Criminal Result: Admitted guilt

43 LDS sex abuse cases found

admitted guilt

Criminal case result: Admitted guilt

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- Paul Adams (1982 – 2017) 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; as of October 2025, a lawsuit against the church is ongoing
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Not active LDS, Unknown position,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Died awaiting trial, Not convicted, Suicide,
- Civil case(s): Lawsuit v. LDS church, Ongoing,
- Alleged church actions: Church officials accused of failure to warn ward members, Excommunicated, Ward official accused of failure to report,
- View report »
- Elic Agler was a Mormon church member in Snohomish County, Washington; allegedly confessed to child sexual abuse in 2001; accused in the 2010s of planning to molest another child; convicted; released from probation in 2021
- Positions: Missionary,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Probation, Unknown result,
- Alleged church actions: Unknown church action,
- View report »
- Joseph Bishop was a Mormon church member and president of the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center (MTC) in the 1980s; allegedly sexually abused multiple sister missionaries; not criminally charged because the statute of limitations had expired (in 1984, the legal deadline in Utah for filing a rape charge was four years); civil lawsuit was dismissed after an agreement by the plaintiff and the LDS church
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Mission president, Missionary, Other leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Never charged, Not convicted, Police investigation,
- Civil case(s): Dismissed, Dismissed with prejudice, Lawsuit v. LDS church,
- View report »
- Allen Brinkerhoff (1929 – 2019) was a Mormon bishop and stake president and manager of an LDS stake welfare farm in Nevada; arrested in Nevada in 2007 and admitted to sexually abusing two children; was convicted and sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison for battery with intent to commit sexual assault, and 12 to 32 months in prison for sexual abuse of a child; died in 2019
- Alleged failure to report
- Convicted: 2007,
- Positions: Bishop, Bishopric counselor, Other leader, Stake president,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Prison,
- View report »
- Mark Cram (1956 – ) was a former Mormon bishop and stake presidency counselor, and city manager in Riverton, Utah; charged in 2006 with voyeurism; admitted climbing a 9-foot wall at a tanning salon to watch a 16-year-old girl undress; pleaded guilty; plea was held in abeyance; he completed the terms set by the court, charge was dismissed and case was expunged in 2008; as of February 2024, lives in Riverton, Utah
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Bishop, Church employee, Stake high council, Stake presidency counselor,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Expunged, Not convicted, Pleaded guilty,
- View report »
- Daniel Cupyrna was a Mormon assistant stake clerk and stake technology specialist in Middlesbrough Ward, Billingham Stake, UK; accused of possession of child sexual abuse material; admitted to wrongdoing; convicted
- Positions: Other leader, Stake clerk,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted,
- View report »
- Buckland Darrell (1979 – ) was a former LDS Primary teacher in Redmond, Washington; accused of molesting young boys in sacrament meeting and at their homes; charged with first-degree felony child molestation in 2022-23 (5 victims); admitted to sexually abusing around 6 to 8 boys; pleaded guilty; sentenced in 2024 to at least 8 years in prison; faced two additional counts in March 2025 after two more victims came forward
- Alleged failure to report
- Convicted: 2024,
- Positions: Primary,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Prison,
- Alleged church actions: Ward official accused of failure to report, Ward official accused of pressuring victim not to seek accountability,
- View report »
- Richard Dilley (1959 – ) was an LDS church member and scout leader in Burien, near Seattle, Washington; dishonorably discharged from the Navy in 1983 after admitting to abusing boys in a Scouting program in Athens, Greece; pleaded guilty in 1990 to one count of third degree child rape and five counts of child molestation for "repeated" offenses over two years of the scouts in his LDS troop; sentenced to 9 years in prison
- Positions: Scout leader, Sunday school,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Prison,
- View report »
- John Doe (1961 – ) 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 failure to report
- Church paid $unknown
- Positions: Bishop,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Ongoing, Police investigation, Unknown result,
- Civil case(s): Settlement,
- View report »
- Joseph Dunlop (1983 – ) was a Mormon church member and Primary teacher in South Jordan, Utah; accused in 2024 of attempting to meet a person he thought was a 9-year-old girl to sexually abuse her; pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and solicitation to commit sodomy on a child, both first-degree felonies; sentenced in 2024 to five years to life in prison
- Convicted: 2024,
- Positions: Primary,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Ongoing, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Prison,
- View report »
- Alan Dunn (1941 – 2017) was a Mormon church member and scout leader in Venice, California (Los Angeles); accused in 1978 of child sexual abuse; confessed to the police
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Scout leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Police investigation, Unknown result,
- View report »
- Gerald Elison (1930 – 2019) was an LDS church member and junior high school drama teacher in Orem, Utah; accused in 2014 in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy student in the early 1980s; died in 2019
