15 matching Mormon sex abuse cases

      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,
      • 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,

     

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