Missionary charged with abusing 12-year-old convert

[_Jersey Girl]

Loran

Innuendo, baseless speculation, leaps of logic without any clear justification, and preassumptions without any perceivable ground.

Nice work, if you can get it.

So what you're sayin' is he should volunteer as a MAD mod?

Jersey Girl

[_Mercury]

What kind of legal message would be sent by taking money from the Church? Would we be telling them not to have has tight a leash on the missionaries so they don't get sued? What percentage of missionaries commit such acts? Shouldn't this have a bearing on determining whether it is the lifestyle that incites such behavior?

I've personally never understood individuals who sexually abuse others. Wouldn't it be better just to use your hand?

Missionaries, boy scouts and sexual hazing/bullying, missionaries abusing vulnerable missionaries, missionaries abusing vulnerable investigators (both emotionally or sexually), etc etc etc

The church does not run background checks on who runs the nurseries. Missionaries are repeatedly regimented down into nonexistence.

For those with the attitude that "oh well, this just happens and is a very uncommon occurrence" please look to news archives or this very site.

Child molestation is a VERY serious thing that deserves serious punishment.

16 years isolation from society should be the ultimate goal of the prosecutors when it goes to trial.

[_Jersey Girl]

Vegas,

Background checks are only helpful if:

A person is innocent
A person has been convicted

Otherwise, when a person has never been convicted, they are of no use.

Jersey Girl

[_Mister Scratch]

I would be curious to know if the Church in any way plans to subsidize, or pay for entirely, this young man's defense fund. (Or if others feel that the Church has some kind of legal or moral obligation to help out its missionaries.) Obviously, if guilty, this guy deserves a long prison sentence. However, given the "innocent until proven guilty" stipulation, how involved should the LDS Church be with his defense? Should it just leave him hanging out to dry? Or should it cough up a few dollars?

[_Jersey Girl]

I would be curious to know if the Church in any way plans to subsidize, or pay for entirely, this young man's defense fund. (Or if others feel that the Church has some kind of legal or moral obligation to help out its missionaries.) Obviously, if guilty, this guy deserves a long prison sentence. However, given the "innocent until proven guilty" stipulation, how involved should the LDS Church be with his defense? Should it just leave him hanging out to dry? Or should it cough up a few dollars?

Who? The missionary? They should leave him twisting in the wind.

Jersey Girl

[_Notoriuswun]

I would be curious to know if the Church in any way plans to subsidize, or pay for entirely, this young man's defense fund. (Or if others feel that the Church has some kind of legal or moral obligation to help out its missionaries.) Obviously, if guilty, this guy deserves a long prison sentence. However, given the "innocent until proven guilty" stipulation, how involved should the LDS Church be with his defense? Should it just leave him hanging out to dry? Or should it cough up a few dollars?

No...I would guess that he gets thrown out to the wolves. Demonized and ridiculed in every possible manner. A rightful punishment for a pedo. And no, I don't think his sexual perversion stemmed from Mormonism. Most pedo's were usually victims at some point...not that this excuses their actions.

[_Mister Scratch]

I would be curious to know if the Church in any way plans to subsidize, or pay for entirely, this young man's defense fund. (Or if others feel that the Church has some kind of legal or moral obligation to help out its missionaries.) Obviously, if guilty, this guy deserves a long prison sentence. However, given the "innocent until proven guilty" stipulation, how involved should the LDS Church be with his defense? Should it just leave him hanging out to dry? Or should it cough up a few dollars?

Who? The missionary? They should leave him twisting in the wind.

Jersey Girl

Does the fact that he was indoctrinated with songs such as "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" and asked repeatedly if he was planning on going on a mission, and exhorted by Church leaders to serve a mission.... In short, does the Church's involvement in all of this affect your views at all?

Then again, perhaps getting involved could more readily open up the Church to a lawsuit---i.e., it would send a message that they consider themselves responsible for the missionary. (Which raises the question: isn't the Church at least partially responsible for these young men?)

[_Mercury]

Vegas,

Background checks are only helpful if:

A person is innocent
A person has been convicted

Otherwise, when a person has never been convicted, they are of no use.

Jersey Girl

I guess that's why nurseries at most congregations here in the mid south perform them. If it was a triviality then why is it customary to do so?

[_Jersey Girl]

I would be curious to know if the Church in any way plans to subsidize, or pay for entirely, this young man's defense fund. (Or if others feel that the Church has some kind of legal or moral obligation to help out its missionaries.) Obviously, if guilty, this guy deserves a long prison sentence. However, given the "innocent until proven guilty" stipulation, how involved should the LDS Church be with his defense? Should it just leave him hanging out to dry? Or should it cough up a few dollars?

Who? The missionary? They should leave him twisting in the wind.

Jersey Girl

Does the fact that he was indoctrinated with songs such as "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" and asked repeatedly if he was planning on going on a mission, and exhorted by Church leaders to serve a mission.... In short, does the Church's involvement in all of this affect your views at all?

Then again, perhaps getting involved could more readily open up the Church to a lawsuit---i.e., it would send a message that they consider themselves responsible for the missionary. (Which raises the question: isn't the Church at least partially responsible for these young men?)

Okay, since you asked. If I read the article correctly, the mother elected to take her convert son to the missionaries place of residence to give him a gift. What is the missionaries place of residence? Is it an apartment he shares with fellow missionairies under the direction of a mission supervisior? If so, where is the mission supervisor? If not...why is the missionary at home on his mission? I don't know the answer to that.

If he is at an apartment that he shares with fellow missionaries under the direction of a mission supervisor...if the mission supervisor was "on the clock" and not present...I would hold that person partly culpable for the molestation.

If he is at his actual residence, his home, then I would have to say that this is a social call that is not a meeting being conducted under the auspices of the LDS Church and therefore the missionary and only the missionary is responsible for his actions.

I don't give two hoots in hell what his indoctrination was, Scratch. Unless he was indoctrinated by the church to molest young male converts, the missionary owns this one and no one else.

Jersey Girl

[_Jersey Girl]

I think we should have the article pasted into this discussion. Here it is:



Missionary charged with abusing 12-year-old convert
By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 02/27/2007 03:25:45 PM MST

Posted: 12:46 PM- A Mormon missionary has been charged with fondling a 12-year-old boy he had recently baptized, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in 3rd District Court.
Kyle Saucier, 20, is charged with one count of first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child, which is punishable by six-, 10 or 15 years to life in prison.
One factor elevating the seriousness of the alleged crime is that Saucier "occupied a position of special trust in relation to the victim," according to the complaint.
The boy told a Salt Lake County sheriff's detective that on Dec.
24, 2006, he and his mother went to Saucier's residence to give him a Christmas present, according to the complaint. Saucier "gave him a hug, then reached into his pants, and touched his penis," the boy told investigators.
A $50,000 warrant has been issued for Saucier's arrest.