Joseph Walker was a former Mormon bishop, stake presidency counselor and LDS Public Affairs employee in Utah; charged in 2025 with three third-degree felony counts related to child sexual exploitation; allegedly “engaged in several sexually explicit conversations within which he sought or attempted to seduce, lure, and entice [a 14-year-old girl] into engaging in multiple sexual acts,” per a police affidavit.
Full case report: https://floodlit.org/a/b342/
Joseph Walker (Joe Walker) was a former Mormon bishop and LDS Public Affairs employee in Washington, Utah.
In 2025, Walker was charged with one third-degree felony count of enticing a minor and two third-degree felony counts of distributing material harmful to a minor.
According to a police affidavit obtained by Floodlit, Walker allegedly “engaged in several sexually explicit conversations within which he sought or attempted to seduce, lure, and entice Minor into engaging in multiple sexual acts.”
The “Minor” was an undercover persona of a 14-year-old female created by a detective with the Layton Police Department in Layton, Utah.
“Minor made it abundantly clear that her age was 14. Despite this, WALKER, believing that Minor was 14-years-old continued his actions to engage in sexual activities,” the affidavit stated.
Walker was a Mormon bishop in the early 1990s in the Bountiful area of Utah. Floodlit is trying to determine the name of the ward of which Walker was bishop.
In 1993, Walker was second counselor in the Bountiful Utah Orchard stake presidency, according to the Mormon church’s 1993 directory of officials (Floodlit owns a copy, thanks to your donations).
For three years, Walker worked for the LDS church’s Public Affairs department.
Walker wrote numerous articles for the church-owned Deseret News, including a weekly syndicated column called ValueSpeak, in which he discussed “traditional values.”
At the time of the charges against Walker in 2025, he was a communications director for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).
Walker is listed as a co-author of a biography of deceased Mormon apostle Russell Ballard, Anxiously Engaged (2021).
