Source: LDS Church Gets Away With Protecting Child Molester! [RFM: 318] Channel: Mormon Discussion Inc. Published: November 12, 2023 | Archived: May 5, 2026

Video: \[LDS Church Gets Away With Protecting Child Molester! \[RFM: 318\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLP7ifEJFV0)
Channel: Mormon Discussion Inc.
Published: November 12, 2023
Duration: 52:45
Views: 20,587
Category: Nonprofits & Activism
Video ID: WLP7ifEJFV0

Description

🎙️ Brace yourselves for a crucial episode of “LDS Church Gets Away With Protecting Child Molester!” on Radio Free Mormon. In this deeply unsettling installment, our host RFM delves into the shocking details of a recent lawsuit where the LDS Church stands accused of protecting a child molester. For an in-depth understanding, check out the articles here:

🔍 RFM exposes the disturbing legal maneuvers employed by the Church and its legal team, revealing a troubling choice made when faced with reporting sexual abuse. The impact of such decisions on survivors and the wider community is profound.

🗣️ Join us for a critical discussion as RFM dissects the intricacies of the case and sheds light on the broader implications for accountability within religious organizations.

🔔 Hit the notification bell and subscribe to stay informed on this essential story. Share your thoughts in the comments section below, and let’s engage in a respectful and impactful conversation.

Thanks so much for watching! Please like, subscribe, and leave a comment!

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Transcript — YouTube panel (human-authored)

0:04 \[Music\] testing 123 testing 123 this is Radio free Mormon on the air broadcasting Behind Enemy Lines tonight’s episode the LDS church gets away with protecting a child molester yes you may think that that title is clickbait that that statement as a headline for a podcast cannot possibly be true but I assure you this is 100% accurate and I’m going to spend the rest of the podcast explaining why it is I feel that way and you can make up your own mind on the the subject I will tell you that this is perhaps the most disturbing story I have seen at least recently involving the LDS church and the way they treat child abusers who are members of the church versus how they treat the victims of child molesters all right so this is based upon a story that came out last Wednesday November 8th 2023 I am recording this on Sunday morning November 12th 202 3 I came into the studio yesterday I spent a bunch of time researching I already recorded this podcast and it was about an hour long

1:38 and I went back I looked at it it wasn’t what I wanted I was dissatisfied with it I scrapped it I’m coming back into the studio to re-record that episode but let me give you the thumbnail version first before I get into the details there was a member of the church a man named Paul Adams he lived in Arizona with his wife and small daughter he worked for the border patrol and when he was not working for the border patrol he would spend time at home sexually abusing and even raping his young daughter this went on for some time then he went to his Bishop feeling some kind of compunction about what it was he was doing he went to his bishop and confessed to his Bishop what it was that he was doing to his daughter in their home the bishop did what a bishop is supposed to do in the Mormon Church which is he has a hotline that he’s supposed to call in situations like this that hotline goes directly to curtain makoni there is a

2:45 screener who screens calls there’s probably multiple screeners who screen calls but he talks to a screener the screener takes down some notes to keep the details fresh it’s a bit of a complicated story and then the screener recognizes that this is one of the reports where the LDS church could be in trouble and so what they do is they pass it on to an attorney who works for curtain maconi and now the attorney talks to the bishop the um by the way some of this I am embellishing on but only slightly because I will tell you that what has been learned from the investigative reporting on this case is that when the screener gets the call they either make no notes at all or if they do make notes they destroy those notes by the end of every business day so there is nothing to connect them with this case they are not a witness in this case and they can’t become a witness in this case then it goes to the attorney

3:52 who talks to the bishop and now the attorney can’t be a witness in the case because they’ve got this attorney client relationship going right okay this is this is how they play hide the ball but what happened then was that the curtain mcon lawyer pulls up the statute that applies in Arizona where this happened because the bishop is operating under Arizona law because that’s where he lives he pulls up the statue which we’re going to look at in some detail here in a second I’m just giving you the overview right now this curtain makoni lawyer whose name we have now too and we’ll mention that what he did was he looked at the statute and he saw that the statute gives the bishop and gives the church permission to contact police in a situation like this it is up to the church whether they want to call the police or whether they think that not calling the police is somehow a better move the curtain mcon lawyer told the bishop don’t call the police even though the statute gave the bishop permission

