19 matching Mormon sex abuse cases

  • LDS position: High priest
    • Jack Cash was a Mormon bishopric counselor and stake high council member in San Luis Obispo, California; was a practicing chiropractor for more than 30 years; between 1979 and 1995, allegedly fondled at least 11 women's breasts during chiropractic visits; license suspended in 1985; in 1995, convicted by jury of seven misdemeanor counts of sexual battery; sentenced to 2 months in jail, 3 years probation
    • Robert Dahle was an LDS church member, Utah Highway Patrol trooper; alleged rapist of a 13-year-old girl
    • Lawrence Gilbert was a Mormon church member and high priest group leader in California; convicted of sexually abusing three girls; sentenced to 10 years in prison
    • Malcolm Goodwin was a former Mormon bishop and retired pathologist and coroner's physician in O'Fallon, Illinois; US Army Reserves and Air Force veteran; arrested in 2022 for Predatory Sexual Assault of a Child; charged with six felony counts of predatory criminal sexual assault involving minors
    • Gene Guinn was an LDS church member in the Dallas Seventh Ward, Texas; in 2000, found guilty by a jury of indecency with a child and sentenced to 68 years in prison; the victim was 10 years old at the time of the crime; Mormon officials allegedly knew about the abuse but failed to report to police
    • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse
    • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
    • David Herget was a Mormon church member in Washington; convicted of child rape and child molestation in 1993; spent time in jail and was labeled a level-1 sex offender (least likely to re-offend); arrested in 2004 or 2005 and charged with child sex abuse; detectives identified at least seven victims; one child estimated that Herget abused him 1,400 times; in 2005, died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial
    • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse
    • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
    • 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
    • Gordon Neeley was an LDS church member and daycare owner in Salt Lake City, Utah; pleaded guilty to ATTEMPTED - AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD; convicted; died in 2018
    • Church discipline: Excommunicated,
    • Orin Searle was an LDS church member in Ogden, Utah; accused of sexual abuse in 2013 but was deemed incompetent to stand trial; a victim said that Searle's predatory behavior began as early as the late 1950s, and that several family members, and multiple members of the LDS 44th Ward (Mount Ogden Stake), knew that Searle was a child molester but did nothing to stop him; died in 2014
    • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse
    • Carl Sepos was an LDS temple worker and high priest in Payson, Utah; pleaded guilty in 2015 to sexually abusing an adult woman with Down syndrome and autism at a hotel swimming pool; he blamed his sex crime in part on an addiction to pornography; sentenced to 150 days in jail, 36 months of probation and 100 hours of community service
    • Keith Vallejo was a Mormon bishop in Utah; accused of sexually abusing and raping two underage girls; in 2017, was found guilty in a jury trial of ten counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and one count of first-degree felony object rape; sentenced to five years to life in prison
    • Church officials allegedly failed to report abuse