64 matching Mormon sex abuse cases

      • James Adams was a Mormon church member in Beckley, West Virginia; sentenced to prison in 1994 for sexually abusing multiple children; in 1996, a $750 million lawsuit was filed against the Mormon church alleging coverup; the suit was settled out of court in 2000
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Paul Adams was an LDS church member in Arizona; sexually abused two children for several years after confessing to his bishop; arrested and charged; died by suicide in 2017 while in custody awaiting trial
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Leizza Adams was the wife of sexual abuser Paul Douglas Adams; sentenced in 2018 in Arizona to 2.5 years in prison after pleading no contest to two felony counts of child abuse (not sexual abuse)
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Terry Allen 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Arlo Atkin was a former LDS bishop in or near Chandler, Maricopa County, Arizona; accused of raping and impregnating a 14-year-old girl in his ward while he was her bishop; pleaded guilty, spent 132 days in jail
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Timothy Ballard was a Mormon anti-sex trafficking activist; claimed to be friends with LDS apostle Russell Ballard (no relation); accused in 2023 of sexual misconduct by at least eight women and a couple; in June 2024, one civil case was dismissed; in July 2024, a lawsuit said his DNA was found on a victim’s skirt
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Arthur Bishop was a Mormon boy scout leader in Utah; was excommunicated in the 1970s; later molested multiple children and killed five young boys; was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 1988
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Gordon Bodily 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Raphael Caccioppoli was a Mormon Sunday school teacher, lawyer and Justice Ministry judicial officer in New Zealand; confessed sex crime behavior to a Mormon bishop in 1998; LDS leaders did not tell police or local parents of children he was left alone to supervise; turned himself in to police in 2007; sentenced to five years in jail for child sexual abuse and animal sex abuse (bestiality)
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • David Cannata was a Mormon bishop in Tucson, Arizona in 2005 when he sexually abused a child who was 5 or 6 years old; was a stake high council member sometime in the 2010s; was confronted by the victim and turned himself into the police; convicted in 2019 and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison; was excommunicated from the Mormon church because of the abuse
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Max Cheatham was an LDS church member in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado; accused of sexual abuse; convicted in Colorado of child sexual abuse
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Martyn Conway was a Mormon church member in England; pleaded guilty of child sexual abuse; twin brother of John Patrick Conway, who also perpetrated child sexual abuse against the same victim
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Benjamin Covey was a Mormon church member in the 1840s and 1850s; in 1848, was excommunicated for having sexual intercourse with two girls "less than Twelve years of age" who were his foster daughters; was rebaptized and soon thereafter was made bishop of the Salt Lake City Twelfth Ward from 22 February 1849 until 1856
      • Church discipline: Church position after confession/conviction, Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Prescott De Jean 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Lionel Drage was an LDS bishop in Utah; accused of child sexual abuse; was allegedly excommunicated from the LDS church for sexually abusing one or more children; died in 2022
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Michael Driggs was a Mormon missionary in Brazil in the early 1970s; allegedly sent to a different mission in the United States after being found having inappropriate relationships with young boys; convicted of child sexual abuse in 1985 in Arizona; convicted again of child sexual abuse in 2013 in Utah; he met his victim in the Utah case at church, according to court documents
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Rowan Ellsworth 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Carlos Escalante was an LDS branch president in San Nicolas, Argentina; sexually abused his stepdaughter for 5 years, including while branch president; the victim asked local LDS leaders for support, but allegedly received none; she was punished by the church for "refusing to forgive" and for "failing to comply with worthiness standards;" Escalante was sentenced in 2018 to 14 years in prison
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • William Gillespie was an LDS church member in Montgomery, Alabama; accused of reaching inside the swimsuits of two girls and fondling them in his backyard pool in 1987; convicted in 1988 of three charges of first-degree sexual abuse and sentenced to one year in prison, plus four years of probation; conviction was reversed on appeal, then upheld; was allegedly excommunicated from the Mormon church
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Kenneth Good was a Mormon church member in Georgia; accused of molesting 4 underage girls; pleaded guilty of child sexual abuse; sentenced in 1991 to 8 years in prison; released on parole in December 1993; as of 2023, lives in Taylorsville Utah
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • John Goodrich 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $300,000
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Jay Grant was a Mormon bishop of the Adams Ward in Los Angeles, California; charged in 1981, at age 79, with five counts of forcible sexual abuse; sexually assaulted three young girls; convicted of all five counts; died in 1988 in Orem, Utah; ran "Grandpa Grant's Memory Club," a neighborhood study group for up to 175 LDS children; Grant sometimes had "students" spend the night at his apartment
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Gene Guinn was an LDS church member in the Dallas Seventh Ward, Texas; in 2000, found guilty by a jury of indecency with a child and sentenced to 68 years in prison; the victim was 10 years old at the time of the crime; Mormon officials allegedly knew about the abuse but failed to report to police
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Steven Hammock 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $150,000
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • David Herget was a Mormon church member in Washington; convicted of child rape and child molestation in 1993; spent time in jail and was labeled a level-1 sex offender (least likely to re-offend); arrested in 2004 or 2005 and charged with child sex abuse; detectives identified at least seven victims; one child estimated that Herget abused him 1,400 times; in 2005, died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Clayton Hildreth was a Mormon stake president in Butte, Montana; from Dillon, Montana; arrested in June 2004 by Boise, Idaho police for soliciting sex from a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl online; was stake president at the time of his arrest; pleaded guilty in October to a charge of interstate travel with intent to have sex with a minor; sentenced in 2005 to three years and five months in prison
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • James Hogan 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $875,000