5:02 to call the police the move on the church was don’t call the police so the bishop did not call the police and the molestation and sexual abuse of Paul Adam’s daughter continued for another seven years and in the middle of this after this happened well there’s a new baby who gets born into the family it’s a little girl a baby girl and at the age of 6 weeks Paul Adams starts molesting and abusing his six-week old daughter in addition to his other daughter there are pictures that he puts up on the Internet of the abuse and government officials see them they’re able to track them down and they are able to arrest him and put him in jail where he killed himself prior to trial so that’s the Paul Adam story what this shows to me is that when the church has a choice to make between protecting a child sex abuser of the worst kind and protecting the victim of the child sex abuse the church will protect the child sex abuser the church will protect the child

6:20 molester the church will not protect the victims of the molestation and of the abuse and this is why I’m so livid right now I don’t know maybe it came to me really strongly once I actually read the statute from Arizona which we’re going to do here in a second and to see the statute that the curtain makoni lawyer looked at the very same statute and see what he saw to see that he could have said call the police look if I’m the lawyer curtain mcon and I’m talking to this bishop he gets through his story and I say okay stop talking with me we’re done hang up up the phone you call the police you call 911 you call CPS you get that kid out of the home and ultimately both kids out of the home or you get the abuser out of the home you get them separated you protect the children my God what kind of church doesn’t just protect the children when they can instead they protect the child molester what kind of church does this that’s my question that I’m struggling with now let me find the um the statute

7:32 the statute I found had very small print I copied and pasted it into a Word document so I could make it larger so that we can read it okay this is the statute in Arizona and let me go ahead and find it here I know I have it up on the screen but I have to pull it up on the other screen so I can read it and so I can scroll this is 13- 3620 duty to report abuse physical injury neglect and denial or deprivation of medical or surgical care of nourishment of minors medical records exceptions violation classification definitions okay we start off with the general rule any person any person who reasonably believes that a minor is or has been the victim a physical injury abuse child abuse a reportable offense or neglect that appears to have been inflicted on the Minor by other than accidental means or that it’s not explained by the available medical history as being accidental in nature or who reasonably believes that there has been a denial or

8:39 deprivation of necessary medical treatment or surgical care or nourishment with the intent to cause or allow the death of an infant who is protected under section 36 2281 shall immediately report or cause reports to be made of this information to a peace officer let me take out all the the gobble in the statute that doesn’t apply to our case that we’re talking about we’re talking about child abuse so here’s what it says when you take that out any person who reasonably believes that a minor is or has been the victim of child abuse shall immediately report or cause reports to be made of this information to a peace officer to the Department of Child Safety or to a tribal law enforcement or Social Services Agency for any Indian minor who resides on an Indian reservation except if the report concerns a person who does not have care custody or control of the minor the report shall be made to a peace officer only all right now that is the general

9:41 rule now when it says any person though it actually doesn’t mean any person all right I know that sounds strange because any person sounds like anybody that’s how we understand it they actually take this term person and use it as a legal term and they Define it below I’m going to skip the highlighted part where it gets to the definition it says for the purposes of the subsection person means any physician and then it lists a bunch of people in the medical field two any peace officer and people in the law enforcement field uh parent step parent or guardian of the minor School Personnel domestic violence victim Advocates any other person who has responsibility for the care or treatment of the minor so this is what is defined as a person and I will tell you that that is the rule okay any person who fits within that category and that definition who reasonably believes I mean the child abuser confessed it to

10:44 the bishop he more than reasonably believes he knows it that a minor is being has been the victim and is being the victim of child abuse shall immediately report or cause reports to be made of this information to the police to a peace officer now let’s get to this highlighted section because this is where it deals with the clergy and this is what the church is banking on in order to protect a child molester here we have it in yellow highlight a member of the church excuse me a member of the clergy a Christian Science excuse me a Christian Science practitioner or a priest now the bishop of a church or State president would be a member of the clergy it’s a general term but a member of the clergy who has received a confidential communication or a confession in that person’s role as a member of the clergy as a Christian Science practitioner or as a priest in the course of the discipline and joined

