24 matching Mormon sex abuse cases

  • Crime years: 1960s
    • Larren Arnold was a Mormon church member and scout leader in Idaho; in 1984, arrested for lewd conduct with a minor under 16; convicted, received a five-year suspended sentence and three years probation; Mormon leaders allegedly covered up Arnold's abuse; the Mormon church made a $50,000 settlement payment to a victim in 2001, and a payment to another victim in 2012; died in 2017
    • Alleged coverup
    • LDS church payment: $50,000
    • Wyman Blankenship was a Mormon church member; scout leader, pleaded guilty to molesting boys
    • Dennis Collins was an LDS church member in Washington; pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse
    • Clark Crookston was a former Mormon bishop, dentist and college professor in Orem, Utah; accused of nearly 60 years of sex abuse of multiple children; pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated child sexual abuse; sentenced in 2022 to up to 35 years in prison
    • Alleged coverup
    • Luke Dalton was a Mormon church member; admitted to sexually abusing dozens of boys over decades in Ohio, Montana and Utah; arrested in 1997 in Utah for sexually abusing his only son; convicted and sentenced to prison; served 3.5 years in prison
    • James Denos was a former LDS bishop and junior high school teacher in Utah; previously lived and served as a Mormon bishop in California; sentenced in 2002 to a minimum of 20 years in a Utah state prison for sexually abusing four minor girls living in Utah; allegedly began molesting kids as early as 1950
    • Alleged coverup
    • Edwin Dyer was a Mormon church member and scoutmaster in central Oregon; accused of sexual abuse; allegedly molested as many as 15 boys over a 28-year period; shot and killed in 1986 by one of his victims; the Mormon church settled out of court for $200,000 with one victim
    • Alleged coverup
    • LDS church payment: $200,000
    • Samuel Gardner was an LDS bishop in the Oklahoma City First Ward in the early 1960s; accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the bishop's office at a Mormon chapel in about 1961; died in 1968
    • Alleged coverup
    • Joel Houck was an LDS church member in California; accused in the 1960s of sexual abuse; convicted of vagrancy in 1966 and served 10 days in jail; in 1967, placed in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) "perversion files"
    • Melvin Johnson was a Mormon seminary teacher and Brigham Young University (BYU) religion professor; accused by multiple victims of sexually abusing them when they were children; excommunicated and rebaptized; reportedly confessed to sexual abuse, but was not criminally charged; two victims filed lawsuits against him; one named the Mormon church as a defendant; it settled out of court
    • Alleged coverup
    • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
    • Church discipline: Excommunicated, Rebaptized,
    • Franklin Mathias was a Mormon church member and Boy scout leader in Oregon; had a career as a schoolteacher; accused in 1987 of sexual abuse; sentenced in 1988 to four years in prison for molesting a child; he said that he had 242 victims over a 30-year period
    • F N was an LDS bishop in California; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church
    • Alleged coverup
    • Vernon Sanford was an LDS church member in San Diego, California; died in 2000; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse, along with his son, Vernon Sanford Jr; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church; the alleged abuse occurred between 1961 and 1970; the Sanfords were the plaintiff's LDS home teachers
    • Alleged coverup
    • Vernon Sanford was an LDS church member in San Diego, California; died in 2000; in 2024, accused in a civil lawsuit of child sexual abuse, along with his father, Vernon Sanford Sr; the suit was one of 91 or more coordinated civil suits filed in California in 2024 against the Mormon church; the alleged abuse occurred between 1961 and 1970; the Sanfords were the plaintiff's LDS home teachers
    • Alleged coverup
    • 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
    • Alleged coverup
    • Charles Shield was an LDS ward executive secretary in England and Scotland; accused of sexual abuse; convicted; sentenced in 2017 to six years in prison
    • Alleged coverup
    • William Shubeck was a Mormon church member in San Bernardino, California; accused in 2003 of sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit against the LDS church
    • Alleged coverup
    • George Tilson was a Mormon church member in the Salt Lake City, Utah area (including Holladay); pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse in the 1990s; alleged coverup by Mormon leaders
    • Alleged coverup
    • Robert White was a Mormon missionary in South Dakota in the late 1960s; in 2008, a civil lawsuit filed against the Mormon church said he sexually abused a boy while on his mission
    • Alleged coverup
    • LDS church payment: Undisclosed amount
    • Emmett White was a Mormon church member and scout leader in Florida; was caught in 1966 by local police soliciting an adult sex worker (prostitute); denied any inappropriate behavior around scouts
    • LaVar Withers was a Mormon and physician in Rexburg, Idaho; accused of sexually abusing at least 133 women and children as young as 13 years old over a period of 30 or more years; admitted to sexual abuse; in 1996, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery; sentenced to 30 to 60 days in jail and two years probation; the Mormon church placed him on probation and took his temple recommend; died in 2005
    • Alleged coverup

 

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International map of locations where active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints perpetrated or allegedly perpetrated sexual abuse or other sex crimes, or where LDS leaders failed or allegedly failed to help abuse survivors.

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FLOODLIT.org has a free public database of hundreds of reports about people who committed or allegedly committed sex crimes, including sexual abuse, while they were active Mormon church members. You can browse the entire database by LDS church position, number of victims, places where crimes took place, criminal/civil case results, and other criteria.