Elders quorum president

Paul Burdick was bishop of the Hillsboro Ward until shortly before being arrested. Accused (and sentenced) of sexually abusing teenage girls in his job as a drivers ed teacher. Served 6 months in jail.

FLOODLIT’s sources indicate that Burdick had previously served as the Hillsboro Ward’s elders quorum president.

“Oregon driver’s ed teacher, accused of sexually abusing 21 students, gets 6 months in jail

Published: Feb. 24, 2020, 1:12 p.m.

Shane Dixon Kavanaugh | The Oregonian/OregonLive

A Portland Community College driving instructor, accused by nearly two dozen girls or women of sexually abusing them during lessons, was sentenced Feb. 20 to six months in jail, the Washington County District Attorney’s Office said.

Paul Douglas Burdick, 48, pleaded guilty to six counts of third-degree sex abuse, a misdemeanor, in January, court records show. He had faced another 15 counts of sex abuse, which prosecutors later dismissed.

Burdick was accused of groping driving students during practice or test drives and would instruct some of the young women to perform jumping jacks to record them on his cellphone, authorities said.

Paul Burdick

Paul Burdick (Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said the suspected abuse occurred between 2012 and 2018 while Burdick taught driving courses at the school’s Willow Creek Center in Hillsboro. Portland Community College fired him in April 2019 amid the criminal investigation.

Burdick also served as a bishop at the Hillsboro Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which later removed him from the post.

After Burdick’s arrest in September, three of the sex abuse victims filed a lawsuit against him, seeking $2 million each.”

LDS church leaders in Minnesota allegedly attempted to cover up Davis’s abuse, protected him, and defended him in court.

On November 29, 2022, Michael Adam Davis was sentenced to 30 years, the maximum sentence he could receive. The judge took into account his previous convictions in Utah when determining his sentence.

David Hamblin and his ex-wife Roselle “Rosie” Stevenson were LDS/Mormon church members in Utah who allegedly took part in ritualistic child sex abuse over a period of multiple years, with multiple victims.

See also: Ritualized sexual abuse

New case: Six counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child filed in 6th District Court-Manti against David Lee Hamblin. This latest victim came forward after Hamblin was arrested and booked on 9/28/22.

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Additional Sexual Abuse Charges Filed Against David Hamblin
10/18/2022 11:58:48 am

Six additional aggravated sexual abuse of a child charges have been filed against David Lee Hamblin for abuse that occurred in Spring City in Sanpete County.

*** PRESS RELEASE October 18, 2022 ***

In early October 2022 Detectives with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office were contacted by a person who told them they were repeatedly sexually abused by David Lee Hamblin in the early 1990’s in Spring City, Utah. The victim in this case told Detectives the abuse occurred at Hamblin’s home where the victim was taken for therapy sessions. The victim disclosed to Detectives that during these sessions Hamblin made the victim masturbate Hamblin. The victim also disclosed that Hamblin forcibly sexually abused the victim. The victim also described that Hamblin administered religious blessings during some of the therapy sessions. The victim described disclosing the abuse, but that the concerns expressed were not taken seriously because of Hamblin’s standing both in the Spring City community and Hamblin’s standing because of his membership in and involvement with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After multiple times being abused under the guise of therapy sessions, the victim was no longer required to attend those sessions. The victim also described being afraid that Hamblin would cause the victim injury should the abuse be disclosed to anyone outside the therapy sessions. Investigators have been able to corroborate this victim’s statements with other witnesses.

On Tuesday, October 17, 2022, in Sixth Judicial District Court in Manti, six counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child were filed against David Hamblin. While Hamblin is not yet currently booked on these new charges, he is still being held in the without bail in the Utah County Jail on seven other child sexual abuse related charges from a separate case.

2007 – Logan, Utah

Bruce T. Jeppesen “was prominent in the local LDS ward, having been asked by the
stake president to be an elders quorum president. That position, Anderson (Jeppeson’s ex-
wife) noted acidly in her statement to Judge Hadfield, came at the same time as he was
raping her daughter on a cold cement floor in their basement.” Jeppesen “turned himself in
to the police and confessed to having “multiple sexual-intercourse incidents,” with a child,
then 12, during the fall of 2005, according to a police report.”

“The judge had agreed to a plea deal… Jeppesen would get six years’ probation and no jail
or prison time. Surprised that the victim had not been notified of the deal as required by
Utah statute and the Victims Rights Act, Judge Hadfield’s only caveat to the plea deal was
that the victim had to be told, adding that her input could still affect the case.

Utah Crime Victims Legal Clinic’s Heidi Nestel, who eventually represented Tina, argued in
court pleadings that the plea deal effectively led to Tina being “re-victimized by a system
which was supposed to protect her rights, but instead failed to even address her rights.”

“She later wrote, “Rarely, if ever, does an adult rapist of a 12-year-old girl never spend one
day in jail or prison — yet, this was the known agreement at the time of plea.”

On January 8, 2008 Jeppesen was sentenced on two second-degree felony counts of child
sexual abuse. Deputy Attorney General Kristine Knowlton, told the court that Jeppesen’s
confession, supposedly an act of contrition, was “cloaked in secrecy and deception, and as
a result of that, the damage to the victim and her family has been extraordinary.”

“Knowlton got the plea deal quashed, and Jeppesen was sentenced to two concurrent
terms of 15 years in the Utah State Prison.”

Carl Matthew Johnson is a former LDS bishop, a former Utah city mayor, and a convicted child sexual abuser.

FLOODLIT has purchased court and police documents related to Johnson’s case.