11:43 by the church to which the member of the clergy the Christian Science practitioner or the priest belongs may now I put that in Big Font because that is the most important word in this paragraph for purposes of what I’m talking about today the word may is an important word in the law it means discretion it means Choice it means you may do something you don’t have to but you may do it you are permitted to do it and be following the law and by doing it I mean the bishop calling the cops on this guy so let me read this thing the uh the member of the clergy who receives this information by confession May withhold old reporting of the communication or confession if the member of the clergy the Christian Science practitioner or the priest determines that it is reasonable and necessary within the concepts of the religion all right so that’s a lot of language and they put in different people like Christian Science practitioner and a number of other

12:51 things so here’s what I want to do I wanted to take that highlighted section and I’m taking out the word that don’t apply here I’m not changing the language I’m just taking out some words and you can compare it you’ll see what I mean so if you take out a bunch of those things like the Christian Science practitioner and the rabbi uh and the priest it was in there um a member of the clergy who has received a confidential communication or a confession in that person’s role as a member of the clergy in the course of the discipline and joined by the church to which the member of the clergy belongs May withhold reporting you don’t have to it’s up to you you have the discreption May withhold reporting of the communication or confession if the member of the clergy determines that it is reasonable and necessary within the concepts of the religion all right now I took the same thing and I inserted facts that are specific to this case so instead of a member of the clergy I say

13:47 a Mormon bishop or State president a Mormon bishop or State president who has received a confidential communication or a confession in that person’s role as bishop or State president in the course of the discipline enjoined by the LDS church and it put belongs there it shouldn’t be there may withhold reporting of the communication or confession if the bishop or State president determines that it is reasonable and necessary within the concepts of the LDS church so I went through that exercise to hopefully make it really really clear to you that under Arizona law the bishop had the authority to call the police immediately and not violate the law and if he had done so he would have protected that one daughter from seven more years of atrocious horrific abuse at the hands of her father and the little baby that was born thereafter into the family it would have saved her from being abused at all okay so what’s been going on here

14:51 now let me take this off the screen what has been going on is that there has been a um here it is okay I’m taking this down there we go so what’s been going on is that there was a news report which caused quite a stir that came out last Wednesday November 8th there was a judge’s ruling in this case dismissing the lawsuit by the plaintiffs I.E on behalf of these young girls who were victimized by their father with the help and Aid of the LDS church who is protecting the abusive father instead of protecting the children that he was abusing they brought a lawsuit against him and this was dismissed and there was a report that went out about that last Wednesday November 8th now you’ve heard about this case before it’s been in the news earlier this year in April there was a new story that ran and I had to go back and actually was a bit confusing even for me I had to go back through the police reports look at a

15:54 number of things and figure out what it is that’s been going on here and that’s something that that I want to share with you right now I’m going to give you a thumbnail okay sometimes for me it helps to have a little thumbnail understanding of what it is that I’m going to be looking at so that when I look at it or listen to it on a podcast I’ve got a better idea as to what it is that I’m listening to how the pieces fit together what happened was this the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the children against the LDS church in Arizona the first thing that happened is that the plaintiffs wanted to put their case together and typically what you do is you request documents from the other side and you set up depositions of witnesses for the other side and a deposition is it’s not trial it’s before trial but it’s in order to question Witnesses under oath and have their testimony taken down by a court reporter or in some other Method video whatever

16:57 is agreed to so that’s what happens and the attorneys on behalf of the children wanted documents from the church about Paul Adams the abusers discipline history his church file anything related to the excommunication they also wanted to depose the bishop there were two Bishops actually there was the first Bishop who reported it to the hotline got his marching orders don’t call the police and by the way oh let me just go ahead and finish that thought and then there was a second Bishop who was also meeting with the same guy Paul Adams who’s confessing the same stuff to him who calls the hotline and gets the same answer don’t call the police well it appears from earlier news reports that I think it was the first Bishop may have remonstrated somewhat with the curtain mcon attorney over this the First bishop is a doctor and a doctor has his own ethics or her own ethics that she has to abide by and believe it or not the ethics of doctors don’t include