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Caleb Horner was an LDS church member in Melbourne, Australia; arrested in November 2021 and accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy he met in 2020; found guilty in 2024 of two counts of sexual assault by touch of a child under 16; sentenced in October 2024 to three years "community corrections," avoiding additional jail time
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Roy Hunt 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Melvin Johnson 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Kenneth Johnson was a Mormon church member and home teacher in Beaverton, Oregon; a victim filed a $55.7 million lawsuit against the Mormon church saying Johnson had sexually molested him when Johnson was his home teacher; the alleged sexual abuse took place as often as twice a week for two years between 1987 and 1989
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Eric Knight was an LDS church member; former physician; pleaded guilty in 2021 in New Hampshire to two felony counts of second-degree assault in a plea deal that would allow him to get his medical license back and avoid the sex offender registry
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • George Lee was a Mormon general authority in Utah; member of the First Quorum of the Seventy from 1975 to 1989; in 1994, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual abuse of a child, a third-degree felony; registered sex offender; died in 2010
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Major Madon was an LDS church member in Mapleton, Utah; convicted of child sexual abuse; as of 2024, serving time in prison in Central Utah Correctional Facility
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Michael McClellan was an LDS church member in Las Vegas, Nevada; arrested; convicted of attempted lewdness with a minor; sentenced to prison; as of 2024, lives in Cottonwood, Arizona
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Maynard McFarland 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Robert Metcalf was a Mormon in California, Arizona; convicted of child sexual abuse in 1974; sentenced in 1979 to six years in prison; excommunicated; after prison, was rebaptized, made a scout leader and allegedly molested a scout on a campout in about 1987, according to a 1990 civil lawsuit against the LDS church; sentenced in Arizona in 1989 to 37 years in prison; 2020 lawsuit vs. LDS church
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Matthew Nash was a former Mormon missionary from Utah who served a mission in North Carolina in 1999; accused in 2001 of sexually molesting 11 girls while on his mission; pleaded guilty to charges of child sexual abuse
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Ralph Neeley was an LDS church member in the Beaumont, Texas area; was sentenced in January 1994 to life in prison in Texas for repeated sexual abuse of an 8-year-old girl in an LDS chapel during church meetings and in other locations; died in prison in 2020; the Mormon church reportedly paid several million US dollars in a settlement to the victim
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $3,000,000
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Gordon Neeley was an LDS church member and daycare owner in Salt Lake City, Utah; pleaded guilty to ATTEMPTED - AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD; convicted; died in 2018
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Joseph Neipp was a former LDS bishop in San Jose, California; in 2021, pleaded no contest to four molestation counts and was given an 18-year prison sentence, with credit for the three years he spent in county jail prior to his sentencing; father of convicted Mormon child sexual abuser Samuel Neipp
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Robert Nelson was an LDS bishop in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; accused of sexual abuse of a "mentally handicapped" woman; pleaded guilty in 1989; placed on two years probation, ordered to do 150 hours of community service, and ordered to take a conducted tour of a local jail
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • David Novak was an LDS Social Services counselor in Utah who worked for 12 years with child sexual abuse victims; convicted in 1999 of sexually abusing a girl; released from jail after serving about 40 days
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Grant Packer was an LDS church member in Idaho; served a full-time mission to Canada in 1946-48 and two senior missions to Atlanta, Georgia and San Bernardino, California; charged with child sexual abuse; pleaded guilty; sentenced to three to 10 years in prison and 10 years probation; died in 2008
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Errol Pilling was a Mormon bishop and licensed psychologist in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; went on an LDS mission to England in the early 1960s; pleaded guilty in 1988 and in 1994 to charges of sexual misconduct; in September 1994, his registration as a chartered psychologist with the Psychologists Association of Alberta was cancelled; in 1994, was excommunicated; as of February 2024, lives in Twin Falls, Idaho
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Byron Poelman was a bishop and stake president in Utah and partner in a law firm that represented the LDS church; arrested in 1994 for soliciting a prostitute; pleaded guilty to a class B misdemeanor charge of patronizing a prostitute
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Mark Porter was a Mormon church member and former stake presidency member in Utah; accused of sexual abuse in 2022 after allegedly groping women in a Logan grocery store; pleaded guilty in December 2022
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Richard Ray was an LDS church member in Arizona; sentenced in 1984 to 61 years in prison for molesting five girls; allegedly had more than 30 victims; the LDS church was involved in a lawsuit regarding clergy-penitent privilege; the church settled out of court for an undisclosed amount just before trial
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Charles Richmond was an LDS church member and LDS addiction recovery specialist in Hutchinson, Kansas; convicted of aggravated indecent liberties w child; Offender =>18 fondle child <14; in prison in Kansas as of 2024
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Dennis Schult 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
      • Michael Simms was a Latter-day Saints (LDS) church member, organist and music teacher in Oregon; accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy about 100 times between 1974 and 1976
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Glendon Templeton was a Mormon bishop, Sunday school teacher and scout leader in Arizona; was bishop of the Maryvale Ward in West Phoenix from 2014 to 2019; excommunicated in 2019; also was a volleyball coach for high school-aged girls; accused numerous times and arrested, but never prosecuted for alleged sex crimes; sued in 1997 for alleged sexual abuse; allegedly sexually assaulted multiple teenage girls
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Daniel Willard was a Mormon church member in St. Charles, Missouri; pleaded guilty to Possession Of Child Pornography and Furnish Pornographic Material Or Attempt To Furnish To A Minor
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
      • Stephen Young was an LDS church member and police officer in Idaho; allegedly abused 20 babies over a 30-year period; pleaded guilty in 2010 to lewd conduct with a child under 16; sentenced to 25 years in prison
      • Alleged coverup
      • Church discipline: Excommunicated,

     

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