Between approximately 1964 and 1967, Johson served a full-time Mormon mission to Ireland. The men serving as mission president there during those years: Stephen R. Covey (1962-65) and Rolland L. Jaussi (1965-67).

In 1967, Johnson was married in an LDS temple.

In 1972, Johnson was serving as elder’s quorum president of the West Bountiful 2nd Ward in West Bountiful, Utah.

In 1973, Johnson was serving as first counselor in the bishopric of the West Bountiful 2nd Ward.

From 1974 to 1979, Johnson was a Mormon bishop of the West Bountiful 2nd Ward.

Between 1985 and 1996, Johnson sexually abused at least three children.

From 1990 to 1997, Johnson was mayor of West Bountiful, Utah, just outside of Salt Lake City.

From 1999 to 2014, Johnson was the director of the Copyright Office at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah.

In 2016, Johnson and his wife began serving an LDS mission together in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the New Zealand Wellington mission. Their primary assignment was to serve in the LDS church seminary and institutes of religion program.

On 2022-09-07, Johnson was arrested and Orem, Utah and booked into the Davis County Jail.

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In September 2022, Johnson’s wife filed for divorce.

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On 2023-01-24, Johnson pleaded guilty to charges 1, 9, 10 and 11; the other charges were dismissed.

Count 1: first-degree felony – aggravated sexual abuse of a child – victim 1 – offense date: between 1998-01-01 and 1998-06-30

Count 9: first-degree felony – aggravated sexual abuse of a child – victim 3 – offense date: between 1993-04-16 and 1994-04-16

Count 10: first-degree felony – aggravated sexual abuse of a child – victim 4 – offense date: between 1987-08-12 and 2011-08-12

Count 11: second-degree felony – sexual abuse of a child – victim 2 – offense date: between 1983-05-11 and 1984-11-01

Sentencing is scheduled to take place on 2023-03-02.

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from US News:

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“SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former Utah city mayor and bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been arrested on accusations he sexually abused at least three children decades ago.

Carl Matthew Johnson, 77, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Davis County jail in northern Utah on suspicion of seven counts of sex abuse of a child, according to a probable cause statement.

Investigators say Johnson acknowledged abusing three victims in 1985, 1993 and 1996 and estimated there was a total of six victims as young as 2-years-old, according to the document. He told investigators he had struggled “controlling his sexual urges” most of his life.

Some of the alleged abuse occurred in the same years as he was mayor of West Bountiful, a city just outside of Salt Lake City that he led from 1990-1997.

The investigation is still ongoing, but so far Johnson is only booked on charges stemming from three victims. Johnson had not yet been charged as of Thursday afternoon and it was unknown if he had an attorney.

Johnson was in a “position of trust” over each victim, but investigators don’t explain what that was in the probable cause document. Stephanie Dinsmore, spokesperson for Davis County Sheriff’s Office, also declined to explain.

The victims told investigators they were told not to tell anyone, and Johnson used his position to suppress disclosures, according to the probable cause statement.

Dinsmore initially declined Thursday to provide information about when Johnson was a bishop over a congregation of the faith known widely as the Mormon church, saying in a text that the agency would not be commenting on Johnson’s “affiliation” with the faith.

She later disclosed that he was a bishop from 1974-1979. Bishops are lay clergy who oversee local congregations for a few years at a time in a rotating role reserved only for men in the faith known widely as the Mormon church.

Sam Penrod, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a statement the allegations are “serious and deeply troubling” and reiterated the church stance that the faith doesn’t tolerant any kind of abuse.

“Those who engage in abusive behavior are rightfully subject to prosecution by legal authorities and also face loss of church membership,” Penrod said.

The faith has come under scrutiny following an Associated Press investigation that found flaws in how it handles reporting of sex abuse allegations made to bishops. The church has defended the system and alleged AP has mischaracterized its reporting system.

The AP reported Thursday that a Utah lawmaker was the person who advised a church bishop in Arizona not to report a confession of child sex abuse to authorities, a decision that allowed the abuse to continue for years, according to records filed in a lawsuit.”

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2023-03-02: Former Latter-day Saint bishop, West Bountiful mayor gets maximum sentence after child abuse convictions

“DAVIS COUNTY, Utah, March 2, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Carl Matthew Johnson, a former Latter-day Saint bishop and two-term mayor of West Bountiful, has learned his sentence for multiple counts of aggravated sexual abuse of children in the 1980s and 1990s.

A Davis County judge handed down the maximum sentence on three counts of aggravated sexual abuse, a first-degree felony, and one count of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.

Johnson, 78, was sentenced to serve three terms of nine years to life each for first-degree felonies, and one term of one to 15 years on a second-degree felony. The sentences will run consecutively, the judge ruled.

An additional seven charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child were dismissed without prejudice as part of a plea deal accepted Jan. 24.

In the cases considered, all offenses were committed between 1983 and 1997.

Johnson, a resident of Orem in recent years, was arrested in September by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office.

“During the investigation, multiple victims were identified and interviewed, and all disclosed numerous instances of abuse by Johnson,” charging documents say. “Johnson was a Davis County resident when the crimes occurred.”

The probable cause statement says “Johnson has showed a long history of sexual abuse of children some as young as 2 years old. Johnson admitted that he has a problem of controlling his sexual urges and has struggled with this problem for most of his life.

“Carl has held numerous positions of trust in his church as being a bishop in the LDS church and as a prior mayor of *Bountiful.” (*Johnson was mayor of West Bountiful in the 1990s.)

Johnson’s charging documents say police interviewed three witnesses, all of whom said Johnson held a position of trust in their lives. The victims interviewed at that time reported being between the ages of 5 and 12 at the time of their first abuse.

Johnson currently is an inmate at the Davis County jail.”