- Positions: Bishopric counselor, Primary, Stake high council,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Never charged, Not convicted,
- Civil case(s): Dismissed,
- View report »
- Samuel Faber (1981 – ) was an LDS church member in Sandy, Utah; accused in 2022 of sexually assaulting a woman he met on an LDS dating app; in 2024, admitted to sexually assaulting three women and pleaded guilty to felony charges of rape, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual assault and forcible sexual abuse; sentenced to five years to life in prison
- Convicted: 2024,
- Positions: Unknown position,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Prison,
- Alleged church actions: Unknown church action,
- View report »
- John Fanning (1932 – 2012) was a Mormon branch president in Texas, bishop in Oklahoma and Boy Scout executive in several US states, including Utah; accused in 1986 in Utah of sexually abusing at least three boys, including during LDS-sponsored scouting activities; admitted guilt; convicted via plea agreement in 1986 or 1987; sentenced to 30 days in jail and spent approximately 18 months on probation; died in 2012
- Alleged failure to report
- Convicted: 1987,
- Positions: Bishop, Branch president, Missionary, Scout leader, Senior missionary,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Jail, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Probation,
- Civil case(s): Lawsuit v. LDS church, Unknown result,
- Alleged church actions: Unknown church action,
- View report »
- David Farley (1958 – ) was a former doctor in West Linn, Oregon; accused of sexually abusing more than 200 patients over a span of many years, during some of which Farley was an LDS stake high council member; in 2024, the city of West Linn, Oregon released a report about the way its police department investigated Farley; in October 2025, a grand jury indicted him on 11 felony sexual assault charges
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Bishopric counselor, Primary, Stake high council, Sunday school,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Not convicted, Ongoing,
- Civil case(s): Ongoing,
- Alleged church actions: Unknown church action,
- View report »
- Kevin Garn (1955 – ) was a former Utah House majority leader and LDS bishop in Utah; admitted in 2010 to a nude encounter with a 15-year-old girl in a hot tub in 1985, when he was 28
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Bishop, Sunday school,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Never charged, Not convicted,
- View report »
- David Hamblin (1954 – ) was a Mormon church member and former elders quorum president in Utah; arrested in 2022 and charged with child sexual abuse in three separate cases; investigated along with ex-wife Roselle Stevenson (arrested in 2023) for alleged ritualistic sexual abuse; in 2025, a court dismissed one case with prejudice after "discovery issues;" one case remained as of March 2025
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Elders quorum president/counselor,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Not convicted, Ongoing, Police investigation,
- View report »
- Joseph Hastings (1987 – ) was a Mormon church member in Clevedon, UK; sentenced to prison for sending child pornography to an undercover police officer online in 2015; sentenced to 13 years and eight months in prison, including a custodial term of eight years and eight months
- Convicted: 2015,
- Positions: Missionary,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Prison,
- View report »
- Elwood Haws (1951 – ) was vice president of an LDS church-owned trust company in Utah; charged in 2020 with 13 second degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor; admitted that he viewed child sexual abuse material 3-4 times a week over a 3-4 year span; in 2021, pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced to 180 days in jail; in 2023, violated probation; as of 2026, lives in Taylorsville, Utah
- Convicted: 2021,
- Positions: Church employee,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Jail, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Registered sex offender, Released, Violated parole/probation,
- Alleged church actions: Unknown church action,
- View report »
- Paul Jellum (1959 – ) was a Mormon scout leader in Logan, Utah in the 1980s; suspended by the BSA in 1987 after being accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old Boy Scout in his troop during a 1986 Scouting event at Camp Hunt near Bear Lake, Utah; in 1990, Jellum became a scoutmaster in a Nevada LDS ward despite his prior suspension; in 1991, Jellum admitted to the abuse
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Scout leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Never charged, Not convicted, Police investigation, Unknown result,
- View report »
- Bruce Jeppesen (1956 – ) was a Mormon elders quorum president when he sexually abused a child; sentenced to two concurrent terms of 15 years in the Utah State Prison
- Positions: Elders quorum president/counselor,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Prison,
- View report »
- 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
- Alleged failure to report
- Church paid $unknown
- Positions: BYU, Church employee, Other leader, Seminary teacher, Stake high council,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Never charged, Not convicted,
- Civil case(s): Lawsuit v. LDS church, Settlement, Unknown result,
- Alleged church actions: Church officials accused of failure to warn ward members, Excommunicated, Officials allegedly gave the accused a church duty after admission of wrongdoing, Rebaptized, Ward official accused of failure to report,
- View report »
- Larry Judd (1936 – ) was an LDS church member in Mesa, Arizona; accused of sexual abuse; admitted to molesting 12 girls over a period of about 20 years; some of the alleged abuse took place at church and at church-sponsored summer camps