18:03 protecting child abusers and molesters and child rapists in favor of protecting the victims doctors by their Creed are there to help those who are in trouble who need help who need assistance but in this case the word he’s getting from his church is don’t do that and the pity of this situation as far as as that first Bishop goes is that he violated his ethics as a doctor in order to follow the directive he was given by a church lawyer I can’t imagine what it’s like to be him waking up every morning having to look yourself in the mirror yeah but he made his decision and this is the bed he’s made and he’s going to have to lie in it for the rest of his life okay let me find the first article after after I complete the thumbnail all right so they they want to get the depositions they want to get the documents from the church the church objects the church says no you can’t have either of those because of the

19:18 priest penitent privilege in Arizona so it’s protected and you can’t either depose Witnesses which means you can’t call them if you can’t depose them you can’t call them as Witnesses and you can’t get any documents related to this guy’s church discipline or his membership file because that’s protected as well once again the church going all out to protect this man this child abuser and now because they protected the child abuser instead of the child victim they end up on the wrong end of a lawsuit which is where they should be the trial court judge and this is a a bit of background okay leading up to what happened on Wednesday the trial court judge agreed with the plaintiffs and ruled against the church and said no this priest penitent privilege was not made for situations like this and so you church have to allow your bishop and the other bishop and the State president and probably the high counsel because this guy was excommunicated they excommunicated him but they didn’t call

20:23 the cops and members of The High Council you’re going to have to all be subject to being deposed and testifying and by the way you got to hand over all your records too because the penitent patient excuse me the clergy penitent privilege doesn’t cover that so what happened was then that’s the trial court the church appealed that ruling to the court of appeals in Arizona the court of appeals in Arizona reversed the trial court and said no we agree with the church you don’t get to depose these Witnesses you don’t get to call these Witnesses you don’t get to get any of these documents that you need to prove your case so then the plaintiffs appealed that decision to the Arizona Supreme Court so there’s three levels you got your trial court level you’ve got the appell at court level and then on top of them all you got the Supreme Court so now the plain ifs because the appell Court ruled against them in reversing the trial court appealed that decision to the

21:19 Arizona Supreme Court and the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeal which meant they disagreed with the trial court judge and the Arizona Supreme Court said yep the um clergy patient privilege it covers this it covers this so the church doesn’t again now doesn’t have to submit witnesses to be deposed doesn’t have to provide documents the pl’s case is kneecapped at this point how are they going to prove their case when the witnesses who have the information that they need to prove it are unavailable to them how are they going to prove their case when the documents that they need to prove their case are unavailable to them they’re dead in the water so the Supreme Court then issues that ruling remands it down to the trial court to proceed with a case consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling which is none of that comes in none of those people testify so now that they don’t have any evidence to speak of to show the wrongdoing of the church in

22:31 this the church brought a motion let me back up here a second okay the ruling from the Supreme Court hit the news last April and that was when we last heard about this case in the news what’s been going on behind the scenes is what I’m going to describe to you now what’s been going on behind the scenes is that it was remanded from the Supreme Court down to the trial court level the plists have no evidence the church now brings a motion against them to dismiss the case it’s a motion for summary judgment it says if you look at all the evidence that they have all the evidence that they’re allowed to have all the evidence that the Supreme Court of Arizona has permitted them to have which is basically nothing now the church’s summary judgment says if you look at all their admissible evidence they don’t have a case and the trial court judge had to agree with them and dismissed the case and that’s what

23:28 happened last Wednesday November 8th 2023 and that made the headlines again okay I mean once the Supreme Court issued its ruling it was pretty much a fade to compete what was going to happen down at the trial court level because the ruling eviscerated the plain’s case so I want to go through these articles here this one is going to be from April of this year and I’m going to present that on the screen and here it is with some great uh what ads at the top let me go to this I’ll scroll down past the ads here’s the title Arizona Court upholds clergy privilege in child abuse case there’s a picture of the temple it’s an AP article the jist are Michael rendez whose name you may know from Spotlight and Jason dear and this is April 11th 20123 this is the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling eviscerating the plaintiff’s case the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can refuse to answer questions or turn over

