LDS CHURCH SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVORS
Don't Suffer in Silence
Any Longer
Hold sexual predators in the Mormon Church accountable. Seek justice, and talk to our abuse lawyers today. Compensation may be available.
If you or a loved one has been abused by a member of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church), you have rights and options for recovery.
of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church), you have rights and options for recovery.
As Featured In
Widespread Abuse in the Mormon Church
Few people knew about the persistent problem of child sexual abuse in the Mormon Church. For decades, elders in the Mormon Church silenced any allegations against them through quick cover-ups. Now, cases are finally coming into the light.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stretches across the world with over 16 million members and more than 30,000 congregations. Though the LDS Church claims they care for the poor and needy, they've repeatedly failed to care for innocent children victimized by sexual abuse within the Mormon Church's organizations. For nearly a century the Mormon Church quieted sexual abuse crimes within their walls. Reports from victims reveal that LDS Church elders, members, and volunteers repeatedly abused children under their care. Instead of seeking help for victims and holding predators accountable, LDS officials hid abuse cases through quiet dismissals or clergy transfers. Instead of trying to protect the children under their care, elders protected the reputation of the Church.
Map of LDS Abuse Locations
Click to view a list of locations by state and city where our clients reported they were abused by LDS leaders.
VIEW MAPSTORIES COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Sexual Abuse Hidden By the Mormon Church
In many of the Mormon abuse cases coming into the light, LDS leaders went out of their way to hide or dismiss reports of sexual abuse. Leaked documents from the Mormon Church indicate missionaries, Church leaders, and LDS volunteers molested children and were never reported to the authorities; they were simply moved. Hear the first-hand accounts of sexual abuse victims within the Mormon Church in our mini video gallery. If you were sexually abuse in the Mormon Church, come forward, share your story, and help end the problem of LDS sexual abuse.
Types of Mormon Sexual Abuse Cases
The Mormon Church isn’t just a building. It’s a network of affiliated programs, organizations, and activities where children have been sexually abused. Children have been molested in countless LDS programs, including:
- Scouting Programs
- The Indian Placement Program
- Foster Care or Adoption Programs
- YMMIA or Young Women's Programs
- LDS Church-Sponsored Activities
- Church Buildings
- Youth Camps and Programs
Map of LDS Abuse Locations
Click to view a list of locations by state and city where our clients reported they were abused by LDS leaders.
VIEW MAPSEXUAL ABUSE COVER-UPS
How Did This Happen?
ABUSE OF AUTHORITY
"FORGIVE" OVER REPORTING CRIMES
SAVING CHURCH REPUTATION, NOT PEOPLE
24-HOUR HELPLINE ABUSE
In the mid 1990’s the LDS church introduced a “helpline” for clergy to call in the event of child sexual abuse. Although advertised as a tool to help prevent child sexual abuse, over time it was discovered that the church’s helpline was nothing more than an alternate phone number that rang to the church’s attorneys, where bishops provided information about whether the church might have legal liability in a given situation and were told by the church's attorneys to make sure that child abusers went to legal counsel before they went to civil authorities.
WERE YOU ABUSED IN THE MORMON CHURCH?
Call for Your Free, No-Obligation Case Evaluation
Do You Believe You Have a Case Against the LDS Church?
You may have a case against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for childhood sexual abuse if:
Most Mormon Sexual Abuse Claims Come From the Following Groups:
Mormon Missionaries
Mormon missionaries are members of the LDS church from all over the world who leave their homes for a period of 18 months to 2 years to share their beliefs and serve in other states and/or countries. These “Elders” and “Sisters” are not paid by the Church to be missionaries, but they act as representatives of the Church on their mission. LDS missionaries typically travel in pairs, acting as each other’s “companions” throughout the duration of their mission.
They go through communities volunteering and teaching about the Book of Mormon to locals, and frequently get invited into peoples’ homes to chat more intimately. People can even go online and request a missionary to visit them if they are curious about the Mormon Church. However, little do they know they could be welcoming a sexual predator into their homes and lives.
Ward Leader Abuse
Some bishops have pushed the boundaries of these interviews and ask questions that quickly cross over into sexual harassment. Bishops have been found to interrogate youth about their sexual morality to the point of making minors feel attacked or violated from the sexually probing questions. Questions may include whether the youth were dressed or not during a sexual transgression, what clothes they took off, or did where someone touched them and how.
Some minors have even reported bishops using minors’ confessions of sexual sins to become aroused, live out sexual fantasies through the youth, or exploit the child’s vulnerability to molest them. Because LDS children are taught to revere their bishop from a young age, some are frightened to speak up if their bishop abuses them due to fear of reprimand or sinning against someone who speaks on behalf of the Church and God.
Boy Scouts of America
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has partnered with the Boy Scouts of America for over 100 years. According to the Washington Post, almost 20% of all the Boy Scouts’ members belong to the Mormon Church. Boys in the Church automatically become part of the Boy Scouts or are strongly encouraged to join when they are of age.
Many of the LDS Church’s bishops and ward leaders lead Scout troops or actively volunteered in Scouting programs. Ward bishops even have the task of choosing and supervising Scout leaders in the LDS church. Numerous Scouting troops are sponsored by the LDS Church, as well.