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Scout leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Unknown result,
- View report »
- Franklin Mathias (1934 – ) was a Mormon church member and Boy scout leader in La Grande, Oregon; had a career as a schoolteacher; accused in 1987 of sexual abuse; sentenced in 1988 to four years in prison for molesting a child; he said that he had 242 victims over a 30-year period; convicted in 1997 of failure to register as a sex offender and was placed on probation for 24 months
- Convicted: 1988,
- Positions: High priest, Scout leader, Stake high council, Sunday school,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Prison, Probation,
- Alleged church actions: Unknown church action,
- View report »
- Daphney Matthews (1970 – ) was a Mormon church member in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; accused of sexual abuse
- Convicted: 2012,
- Positions: Youth leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Unknown result,
- Alleged church actions: unknown,
- View report »
- David McConkie (1978 – ) was a Mormon bishop (approximately 2013-16), stake president (2016-21) and deputy district attorney in Colorado; paternal grandson of Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie; arrested in 2023 and charged with felony sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust; allegedly confessed child sexual assault to a Mormon church leader in 2008; in July 2025, sentenced to five years probation
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Bishop, Bishopric counselor, Missionary, Scout leader, Stake president, Youth leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Probation,
- View report »
- Calvin McGee (2002 – ) was an LDS missionary in Virginia in 2022; accused of soliciting sexually explicit pictures and video from a person he believed to be an 11-year-old girl, and inviting her to meet in person; arrested in Boise, Idaho in July 2023 and accused of rape of a minor; pleaded guilty to two charges related to child sexual abuse; sentenced in May 2024 to three to 25 years in prison
- Alleged failure to report
- Convicted: 2024,
- Positions: Missionary,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Ongoing, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Prison,
- View report »
- Bill McKay was an LDS church member and mayor of Kennewick, Washington; admitted in 2023 to police he paid for sexual services at multiple massage parlors in Kennewick; was not criminally charged
- Positions: Unknown position,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Never charged, Not convicted,
- View report »
- Shawn Mortensen (1965 – ) was a former Mormon bishop and stake presidency member in Albuquerque, New Mexico; in February 2021, admitted to police that he had sexually abused an 11-year-old girl in January 2021; convicted of child sexual abuse; sentenced in 2022 to prison in New Mexico
- Convicted: 2022,
- Positions: Bishop, Bishopric counselor, Other leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Prison,
- Alleged church actions: Unknown church action,
- View report »
- Gerald Mortimer (1943 – ) was an OB/GYN doctor in Idaho and former Mormon temple president and mission president in the Philippines; admitted in 2019 to secretly using his sperm to artificially inseminate multiple women; a civil suit against him was dismissed with prejudice in 2021, possibly because of a private settlement agreement
- Positions: Mission president, Missionary, Temple president,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Never charged, Not convicted,
- Civil case(s): Dismissed with prejudice,
- View report »
- 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
- Alleged failure to report
- Convicted: 2019,
- Positions: Bishop, Stake high council,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Community service, Convicted, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Probation, Released,
- View report »
- Ralph Neeley (1949 – 2020) 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 failure to report
- Church paid $3,000,000
- Positions: Unknown position,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Prison,
- Civil case(s): Lawsuit v. LDS church, Settlement,
- Alleged church actions: Excommunicated,
- View report »
- David O'Connor (1953 – ) was an LDS church member and high school wrestling coach in Tacoma, Washington; convicted of sexual abuse in 1977; once reportedly confessed his sexual abuse in an LDS sacrament meeting; in 2021, a victim sued the Mormon church
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Scout leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Prison,
- Civil case(s): Lawsuit v. LDS church, Unknown result,
- View report »
- Patrick Oliphant (1992 – ) was a Mormon missionary from Carlsbad, New Mexico who was serving a mission in Michigan in 2013; reportedly turned himself in for sexual abuse of a child he was babysitting; charged with six counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and three counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor; convicted in 2015 of nine felony charges
- Convicted: 2015,
- Positions: Missionary,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Unknown result,
- View report »
- Eric Olsen (1977 – ) was an LDS church member and schoolteacher in Bakersfield, California; admitted to Ontario, California police that he had sexually abused between 200 to 300 girls, with as many as 30 victims in Kern County; convicted in 2007 in California of 6 felony counts of child sexual abuse; sentenced to five years in prison; lifetime registered sex offender; as of 2023, lives in Brigham City, Utah
- Convicted: 2007,
- Positions: Unknown position,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Prison, Registered sex offender,
- View report »
- Ryan Pugh was a former Mormon missionary and BYU-Idaho student in Rexburg, Idaho; arrested and charged in 2024 with sharing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online; orginally from Washington State.