24:48 documents under a state law that exempts religious officials from having to report child sex abuse if they learn of the crime crime during a confessional setting the ruling was issued April 7th but not released to the public until Tuesday a lawsuit filed by child sex abuse victims accuses the church widely known as the Mormon Church two of its Bishops and other church members and I expect it has to do with people who were in The High Council excommunication proceeding and other church members of conspiracy and negligence in not reporting church member Paul Adams for abusing his older daughter as early as 2010 this negligence the lawsuit argues allowed Adams to continue abusing the girl for as many as seven years a time in which he also abused the girl’s infant sister Lynn cattigan an attorney for the Adams children who filed the lawsuit criticized the Court’s ruling unfortunately she says this ruling expands the clergy privilege beyond what the legislature intended by allowing

25:58 churches to conceal crimes against children she said now in a statement the church concurred with the Court’s action of course they did because it was in their favor and here’s their statement the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agrees with the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision the statement said we are deeply saddened by AB by the abuse these children suffered okay that’s a lie and so much about this case is troubling to me not the least of which is the church’s statements in response we are deeply saddened by the the abuse these children suffered no you’re not you’re the ones who told the bishop not to call the police you’re not saddened by anything you caused this every single instance of abuse after it was confessed to the bishop and could have called the police under the law in Arizona and stopped it immediately then and there every single act of abuse against this girl and then later against her baby sister was caused by the

27:12 church directing the bishop to not call the police so don’t sit there and tell me that you’re saddened by it you caused it it goes on we are deeply saddened by the abuse these children suffered I’d like to make them suffer some abuse I’ll tell you that and then it says the church has no tolerance of abuse of any kind bull crap no tolerance you caused it you’re not just tolerating it you’re promoting it you’re protecting it excuse me yeah this is what was happening yesterday and why I had to record this thing again today so I’m going to try and keep my cool as best I can excuse me all right I’m going to read that again the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday saints agrees with the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision this is the official statement by the church we are deeply saddened by the abuse these children suffered the church has no tolerance of abuse of any kind the article goes on Adams had also

28:21 posted videos of himself sexually abusing his daughters on the internet boasted of the abuse on social media and confessed to federal law enforcement agents who arrested him in 2017 with no help from the church law enforcement found this guy out not only with no help from the church law enforcement found this guy out in spite of the church protecting him that’s what happened they not only got no help from the church they did it in spite of the best efforts of the church to keep law enforcement from finding out about it the article goes on those actions prompted cooches County Superior Court Judge Laura Cardinal to rule on August 8th 2022 that Adams had waved his right to keep his 2010 confession to Bishop John Herod that’s the first Bishop John Herod h r r o d there’s more than a little irony in that last name isn’t there to keep his 2010 confession to Bishop John herod’s secret so that’s the paragraph that says that the trial court judge initially says Nope Paul Adams you’ve waved your right to keep that

29:35 secret it’s coming in The Bishop’s going to get deposed taken together this is from the Court’s original order at the trial court level taken together Adam’s overacts demonstrate a lack of repentance and a profound disregard for the principles of the church Cardinal said in her ruling his acts can only be character cized as a waiver of the clergy penitent privilege and that was when the church appealed it but the article goes on clergy in Arizona as in many other states are required to report information about child sexual abuse or neglect to law enforcement or child welfare authorities an exception to that law known as the clergy penitent privilege allows members of the clergy who learn of the abuse through spiritual confessions to keep the information secret once again notice that word allows it doesn’t require them to keep it secret it gives them the option they can keep it secret or they can call the

30:38 police the church has based its defense in the lawsuit on the privilege the clergy penitent privilege asserting that Herod the bishop and a second Bishop who learned of Adam’s confession Robert Kim mousy so those are the names of the two B Bishops Robert Kim is apparently his nickname it’s in quotation marks but his last name is mai ma zy had no legal obligation to report him for abusing his older daughter and appealed Cardinal’s ruling that’s when it went to the court of appeals on December 15th this is last year 2022 on December 15th the Arizona court of appeals ruled in favor of the church saying it did not have to turn over disciplinary records for Adams who was excommunicated in 2013 the appeals court also ruled that a church official who attended a church disciplinary hearing could refuse to answer questions from the plaintiff’s attorneys during pre-trial testimony that’s the deposition pre-trial testimony based on the clergy penitent privilege so both Bishops and anybody

