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A former school teacher arrested last year for the alleged assault of two Phoenix junior high students will not be criminally charged, 12News has learned.
Glendon Templeton, 62, previously a bishop for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), was accused of groping the teen girls when he was their volleyball coach at Canyon Springs STEM Academy in Phoenix.
The allegations are the latest in a history of allegations against Templeton dating back to the early 1980s, the 12News I-Team has learned. Interviews and court records reveal allegations ranging from molestation, unwanted touching to sexual assault made by five girls and seven women while Templeton was in a role as either a babysitter, LDS bishop or teacher.
In multiple phone conversations, Templeton tells 12News he has never committed a crime and he declined to be interviewed on the record for this story. Although Phoenix Police have received three separate complaints about him dating back to 1994, he has never been charged with a crime.
A civil deposition interview and police investigative records show when interviewed, Templeton has consistently denied accusations made against him.
“I would hope law enforcement would stop and take a second look, a harder look. Look at his patterns. Look at what he has been doing for 40-plus years,” said Liane Daniels, a niece of Templeton who also alleges he molested her on more than one occasion when she was a child.
In October 2021, two 13-year-old girls accused Templeton of groping them while he was their volleyball coach at Canyon Springs STEM Academy, a K-8 public school in Phoenix. According to the Phoenix Police probable cause statement, the girls alleged Templeton:
Routinely grabbed their butts during volleyball practice while instructing them
Touched and grabbed one of the girl’s butts while they were isolated in a storage closet
Grabbed one girl by the back of the neck and pushed it down while instructing her
Made inappropriate comments to the girls such as discussing boys they were going to make out with on the weekend
Several witnesses provided corroborating statements, according to the police statement. Teachers at the school also alleged Templeton “grabbed them at their waists and their arms without their permission,” the report states.
Police arrested Templeton on suspicion of two counts of aggravated assault involving the two girls and cited “a pattern of behavior of inappropriately touching women he is responsible for and worked around,” the statement shows.
During an interview with police, Templeton denied “making physical contact with any of the victims’ butts,” according to the statement.
“The defendant stated he made comments that could have been perceived as inappropriate now but did not intend for them to be during the time,” the report states.
Police forwarded the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) for prosecution. The MCAO returned the case to the police, telling 12News in a statement “the facts did not establish the elements of a felony offense.”
Phoenix Police then submitted the case to the City of Phoenix Prosecutor’s Office to be considered for misdemeanor charges. The city declined to pursue charges in May.
“After a thorough review of all available evidence, the City Prosecutor’s Office declined to file a complaint as there was insufficient evidence for a misdemeanor criminal charge,” said Ashley Patton, Deputy Communications Director at the City of Phoenix.
Remind again about the Spirit Of Discernment that LDS Leaders have...Templeton served as the bishop of a West Phoenix LDS congregation from 2014 to 2019, according to church officials. Congregations are known as “wards.”
Templeton was the bishop of the Maryvale Ward. Bishops are unpaid clergy members.
“He’s very charming, outgoing, funny, and likes to be the center of attention,” said “Ashley.”
Five women in his ward told the church that Templeton touched them inappropriately or assaulted them dating back to 2012, according to 2019 police incident reports.
The accusations came to light when Templeton’s superior, known as the Stake President, was investigating inconsistencies in church welfare expenditures, according to police.
Phoenix Stake President Steven Johnston documented allegations by five women who accused Templeton of unwanted touching and sexual assault. Leaders in the Phoenix Stake held a disciplinary court for Templeton and ex-communicated him in 2019.
“Mr. Templeton was promptly confronted by Church leaders about his behavior and action was taken, resulting in his loss of membership in the Church,” said Sam Penrod, Media Relations Manager for the LDS Church, in a written statement to 12 News.
The Church declined an interview with 12News. Penrod also states in writing the church provided “multiple reports” to law enforcement in the summer of 2019 about the allegations against Templeton.
According to Phoenix police records, attorney Joseph Osmond of the Salt Lake City-based law firm Kirton McConkie, which represents the church worldwide, contacted Phoenix police by phone in July 2019 to provide information about the five women with claims against Templeton.
“Mr. Osmond was calling to provide information about several sexually related incidents involving a former bishop, where he coerced and/or forced at least five women who were members of his congregation to engage in some type of sexual activity,” wrote Sgt. Bryant Rockwood of Phoenix police in the incident report.
Phoenix police sent letters to the five women to launch an investigation. Two of them responded by phone.
One spoke with an investigator and alleged Templeton “asked her out, would touch her leg or hug her too long” when they were alone. The other said Templeton touched her underneath her clothes without her consent on two occasions; once while they were sitting in a van on a church-sanctioned trip and another time while they were in the bishop’s office together.
Both women declined to participate in prosecution, according to a police member. Phoenix police sent letters to the three other alleged victims but never received a response, according to their records.
The department closed the case regarding the five women in 2019.
“It’s very common for an allegation to be made by a female victim who then changes their mind and then they don’t move forward. That may due to fear, due to embarrassment, it can be due to fear of not just the charges, but maybe they exaggerated,” said Phoenix Criminal Defense Attorney David Cantor, who handles sex crimes cases.
I've pulled all the above quotes from:Five girls and women accuse Templeton of misconduct between 1980-1989
According to civil deposition interviews obtained by 12 News stemming from a 1997 lawsuit, five women alleged Templeton groped, sexually assaulted, or molested them, including when three of them were minors, between 1980 and 1989.
An imbalance of power
“Ashley”, who grew up in the LDS Church, says she felt “complete disgust” when she learned as an adult that Templeton later became a bishop.
“I felt this pit in my stomach. Why and how?” she said.
Her concern is the amount of time Templeton would have spent with women and children behind closed doors in the Maryvale Ward. She wants parents whose children have had contact with Templeton in the past to have conversations with them about Templeton.
It’s worse than that. The Cult actively tracks members who are sexual abusers, pederasts, pedophiles, and the like. They know who did what, where they’re at, and unfortunately they don’t give two flying "F"s about past, current, and future victims.
You’re either complicit or a coward if you stay in this cult.Elizabeth P says her father, an elder at a San Diego-area chapter of the Mormon Church, told her that he became sexually aroused the first time he held her as an infant.
Sexual abuse by her father, who served at a ward in Lemon Grove, is all she ever knew from the days after she was born in 1983 to when she was a teenager.
Her father, Maynard McFarland, was convicted of molesting his daughter and spent 15 years in a California prison. He was released in 2020 and now lives in a small home in Chula Vista.
Now, Elizabeth wants answers. She says she wants to know why local church leaders in Chula Vista willingly turned a blind eye, discouraging her and her mother from going to the police after her mother caught her orally copulating with him at just five years of age.
Or admit that there is no such thing as discernment because the religion is a fraud. 