- Positions: Missionary,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Ongoing, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Prison,
- View report »
- Jeffrey Rock (1955 – ) was a former Mormon branch president and U.S. State Department employee; lived in California, Utah, Fiji and Thailand; pleaded guilty in 2025 to three charges of sexual battery; sentenced in February 2026 in Utah to 18 months in jail; the Mormon church knew about alleged child sex abuse but failed multiple times over years to alert civil authorities, according to Rock’s relatives
- Alleged failure to report
- Convicted: 2025,
- Positions: Bishopric counselor, Branch president, Elders quorum president/counselor, Nursery, Primary, Scout leader, Stake high council, temple liaison, Youth leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Jail, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty,
- Alleged church actions: Church officials accused of allowing interaction with children after notice of wrongdoing, Counseling/therapy for victim, Disfellowshipped, High-level official accused of failure to report, Officials allegedly gave the accused a church duty after admission of wrongdoing, Ward official accused of failure to report,
- View report »
- Jason Smith (1970 – ) was an LDS church member in Indiana; in 2019, confessed to sexually abusing a child; pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2021 to 728 days of probation for battery against a child under 14 years old
- Convicted: 2021,
- Positions: Unknown position,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Probation,
- Alleged church actions: No church discipline,
- View report »
- 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 failure to report
- Church paid $1,200,000
- Convicted: 2001,
- Positions: Unknown position,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Pleaded guilty, Prison,
- Civil case(s): Judgment for plaintiff, Lawsuit v. LDS church, Settlement,
- View report »
- Robert Tubbs (1951 – ) was an LDS scout leader in Slaterville, Weber County, Utah; admitted he told a Mormon bishop in the early 1970s he had molested multiple boys; Tubbs said the bishop kept the abuse secret; nearly 20 years passed and Tubbs molested others; in the 1990s, Tubbs pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges; sentenced to six years to life in prison; paroled in 2000; violated parole; released in 2008
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Missionary, Scout leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Parole, Prison, Registered sex offender, Released, Violated parole/probation,
- Alleged church actions: Ward official accused of failure to report,
- View report »
- Thomas Wallin (1999 – ) was a Mormon church member in South Jordan, Utah; admitted to sexually abusing a child within an LDS chapel; in 2022, sentenced to 18 years in prison
- Convicted: 2022,
- Positions: Unknown position,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Prison, Registered sex offender,
- View report »
- LaVar Withers (1936 – 2005) was a Mormon and physician in Rexburg, Idaho; accused of sexually abusing at least 133 women and children as young as 13 years old over a period of 30 or more years; admitted to sexual abuse; in 1996, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery; sentenced to 30 to 60 days in jail and two years probation; the Mormon church placed him on probation and took his temple recommend; died in 2005
- Alleged failure to report
- Positions: Bishopric counselor, Stake high council,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Convicted, Jail, Plea deal, Pleaded guilty, Probation,
- View report »
- Jimmy Young (1966 – ) was a Mormon church member and scout volunteer in Texas; arrested for sexually abusing a scout in his troop
- Positions: Scout leader,
- Criminal case(s): Admitted guilt, Unknown result,
- View report »

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