31:51 present in the High Council that excommunicated this guy they can refuse to test ify and guess what they all did why because they’re all getting legal advice from the same Law Firm they’re there to protect the church and the victims be damned okay lawyers representing the Adams girls and one of their brothers took the case to the Arizona Supreme Court where they did not Prevail according to the April ruling and that’s what this article is about in an unusual move kadigan plaintiff’s attorney said attorneys for the the three Adams children intended to file a motion asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling I don’t know if they did that if they did it didn’t help that’s why it would be an unusual move generally doesn’t help motions to reconsider an Associated Press investigation of the clergy privilege shows it exists in 33 States and that the Mormon Church often joined by the Catholic Church Jehovah’s Witnesses and other faiths have successfully lobbied

32:54 against attempts to reform or eliminated okay now that is the end of that article and that is reporting last April 2023 on the Supreme Court of Arizona tubing the plaintiff’s Case by suppressing all this evidence that they need to prove it and then remanding it back to the trial court well things continue to go on in the trial court and let me see if I can find this other article now from last Wednesday November 8th because that’s where the trial court now in response to the church’s motion for summary judgement grants the dismissal that the church requested here we go I’ll share this on the page okay let me get to this oh that’s the same one excuse me let me get rid of that one let me go to this one and you’ll see it’s a little bit confusing because they have the same formatting and even the same picture of the Salt Lake Temple on the front I’ll bring that up and put this on the screen there you see it’s the same format same picture the temple it would be easy to confuse

34:28 these two like I just did but you got to look at the date and the date on this first off the title once again AP Court cites clergy penitent privilege in dismissing child sex abuse lawsuit against Mormon church there’s a picture of the temple once again by Michael rendez and Jason Daren this one dated November 8th 2023 last Wednesday an Arizona judge has dismissed a high-profile file child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ruling that church officials who knew who knew who knew that a church member was sexually abusing his daughter had no duty to report the abuse to police or social service agencies because the information was received during a spiritual confession in a ruling on Friday cooches County Superior Court judge Timothy Dickerson I don’t know what happened to the other judge it’s a different judge now at the trial court level but this is Judge Timothy Dickerson said the state’s clergy penitent privilege excused two

35:41 Bishops and several other officials with the church widely known as the Mormon church from the state’s child sex abuse mandatory reporting law because Paul Adams initially disclosed during a confession that he was sexually abusing his daughter Dickerson the judge wrote in his opinion his decision Church defendants were not required under the mandatory reporting statute to report the abuse of Jane do1 by her father because their knowledge of the abuse came from confidential Communications which fall within the clergy penitent exception although the church excommunicated Adams its decision to withhold his abusive behavior from Civil Authorities allowed him to continue abusing his daughter for seven years during which he began abusing a second daughter starting when she was just 6 weeks old I hope you’re proud of yourself Mormon church I hope you’re proud of yourself curtain mcon I don’t know how

36:42 you can look yourself in the mirror I have no idea just as a human being how you can do something like this and continue on as if everything’s okay and I sure as hell can’t understand how you can pretend that you are Jesus Christ’s Church church and that you are his Apostles and that you do these things to Children you did this to this child for seven more years into her baby sister as surely and as certainly as if you were the one doing the abuse the abuse yourself calming down the article continues Paul Adams recorded his abuse of his daughters on video and posted the pornographic videos on the internet why because the Mormon Church protected him and not his children the abuse stopped only when Homeland Security agents arrested Adams in 2017 in Arizona after authorities in New Zealand and the United States traced one of the videos to him Adams died by suicide in custody while awaiting trial well maybe there’s some justice in this

