30 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,
      • Larren Arnold was a Mormon church member and scout leader in Idaho; in 1984, arrested for lewd conduct with a minor under 16; convicted, received a five-year suspended sentence and three years probation; Mormon leaders allegedly covered up Arnold's abuse; the Mormon church made a $50,000 settlement payment to a victim in 2001, and a payment to another victim in 2012; died in 2017
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $50,000
      • Eric Avant was a Mormon cub scout leader in Norfolk, Virginia; convicted in 1979 of sodomizing an 11-year-old; Mormon leaders allegedly knew of his sexual attraction to young boys but did not check police records; convicted in 1988 of 14 counts of aggravated sexual battery and sentenced to 26 years in prison for molesting nine boys; had as many as 41 alleged victims; the church settled a lawsuit in 1992
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $2,000,000
      • Christian Bearnson 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $2,000,000
      • Christopher Church was a Mormon high priest and anesthesiologist in Arizona; had his license revoked in 2011 for a pattern of touching women's breasts while they were unconscious; 2012 civil suit was dismissed
      • John Doe was a Mormon church member in Lake Elsinore, California; arrested in 1997; pleaded guilty to committing lewd acts with a child under age 14; spent three years in state prison; in December 2022, the LDS church paid $995,000 to settle its part of a related civil lawsuit wherein a jury awarded the victim $2.28 billion
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $995,000
      • John Doe was an LDS church member and former Mormon bishop in Alabama, Alaska and Texas; in 2022 or 2023, confessed to child sexual abuse to his LDS bishop and stake president in Texas, according to a person familiar with the case; they reported him to local police in 2023; in 2024, a plaintiff filed a civil lawsuit against him; Doe and the church settled with the victim in 2025
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • Edwin Dyer was a Mormon church member and scoutmaster in central Oregon; accused of sexual abuse; allegedly molested as many as 15 boys over a 28-year period; shot and killed in 1986 by one of his victims; the Mormon church settled out of court for $200,000 with one victim
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $200,000
      • Timur Dykes was a Mormon church member and scout leader in Portland, Oregon; accused of sexual abuse; convicted multiple times; in 1987, three plaintiffs sued the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts of America; in about 2009, the Mormon church paid $350,000 to a victim to settle its portion of a civil lawsuit
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $350,000
      • Shawn Frost was an LDS church member in Virginia; arrested in 2022 and charged with child sexual abuse; in 2023, sued in $10.3 million lawsuit alleging child sexual abuse of three more victims; he was the victim's home teacher / ministering brother
      • 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,
      • Mark Gum 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
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • Brent Hansen was an LDS church member and dentist in Spanish Fork, Utah; was also mayor of Spanish Fork and president of its chamber of commerce; accused in a civil lawsuit of receiving sexual favors from a dentistry patient in return for prescriptions for narcotics; his dentistry license was suspended for 30 days; died in 2015
      • William Hanson was a Mormon youth leader in several US states; sentenced to prison for child sexual abuse; the Mormon church settled a civil lawsuit in which the victim accused it of failing to protect him
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • Vance Hein was an LDS church member and scoutmaster in West Bradford, Pennsylvania; was convicted in 1999 of a misdemeanor for sexually abusing one of his boy scouts; sentenced in 2000 to 15 years of probation; arrested in 2011 for possessing child pornography; sentenced in 2012 to 15 to 30 years in prison; the Mormon church settled a related lawsuit in 2014
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • 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,
      • Christopher Jensen was a Mormon church member in Utah and West Virginia; sentenced to 35 to 75 years in prison for sexually abusing two children; local LDS church coverup alleged; LDS church settled civil lawsuit mid-trial in 2018 for $32 million, also spending over $27 million on legal fees; FLOODLIT.org discovered the settlement details in 2025 and made them public for the first time
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $32,000,000
      • 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,
      • Kevin Kirkland was a Mormon seminary teacher and school teacher in the Redlands, California area; accused of sexual abuse; pleaded guilty in 2016 to molesting four female students from May 2015 to May 2016; sentenced to two years in jail; released in June 2017
      • John Misseldine was a Mormon missionary in Nevada; charged with sexually abusing two children at an LDS chapel in the Las Vegas area; in 2005, made a plea deal to avoid prison, via an Alford plea to two counts; a lawsuit said a local Mormon leader failed to report abuse to police; in 2008, sentenced to prison after violating the plea deal; as of 2024, lives in Las Vegas, Nevada as a registered sex offender
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $782,000
      • Thomas Monson was an attorney for the LDS church's law firm, Kirton McConkie; In 1989, Monson paid a $75 fine and was placed on probation after he pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting sex from a prostitute; sued in the 1990s for sexual harassment; reached a settlement with the victim; was a Mormon bishop in Utah in 2008
      • 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,
      • Brian Pickett was a Mormon branch president and leader at a youth program picking pineapples in Maui, Hawaii; accused of sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit that also named the LDS church; the suit was dismissed with prejudice after a settlement in 2016
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • 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,
      • Todd Summers was an LDS church member and videographer for local children's events in Costa Mesa, California; accused of child sexual abuse that allegedly took place in a Mormon chapel and other locations; a 2009 civil suit against him ended with a $100,000 settlement payment by the Mormon church to the plaintiff
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $100,000
      • Peter Taylor was a Mormon church member in Washington; confessed to sexual abuse of his two underage stepdaughters; convicted; Mormon church lost a civil lawsuit and was court ordered to pay the victims $2.5 million; the church appealed and the amount was reduced to $1.2 million
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: $1,200,000
      • Robert White was a Mormon missionary in South Dakota in the late 1960s; in 2008, a civil lawsuit filed against the Mormon church said he sexually abused a boy while on his mission
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
      • Sean Woolf was an LDS church member and full-time missionary; accused of sexual abuse of a child; the alleged abuse occurred during his mission; the victim later sued or planned to sue the Mormon church in 2020; the church settled with the victim, according to a person familiar with the case
      • Alleged coverup
      • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount

     

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    FLOODLIT.org has a free public database of hundreds of reports about people who committed or allegedly committed sex crimes, including sexual abuse, while they were active Mormon church members. You can browse the entire database by LDS church position, number of victims, places where crimes took place, criminal/civil case results, and other criteria.