Let’s talk about Donald Stalter…he allegedly sexually abused five children. And to keep the silence of the 5th child he held a loaded gun (multiple times) to his wife’s head to silence the girl, according to a new lawsuit.
Stalter was a high priest and sat on the high council of the Harrisburg Pennsylvania Stake. That’s not just the guy who stacks chairs after the potluck. That’s leadership. He attended the same ward as the little girl who is now suing the church, a ward that met at the meetinghouse in Harrisburg. The lawsuit says Stalter used his church position to get access to the girl.
What he did to keep a 6-year-old quiet
According to the complaint, Stalter abused the girl at his home from roughly the summer of 2005 to February 2006, when she was 6 and 7 years old.
And to make sure she never told, the lawsuit says he held a loaded gun to his wife’s head, right in front of that child, and threatened to shoot her if the girl said a word. More than once, according to the filing.
Sit with that for a second. A first grader was made to believe that a woman’s life depended on her silence.
The girl was brave enough to tell anyway. Her disclosure led to his arrest in February 2007, and he was convicted and sentenced to 20 to 40 years. He died in state prison in 2023.
What church leaders knew, and who they heard it from
Here’s where it goes from horrifying to infuriating.
The lawsuit says that before this girl was ever abused, at least four other children had already reported Stalter to Mormon leaders for sexual abuse. The complaint identifies them as his own relatives.
According to the complaint, those kids told their parents, and the reports went to bishops AND stake presidents. Plural. Multiple leaders, multiple levels, multiple children.
And the response? The lawsuit says church leadership took no action because they didn’t believe the kids.
Meanwhile, the complaint says, Stalter kept his priesthood office and his seat on the stake high council, and the church continued to give him access to children.
The lawsuit doesn’t give exact dates for those earlier reports, only that they came in the years before the girl was abused. So we don’t know if leaders allegedly sat on this for two years or ten. What we do know from the complaint’s timeline is that at least five children allegedly came forward about this man, and the first four reports apparently went nowhere.
Then it happened again, and the family was told to keep it quiet
In late January or early February 2007, the girl’s family went to their bishop and stake president. The lawsuit says church leaders advised them not to tell others in the congregation.
The complaint also accuses the church of instructing or encouraging the family not to disclose the abuse to others, including law enforcement, and of never reporting Stalter to police or child protective services at all.
What could have been spared
Let’s just do the math the lawsuit lays out. If any one of those bishops or stake presidents had picked up the phone and called the police after the first child spoke up, then by the lawsuit’s own timeline:
1. A 6-year-old girl would never have been alone in Stalter’s house.
2. She would never have watched a gun be pressed to Stalter’s wife’s head and been told it was her job to keep his wife alive.
3. She would not have carried that for a year before her family reported to church leaders, only to be told to keep it hush-hush.
That’s the whole point of calling the police: to avoid all this trauma.
The criminal case
In November 2007, Stalter pleaded guilty in Dauphin County to sexually abusing three girls between the ages of 7 and 8. He was convicted of 4 felonies and 7 misdemeanors tied to the abuse, and he also pleaded guilty to 20 felony counts of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced in April 2008 to 20 to 40 years in state prison. He died in February 2023 at SCI Benner Township. The complaint notes the criminal records were sealed because the victims were minors.
How the church is fighting it
The suit was filed July 31, 2026 in Dauphin County (Case No. 2026-CV-05824). On September 4, it was moved to federal court (Middle District of Pennsylvania, Case No. 1:26-cv-02548). Here’s what’s in the church’s filings.
- The “confidential conversation” defense. Asked about the family reporting their daughter’s abuse to the bishop and stake president, the church’s answer says that if it happened, it would be a confidential, privileged conversation between clergy and penitent, and therefore it’s denied. Pennsylvania’s clergy privilege does cover confidential information from any person. But the church’s lawyers are using it as a shield, instead of what the lawsuit alleges…The parents of an abused 7-year-old weren’t confessing anything. They were reporting a crime.
- “Not our guy.” The church’s seventh affirmative defense says it had no duty to supervise Stalter because he wasn’t a church agent, employee, or servant. Yet in the very same case, the church’s Director of Risk Management swore under penalty of perjury that stakes and wards don’t create themselves, that Salt Lake City creates them and appoints their leaders, that every policy and handbook comes from headquarters, and that the church corporation would be liable for the actions of church agents acting within their church responsibilities. So when it’s about which court hears the case, Salt Lake runs everything. When it’s about the high priest on the high council the church disclaims responsibility.
- The kid might share the blame? Among its listed defenses, the church raised comparative and contributory negligence, meaning the argument that the plaintiff’s own conduct contributed to her injuries. The plaintiff was 6 years old. That’s standard boilerplate that lawyers throw into answers, sure. But it’s on paper, it’s signed, and it’s aimed at a first grader.
- Flat denial on what leaders knew. The allegation that church leadership was on notice before the abuse and did nothing? Denied. The gun to the wife’s head? The church says it lacks enough information to respond. The church’s same sworn declaration notes it has paid every judgment or settlement in sex abuse cases involving the ecclesiastical side of the church, so this is clearly not its first rodeo. Floodlit.org has documented over 200 legal actions against the church already.
Where it stands
The case is now in federal court. The plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages on claims of negligence and negligent hiring, retention, and supervision. None of the allegations about what church leaders knew have been proven in court, and the church denies them. We’ll be watching.