However, claims assert that child sex abuse committed by both Mormon and non-Mormon Scoutmasters and/or volunteers was masked or not reported to the authorities. Allegedly, the Scouts and LDS Church focused on saving the face and reputation of both the BSA and the Mormon Church instead of protecting innocent youth from predators.
Because the Mormon Church and bishops are so involved within the Boy Scouts of America, LDS members who survived sexual abuse in Scouting say the Mormon Church is responsible for knowingly placing minors in danger of molesters and not reporting child sexual abuse to local authorities.
Indian Placement Program
Also known as the Indian Student Placement Program (ISPP) or the Lamanite Placement Program, the Indian Placement program was operated by the Mormon Church from 1954 to 1996. In this program, Native American students who were members of the LDS Church were placed in foster homes of other during the school year. Experts estimate that approximately 50,000 children were placed in foster homes through this program.
Over the years, increasing sexual abuse allegations have come into the light, each of the cases linked to the ISPP. These cases indicate Native American children placed in LDS foster homes were sexually abused by their Mormon hosts, children in their host family, or elders affiliated with the Mormon Church. In some of the claims, children whose families hosted Native American children were abused by ISPP students.
According to these lawsuits, the LDS Church knew children were being abused in the ISPP but turned a blind eye to the abuse. “They knew there were things going on. They just turned around and closed their eyes to it,” said BN, a former ISPP participant who filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the LDS Church in 2016.
Am I Barred From Bringing My Lawsuit Because It Happened So Long Ago?
"Not necessarily. Many laws have changed to help victims who were abused, even many decades ago. We are here to fight for your rights."
Many state legislatures are sick of the Mormon Church and other institutional cover-ups that allowed sexual predators to abuse millions of children over the past century. You do not have to suffer in silence anymore. We are here to help victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the Mormon Church---please contact us today to learn more.
START NOWReported Incidents of Sexual Abuse in the Mormon Church
1981
A 14-year-old Latter-day Saints boy was molested by Scout volunteer Dennis Empey during a Scouting camping trip in 1981. While the BSA put Empey on its Ineligible Volunteer Files in 1988 for molesting scouts, records in Empey’s files indicated that he was never reported to the police. An LDS boy who was abused by Empey told his father in 1987 that he was abused by Empey in 1981 in an LDS chapel, but no one from the Church or BSA reported the abuse to the police.
1982
As a young boy, a former scout claimed that he was sodomized and endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of his scout leader, James Schmidt, in 1982. The scout says the BSA and LDS Church were both notified as early as 1979 that Schmidt was abusing Scouts and was a pedophile but neither institution reported the abuse to the police.
1985
In 1985 a 13-year-old girl was sexually abused repeatedly by an LDS missionary assigned to her hometown. When a Mormon Church bishop learned of the claimed abuse, the bishop made a payment to the girl’s family for damages and for them to remain silent about the abuse.
Date Unknown
A young man came forward to his family and said that he had been repeatedly groomed, fondled, raped by his bishop for several years when he was about 10-12 years of age. The boy’s parents confronted the bishop, who confessed to the whole ordeal, but the Church made no moves to take action against the bishop or report the abuse to the authorities.
2008
Helen W.'s 4-year-old son, Zachary cried to his mother that he didn’t want 16-year-old Michael Jensen to babysit him anymore because Michael made him “suck his privates.” Helen and her husband met up with their bishop as soon as they could and reported the details of the abuse. The bishop said he was going to look into it and talk to Michael, but when Michael said he did not sexually abuse Zachary, the bishop simply prayed for guidance and considered Michael to be telling the truth instead of calling the police. Years later the bishop testified that he did not know about the abuse and Helen never spoke to him. He claimed that since he believed Michael as telling the truth, he believed there was no abuse to report of and felt no obligation to report it to the authorities.
2012
In a case leaked by the MormonLeaks whistleblower site, in 2012 a missionary was accused of child sex abuse in another country, but the missionary was only sent back home. The Church decided not to take action, and the local authorities were not informed.
Date Unknown
After being sexually abused by her older brothers and cousin since she was three, a nine-year-old girl was interviewed aggressively about the abuse by her bishop, told she needed to repent for what happened to her as a three-year-old child. She was told by her bishop that boys would always be after her because she was “too pretty”.
2018
55-year-old McKenna Denson spoke in a LDS church meeting that a former Mormon bishop raped her in the 1980's. She asserts that Joseph L. Bishop, former president of a Mormon missionary training center (MTC) raped her in 1984, and Mormon church leaders did nothing to remove Bishop from office or report the offense when she told them of the assault. Huffpost news reported that to confront Bishop on the sexual abuse, Denson posed as a reporter and secretly taped her conversation with Bishop. Bishop called himself an "addict," "predator," and "hypocrite," in the recording, though denies the rape. However, another women has stepped forward, claiming that Bishop sexually assaulted her in 2010.
2019
In a secret recording, Sterling Van Wagenen, founder of the Sundance Film Festival and cinematographer for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, confessed of sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1993. The Salt Lake Tribune reports the victim was assaulted by Van Wagenen at a sleepover with Van Wagenen's son. Van Wagenen stated he reached under the boy's pants. While Van Wagenen admitted his crime to leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, the leaders never reported the crime to the police and simply "disfellowshipped" Van Wagenen. He was charged with another count of sexual abuse for touching a girl between the ages of 7 and 9 inappropriately on two occasions. He pleaded guilty to these charges in May 2019.