37:53 case though it’s certainly delayed why is it delayed Mormon church Lynn cadigan an attorney representing the Adams children who filed the 20201 lawsuit said she will appeal the ruling well I wish her luck but based upon the fact that this is the same issue that she’s already lost on it’s effectively the same issue that already went up to the Supreme Court and the court of appeals ruled against her and then the Supreme Court of Arizona ruled against her I don’t think there’s a lot of chance that they’re going to change their ruling I hope that what she’s suggesting is that her pellet goals are beyond the state system and even into the federal system because maybe she’ll get some relief there from federal judges but we’ll have to see how that plays out okay so she says she’s going to be appealing the ruling and she says ly cigan the attorney for the planers how do you explain to Young victims that a rapists religious beliefs are more important than their right to be free

38:58 from rape it’s a trenchant way of putting it I wonder how do I explain to my audience that the LDS church is a Christian Church when they protect child rapists instead of their victims I’m still trying to get my head around that I don’t understand what person does that what church does that but obviously the answer has to be the Mormon Church the LDS church does that okay in a prepared statement the church said okay now this is going to get me going again in a prepared statement the church said we are pleased with the Arizona Superior Court’s decision granting summary judgment for the church summary judgment that’s their motion to dismiss I described it earlier and its clergy and dismissing the plaintiff’s claims we’re pleased about this we’re pleased we got away with protecting the child molester remember the title of this is LDS church gets away with protecting child molester I told you at the top of the show that this is what I believe that this is not clickbait and I would describe to you

40:11 exactly why it is that each and every word in that title is true the LDS church protected a child molester and allowed him to continue to molest his children for years and do unspeakable things and F it and put it on the internet that’s what the LVS Church did and now they’re going to say we are pleased with the Arizona Superior Court’s decision granting summary judgment for the church and its clergy and dismissing the plaintiff’s claims and then they say this on top of that they say this contrary to some news reports and exaggerated allegations the court found that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its clergy handled this matter consistent with Arizona law is that really what’s important here that you’d be found to have acted consistent with the Arizona law we really have in the Mormon church today a church that’s run it’s of the attorneys by the attorneys and for the attorneys that’s all it is it is a legalistic religion it’s in many ways similar to the Pharisees of Jesus’s day

41:26 being so involved in the technicalities and the hyper technicalities of what’s legal and what’s not that you end up hurting people and hurting children in the name of being righteous that’s what pissed Jesus off so much about the Pharisees because they use religion to justify their evil Deeds isn’t that what the LDS church is doing now they’re using religion to justify protecting a child molester and allowing his victim to be molested abused and raped for seven more years and adding new kids into it all right by the way another thing that’s important to recognize here is that this statement one of the reasons it hacks me off so much when it says that contrary to some news reports and exaggerated allegations the court found that the church handled this matter consistent with Arizona law well guess what if they had called the police immediately when Paul Adams confessed to the bishop had them get

42:40 involved had him out of the house protected those children if the church had done the right thing the only right thing to do under that circumstance there is no other course that has any moral ethics to it it is immoral what they did if they had done that and protected the child and called the police they could make the same statement they could also say if they had done the right thing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints handled this matter consistent with Arizona law because they had the choice if they called the cops that’s consistent with the law if they didn’t call the cops well that’s consistent with the law as well they weren’t following the law they are given the option by the law and they chose to protect the child molester good job good job it makes me sick to my stomach what you have done in this case and if you’ve done it in this case case I can only imagine how many other cases you’ve done this in all right well I’m going to take this

44:04 thing hang on excuse me oh it does continue I’m sorry an investigation by the Associated Press last year cited the Adams case while revealing a system the \[ \_\_ \] Church uses to protect itself from costly lawsuits by keeping instances of serious child sexual abuse Secret at times allowing the abuse to continue for years harming or endangering children the investigation highlighted the use of a church helpline used by Bishops to report instances of child sex abuse to church officials in Salt Lake City Church workers Fielding the calls keep no records or destroy them at the end of each day according to church officials this is what the church said I’m not making this up these people aren’t making it up this is is what the church has said and they refer serious instances of abuse to attorneys for the church who rely on a second privilege the attorney client privilege to continue keeping the abuse

