6 matching Mormon sex abuse cases

  • Criminal case result: Overturned/reversed
    • Thomas Dawkins was an LDS church member in Columbia, South Carolina; accused of sexual abuse; convicted in 1986; the conviction was later overturned
    • 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
    • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse
    • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
    • Thad Jesperson was an LDS church member in Murietta, California; accused of sexually abusing 8 of his elementary students at Toler Elementary School
    • Phillip Rimmasch was a Mormon church member and scout leader in Utah in the 1980s; had a 50-plus year career as a mortician; convicted of child sexual abuse; on appeal, the Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 1989
    • Homer Van Matre was an LDS church member in Salt Lake County, Utah; found guilty of sexual abuse of child and sodomy on a child; charges were reversed on appeal when child recanted her story