced to zero to one year in jail; in March 2025, charged with rape and object rape (alleged crimes in 2002)
- View report »
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- John UNKNOWN was a Mormon church member; accused of sexual abuse
- View report »
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- Peter Brackner was second counselor in an LDS bishopric in Purvis, Mississippi, and a scoutmaster; accused of sexual abuse
- View report »
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