Lawsuit filed against church for coverup of sex abuse

[_Shulem]

YEAH! Arrest the First Presidency and throw the bums in jail!

The Mormon church is guilty of helping young boys commit suicide and should be taken down by the law of the land!

Arrest President Monson!

We want action against the crimes committed by the church now!

Paul O

[_Elphaba]

I used to post regularly on lds.net and once had an on-and-off-again conversation during the course of three years with a man whose very young daughter had been molested for, If I recall correctly, seven years by the son of good friends of his in his ward. This father was, understandably devastated, but also completely obtuse.

He also had a bishop who, albeit hard to believe, was even more obtuse. in my opinion, this bishop exacerbated his daughter's suffering, or, at the very least, did absolutely nothing to alleviate it, which is still horrific. Once the abuse became known, and after the obligatory "repentance period," this bishop basically did NOTHING to ensure this little innocent and wondrous creature felt safe and protected from what had become a monster to her.

If anyone is interested, you can read my post to him about his bishop here. It's a mild condemnation compared to posts on this board, but lds.net is very pro-LDS, and it took a lot to get me to criticize the Church on that board. Criticizing a bishop meant I was furious and had lost it.

Elphaba

[_Arrakis]

http://blog.kosnoff.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2013-10-24-Jane-Doe-1-et-al-v-LDS-Berkeley-County-West-Virginia-Civil-Action-Number-13-C-656.pdf

Is that the lawsuit?

[_suniluni2]

I've always thought the only to way to possibly get at the financial records of the church was through a punitive damages claim. This looks promising as the cover up seems to fit the MO of the church. Could be years from now but maybe we'll get a peek.

Not a chance. The church will settle at any cost long before it will allow those financial records out.

Yeah, you're probably right. The plaintiff could always hold out though, so there is some chance. I hope it gets that far and that settlement terms are not confidential. Wishful thinking.

[_Willy Law]

I've always thought the only to way to possibly get at the financial records of the church was through a punitive damages claim. This looks promising as the cover up seems to fit the MO of the church. Could be years from now but maybe we'll get a peek.

Not a chance. The church will settle at any cost long before it will allow those financial records out.

If any of you have ever read this book you will know there is not a chance the church will let this get to trial.
They will grind down the opposing council and all plaintiffs until they will sign about any settlement offered.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Sins-Brother-Curtis-Conviction/dp/B005CDUPXC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382927526&sr=8-1&keywords=sins+of+brother+curtis

[_suniluni2]

If any of you have ever read this book you will know there is not a chance the church will let this get to trial.
They will grind down the opposing council and all plaintiffs until they will sign about any settlement offered.

I don't know, these guys have associated with what seems to be a big DC law firm - Zuckerman Spaeder. It looks like they may be in it for the long haul. And thanks for the reference to that book, I'm going to check it out.

It seems that the Seattle attorneys that handled that Curtis case are on board in this case. That should be invaluable as they've been through the ringer with the church before. No doubt the church will have its own big DC or other big city law firm(s) to fight this out. Exactly what Jesus would do, yes?

[_sock puppet]

If any of you have ever read this book you will know there is not a chance the church will let this get to trial.
They will grind down the opposing council and all plaintiffs until they will sign about any settlement offered.

I don't know, these guys have associated with what seems to be a big DC law firm - Zuckerman Spaeder. It looks like they may be in it for the long haul. And thanks for the reference to that book, I'm going to check it out.

It seems that the Seattle attorneys that handled that Curtis case are on board in this case. That should be invaluable as they've been through the ringer with the church before. No doubt the church will have its own big DC or other big city law firm(s) to fight this out. Exactly what Jesus would do, yes?

Doesn't matter what Jesus would do. He couldn't hold his church together the way JSJr did. The question for LDS is what would Big Lawyer himself do?

[_harmony]

There is no way on this planet the church will allow the court to see the financial records. They don't pay those lawyers to lose.

[_Bazooka]

There is no way on this planet the church will allow the court to see the financial records. They don't pay those lawyers to lose.

Actually, they pay those lawyers to ensure the Church loses in secret.

But here's the bigger question that needed answering.
Cases such as the one described in the OP have been coming out of the closet for a number of years - what, specifically, has the Church changed in terms of it's process and protocol's used when selecting (calling) people for leadership and supervisory positions of authority over children and minors?

*spoiler alert*


The answer is - nothing

[_Elphaba]

http://blog.kosnoff.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2013-10-24-Jane-Doe-1-et-al-v-LDS-Berkeley-County-West-Virginia-Civil-Action-Number-13-C-656.pdf

Is that the lawsuit?

As someone who was sexually abused as a child myself, that was one of the hardest things I've ever read. Even if the boy is only guilty of what he was convicted of, and the complaint claims much more abuse occurred after that, the sheer insanity of his parents, bishop and stake president is beyond my comprehension. These adults literally placed close to a dozen wondrous little innocent babies in the hands of a monster, KNOWING, but of course dismissing, that he was a monster, and I am dumbfounded. How can that happen today, given the horrors of child abuse have been in the headlines for decades now?

And while this is usually not a popular position, this boy was a child himself when he started abusing, and in my opinion, this boy's parents, his bishop and his stake president also abused HIM by not contacting the proper authorities the FIRST (or second, or third, or fourth, or . . . ) time they became aware he had abused a child, by not getting him into therapy, by literally abandoning him, and most of all, by not protecting him from himself. This whole sordid story is unbelievably sad and ugly. idiots.

I do have a question for the legal eagles here. The complaint lists the church, i.e., "The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ," as one of the defendants, but while it gives a great deal of detail about the other defendant's actions, it gives only a few sentences about the Church's actions itself, and they were very vague.

I was going to write them down, but got so caught up in the document that I forgot, and don't want to go back through it. One I do remember describes when a second bishop was finally made aware of what was going on, he was told by SLC to just stay out of it, or something to that effect. I am not even sure if that wording is correct, but that was the gist of it.

I see why they want to implicate the Church if it's true higher ups tried to interfere, but the complaint does not go into any specific details about actions taken by anyone in positions above the stake president. So how do they prove the Church, itself, should be sued? They are requesting a jury trial, so are they just hanging on to information about that until the trial?

Any thoughts on that?

Thanks in advance,
Elphaba