The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in the US has been rocked by a slew of sexual abuse allegations launched against it in California in the latest scandal to hit the organization that is better known as the Mormon church.
A three-year look-back legal window that allows adult survivors of sexual assault to file claims in California has produced almost 100 allegations of childhood sexual abuse by Mormon leaders.
The claims, in keeping with similar allegations against the Catholic church, the Church of Scientology, the Boy Scouts of America and other hierarchical institutions in the US, have a consistent theme: alleging that officials used their power to groom, manipulate and abuse children, and that senior leaders of the institution that either knew or should have known about the abuse did not act to halt it.
In the most recent claims against the Utah-based church, five plaintiffs allege they were abused in San Diego county, including three who say they were sexually assaulted by the top spiritual leaders of their congregations.
Several allege they disclosed the abuse to other church leaders. A female plaintiff alleged that the leaders “acted to protect” the abusers and the church “handled the repeated allegations internally as a ‘matter of sin’ and not one leader reported any matter to police”.
A woman from Escondido alleged that she was sexually assaulted from 1961 to at least 1978 by two male family members, including a bishop and a “home teacher” assigned to deliver spiritual lessons.
Another claim filed on behalf of the estate of woman alleges repeatedly abused by two LDS home teachers beginning in 1961. A man alleges he was abused between five and nine times over a two-month span in 1978 by his bishop, when he was 14. He alleges he later disclosed the abuse to the bishop of a different area but was “ignored and disregarded plaintiff”.
Another claims he was assaulted by a bishop in 1995 and reported the abuse to his father, who in turn reported it to an LDS official who warned him “that he needed to support his son’s abuser or risk being excommunicated from the church”.
A fifth claimant claims he was abused, at age 16, during private lessons by a bishop who told him, the lawsuit alleged, that “if he kept quiet, he would go to heaven, but if he told of the abuse, he would go to hell”.
Michael Carney, a Los Angeles attorney with Slater Slater Schulman, told the San Diego Tribune that the LDS church is unique because of “how much power and influence the church has over people’s lives”.
A church spokesperson said that “abuse of a child or any other individual is inexcusable. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes this, teaches this, and dedicates tremendous resources and efforts to prevent, report and address abuse” and outlined steps related to abuse LDS church leaders and members are instructed to follow: stop the abuse, help victims receive care and comply with whatever reporting is required by law.
But the spokesperson also noted that the cases were filed by a single contingency law firm, “which has aggressively marketed for clients” and many are decades old and some potential witnesses have died.
“The church takes these claims seriously and is carefully investigating each case individually,” the spokesperson added. “Early investigation has revealed multiple discrepancies in many of the claims.”
The lawsuits against the LDS church have become so numerous, and with so many common threads, that attorneys want to consolidate the actions into a single multi-district litigation in the central district of California.
One focus of the litigation against the church involves claims that an LDS “help line” was used to suppress reports of abuse and shield abusers, not to help victims. The LDS church’s general handbook directs church leaders to “not involve themselves in civil or criminal cases for members in their units without first consulting with Church legal counsel”.
“Institutions are more concerned about their public appearance because that translates into monetary donations,” said Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney known for representing sexual abuse claims against the Catholic church. “History has taught us that first and foremost institutions protect themselves and not the child.”
But the success of claims against individuals and institutions is not as legally sure-footed as it was at the onset of the #MeToo movement seven years ago. Earlier this week, Jay-Z filed a lawsuit against attorneys Tony Buzbee and David Fortney and their Jane Doe client over a lawsuit claiming sexual abuse that that was subsequently dropped.
Jay-Z – also known as Shawn Carter – proposed three causes of action to an Alabama court: malicious prosecution, abuse of process and civil conspiracy against all three defendants, as well as defamation against the Jane Doe, claiming the allegations of rape against him were knowingly “false” and “malicious”.
Next month, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, 72, faces retrial in New York on rape charges after his earlier convictions five years ago for the third-degree rape of one woman and a first-degree criminal sex act against another woman were tossed on appeal.
According to Wendy Murphy, a former sex crimes prosecutor and director of the Women’s and Children’s Advocacy Project in Boston, it’s harder to prove liability in claims against institutions because the plaintiff needs to show that a high-level officer had knowledge and failed to take action. With institutions that are in some ways structured around secrecy, claims of offenses in cases dating back decades can be especially difficult to establish.
“The capacity to structure secrecy so that they can somehow avoid being held accountable by the way they create their power structures also means they have to accept the consequences that a lot of bad stuff is going to happen,” Murphy said.
Despite efforts to weaken liability standards, Murphy said, deference to the sanctity of religious organizations provides “unbelievable natural insulation from accountability and oversight, not just because that’s how the legal standards are set up but because of an added layer of first amendment protections. Law enforcement often doesn’t want to intrude behind the doors of godly places.”
Whatever the legal outcome of abuse claims against the Mormon church, says Garabedian, any change will probably come externally from the legal framework of institutional protections.
“Institutions are icebergs unto themselves, so the real change comes from the public realizing that institutions are not properly supervising and protecting children,” he said, “and the public is now more aware that they have to watch their children.”
• In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
