18 matching Mormon sex abuse cases

      • Arthur Bennett was an LDS church member in Hurricane, Utah; accused of sexual abuse of two teenage girls; allegedly faked a suicide to collect insurance money; was arrested and charged with murder and sexual abuse; died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial
      • Allen Brinkerhoff 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
      • Scott Darrington was a former LDS bishop and assistant school principal in Fallon, Nevada; convicted of possession of child pornography, spent a year in prison
      • Todd Edwards was a Mormon bishop in Menifee, Riverside County, California; in 2013, sentenced to three years in prison for sexual abuse of one teenage girl in 2006 and another in 2012; was bishop at the time of the 2012 abuse; in 2024, two victims sued the LDS church in separate lawsuits; one said a stake president and LDS law firm Kirton McConkie hindered police
      • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse
      • Gary Erickson was an LDS church member, boy scout leader and Mesquite, Nevada police detective; was arrested in 2018; in 2019, pleaded guilty in Utah to a charge of crossing state lines to engage in illicit sexual conduct
      • Matthew Felshaw was a Mormon church member in Caldwell, Idaho; charged with sexually assaulting a young child; took a plea deal and was convicted of Injury to child; received suspended prison sentence and 8 years probation and has to register as a sex offender
      • Martin Gillen was a Mormon church member in Nevada and Colorado; in 2002, Gillen was convicted of sexual assault of a 6-year-old and sentenced to eight years in prison in Colorado; in 2016, arrested and charged again with child sex abuse, but case was dismissed
      • Paul Jellum 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
      • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse
      • Michael Lister was an LDS church member in or near Cedar City, Utah and Bunkerville, Nevada; accused in Utah in 2023 of sexual abuse of two young girls; pleaded guilty to one count of sodomy on a child; sentenced in June 2023 to 25 years to life in prison
      • Boyd Lords was a Mormon church member in Winnemucca, Nevada; accused of child sexual abuse; pleaded guilty in 2022 to one felony count of lewdness with a child under the age of 14; was sentenced to prison
      • Douglas Lund was a former Mormon bishopric counselor in Pahrump, Nevada; arrested in 2011 and accused of repeated sexual abuse of two young girls; the alleged abuse occurred over a period of several years
      • David Matlock was a Mormon church member; arrested and convicted in 2022 of open and gross lewdness
      • 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,
      • 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
      • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse
      • LDS church payment: $782,000
      • Matthew Patton was an LDS church member in Ogden, Utah; convicted of sexual abuse and sentenced to prison; crossed state lines after being released from prison and was pulled over by police; tried to flee from police; charged police with knives and died
      • Karey Zimmerman was a Mormon church member in Utah and Nevada; in 2025, was accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse that allegedly took place in Nevada and Utah; the Mormon church was also named as a defendant; the lawsuit said a Utah bishop failed to report abuse allegations to police
      • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse