If an average Mormon ward has 300 members, these 64+ convicted sex offenders were priesthood leaders of at least 19,200 Latter-day Saints – nearly enough to fill the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Assuming these men spent an average of 3 years in their church leadership positions and met privately with at least one ward/stake member a week, we think it’s reasonable to conclude that they held one-on-one private ecclesiastical interviews on over 10,000 occasions, including many with children and vulnerable adults.
(**) – a double asterisk means he was a Mormon bishop or stake president when he perpetrated; no asterisk means the sex crime(s) took place after he held the LDS leadership position
Year convicted
Name
LDS position
Place convicted
1988
bishop**
Alberta
1989
bishop
Utah
1989
bishop
Utah
1989
bishop
British Columbia
1990
bishop**
New Mexico
1991
bishop**
Arizona
1992
bishop**
Texas
1994
bishop
Oklahoma
1994
stake president**
Utah
1996
bishop**
Idaho
1997
stake president**
California
2000
bishop
Alberta
2001
bishop**
Ontario
2002
bishop**
Utah
2002
bishop
California
2002
bishop**
Utah
2004
stake president**
Idaho
2004
bishop
Argentina
2006
bishop
Utah
2007
stake president
Nevada
2008
bishop
Ohio
2008
bishop
Texas
2008
bishop
Utah
2008
bishop
England
2009
bishop
Utah
2011
bishop**
Texas
2011
bishop
Mississippi
2011
bishop**
Utah
2013
bishop**
California
2014
bishop
Utah
2014
bishop
Utah
2015
bishop
Utah
2016
bishop
Texas
2017
bishop
Arizona
2017
bishop
Utah
2017
bishop
Idaho
2017
bishop**
Utah
2017
bishop**
Utah
2018
bishop**
Utah
2019
bishop
Utah
2019
bishop
Alberta
2019
bishop**
Utah
2019
bishop
Utah
2019
bishop**
Utah
2019
bishop
Tennessee
2019
bishop**
Australia
2020
stake president
Idaho
2020
bishop**
Oregon
2020
bishop**
Utah
2020
bishop
Utah
2020
bishop
Virginia
2021
bishop**
California
2021
bishop**
Utah
2021
bishop
Nevada
2021
bishop**
Missouri
2021
bishop
California
2022
bishop**
Utah
2022
bishop
New Mexico
2022
bishop
Utah
2022
stake president
Utah
2022
bishop
Idaho
2023
bishop
Virginia
2023
bishop
Utah
2023
bishop
Texas
Note: This list is not comprehensive; for example, we’ve done very little research into relevant criminal cases in primarily non-English speaking countries. And we didn’t include cases before 1985, because sex crimes were so rarely prosecuted before then. (Related timeline)
Why make a list like this?
  • LDS church representatives have said that sexual abuse by LDS leaders or actively participating members is extremely rare (example from 2010).
  • Former LDS church president Gordon Hinckley said during a 60 Minutes interview in 1996 that “there’ll be a blip here, a blip there, a mistake here, a mistake there” among local lay leaders dealing with reports of abuse. (An Interview With Gordon Hinckley. Original segment aired Apr. 7, 1996.)
  • The LDS church has said, “The Church has long had a highly effective approach for preventing and responding to abuse. In fact, no religious organization has done more. Although no one system is perfect and no single program will work with every organization, the Church’s approach is the gold standard.” (Effectiveness of Church Approach to Preventing Child Abuse. Dec. 1, 2015.)
Did you ever attend the same ward or stake as any of these men?
If so, please message us – we’re trying to raise awareness about sexual abuse in the Mormon church. Thank you.