45:10 secret during the course of its investigation the AP revealed that a retired Utah legislature an attorney with the law firm of curtain mcon advised Bishop John Herod First bishop not to report Adam’s abuse to Civil Authorities after Herod contacted him through the church helpline in the Mormon Church a bishops responsibilities are roughly equivalent to those of a Catholic priest although Mormon Bishops are lay people Church records disclosed during the lawsuit showed that attorney Merill Nelson Merill Nelson attorney Merill Nelson held multiple conversations with Bishop Herod and a second Bishop Robert mousy over a 2year span and recommended they withhold the information from Civil Authorities based on church doctrine and the clergy penitent privilege Merill Nelson I’m not going to say what I think of you I’m not going to say what I think of you all these words are going through my mind I’m not going to say them here you’re

46:32 despicable you’re disgusting but you’ll probably get promoted to General Authority okay the AP found that 33 States exempt clergy of any denomination from laws requiring professionals such as teachers Physicians and psychotherapists from reporting information about child sex abuse to police or child welfare officials if the abuse was divulged during a confession although child welfare advocates in some states advocates in some states excuse me although child welfare advocates in some states have backed legislation to eliminate the privilege lobbying by the Catholic Church the Mormon church and the Jehovah’s Witnesses has successfully persuaded lawmakers to maintain the exemption this loophole in mandatory child sex abuse reporting laws has resulted in an unknown number of predators being permitted to continue abusing children for years despite having confessed the behavior to religious officials in some cases the privilege has been invoked to

47:38 Shield religious groups from civil and criminal liability like here after the the abuse became known to Civil Authorities EAP found cadigan plainist attorney kadigan argued that the church interpreted the clergy penitent privilege more broadly than the state legislature intended in the Adams Case by applying it to others in the church in addition to Bishop Herod who learned of Adam’s confession they included Adam’s wife Lisa or Liza Lei zzaa and members of the church disciplinary Council that excommunicated Adams but Dickerson ruled that those exchanges collectively amounted to a confidential communication or a confession so that’s the end of that article once again great reporting by Michael rendez and Jason Daren for the Associated Press that is the end of today’s episode it is the most troubling disturbing sickening story that I have ever had to cover regarding the Mormon church I’m going to leave it at that I

48:55 think the facts speak for themselves anything else I would say in addition to it would probably only detract from the horrific nature of what the LDS church did to these two girls I mean let’s say that you are you’re a trained lifeguard you you swim miles and everything you train to save people you’re not on duty one day you’re walking along the side of a lake enjoying the weather you look out in the middle of the lake there’s a little girl who’s out there she’s screaming she’s thrashing she’s drowning she’s crying for somebody to save her and you know that it’s a lifeguard you could Jump Right In swim out there and save her no questions asked you have the power you have the ability but you as the Lifeguard can you imagine just turning your head and keep walking and letting that girl drown that’s what the church did here except the girl didn’t drown she went through seven years of hell because you

50:09 refused to save her explain that to me sometime will you in fact I want to make an invitation right now for a representative of the church to come on this show and explain to me and explain to you why it was that protecting this child molester this horrific individual was more important to the church than saving his victims that’s what I want you to do come on the show explain it to me explain it to all of us we’re very eager to hear how it was that you thought this was the right thing to do okay well that is about all for tonight thank you for listening thing please hit like please hit subscribe subscribe I’m sorry this is very very disturbing to me I think most of you who know me and follow me know that um I have a pretty good sense of humor about things I can laugh at things that other people wouldn’t laugh at part of that’s from being 34 years as an attorney in the criminal prosecution and then in the criminal defense field I’ve seen a lot I

51:22 haven’t seen this this is very very disturbing even for someone who has seen as much as I have okay but once again that’s about all for tonight please hit like please hit subscribe that’s why there hasn’t been a lot of joking tonight because I don’t find this funny at all thank you so much for watching please share this with other people other people need to know that this is what the LDS church does and it’s what they did here there’s no question about the facts this is what the LDS church did and with this ruling from last Wednesday November 8th the LDS church got away with protecting a child molester that’s about all for tonight until next time this is Radio free Mormon signing off the \[Music\] air \[Music\] \[Music\] oh