Tag Archives: Mormon Church

Mormon Ex-Gay Torture Therapist Arrested On Rape Charges After Standoff With Police, Held Without Bail

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Former Utah therapist Scott Owen was arrested Wednesday in connection with accusations that he sexually abused patients during sessions. Owen, 63, was booked into the Utah County jail on suspicion of six counts of object rape and four counts of forcible sodomy. A Utah County judge has ordered that Owen remain in jail without the …

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Court: LDS Church Had No Duty To Report Incestuous Child Porn Admitted To During “Spiritual Confession”

Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate reports: An Arizona judge has dismissed a high-profile child sexual abuse lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ruling that church officials 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 …

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New Allegations Against Mormon “Ex-Gay Therapist”

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Three additional men have come forward to say a therapist recommended and paid for by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints touched them inappropriately during counseling sessions related to struggles with their sexuality. The men’s statements follow allegations by three others, previously reported by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica, that clinical mental …

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LDS Nursery Worker Arrested On Child Porn Charges

Utah’s Cache Valley Daily reports: A 46-year-old Lewiston man has been arrested for downloading child pornography over the internet for years, according to law enforcement. Kent Daniel Prestwich was booked Tuesday, Oct. 10, into the Cache County Jail after state agents served a warrant to his home. According to arrest documents, Prestwich allegedly told investigators he had been viewing child …

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Utah Mormon Leader Arrested On Child Sex Charges

Salt Lake City’s CBS affiliate reports: Roselle (Rosie) Anderson Stevenson, formerly Rosie Hamblin, 70, of Provo, the ex-wife of David Hamblin who was arrested last September for aggravated sexual abuse of a child, lewdness with a child, rape of a child and several counts of sodomy on a child was booked into the Utah County Jail on one felony count …

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LDS Ex-Gay Torture Therapist Accused Of Sexual Abuse

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Andrew was feeling crushed by the cultural expectation to get married. Twenty-two years old, he had just returned from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was attending a singles’ ward in Provo — a local congregation of unmarried college students. But Andrew is gay. And marriage between a man …

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Mormon Leader Pleads Guilty To Child Sex Charges

Harrisburg’s ABC affiliate reports: Shawn Gooden has now pleaded guilty in Virginia to four sexual assault charges involving a child less than 14 years old. Police in Virginia told abc27, the alleged incidents happened in the late 1990s and involved a child who was already in Godden’s life. Years later, he lived in Palmyra and was a Boy Scouts leader, …

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AZ Supreme Court: LDS Bishops Didn’t Have To Report Man’s Confession To Raping His Daughters, Child Porn

Salt Lake City’s ABC affiliate reports: The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s priest-penitent privilege law exempts The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from revealing information from a confidential spiritual confession. The decision upheld a Dec. 15 ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals, which also had ruled in favor of the church in a lawsuit …

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Mormon Leader Charged With Sexting Underage Girl

The Cache Valley Daily reports: A former local leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is facing criminal charges for allegedly sexting with a teenage girl in his congregation. Cortney Ted Andrew, a 38-year-old Trenton man is facing four counts of enticing a minor by internet or text, a second-degree felony. Cache County Sheriff’s Lt. Doyle Peck …

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UT Missionary Charged With LDS-Themed Child Porn

Salt Lake City’s ABC affiliate reports: A Sandy man faces 10 felonies for possessing child porn, some of it allegedly LDS themed. Roland E. Westrup, 23, was charged in the 3rd District Court with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a 2nd-degree felony. He could be put away for up to 15 years for each charge, if that …

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LDS To Pay $5 Million For Hiding Billions In Assets

The Wall Street Journal reports: Ensign Peak Advisors Inc., which oversees a $32 billion equities portfolio for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will pay $4 million to settle regulatory claims that the money manager obscured the church’s investment holdings. The church will also pay a $1 million fine, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday. The money …

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Mormon Church Endorses Marriage Equality Bill

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: In an unexpected move Tuesday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave its support to a proposed federal law, which recognizes all legal marriages, including ones between same-sex partners. The Utah-based faith’s doctrine “related to marriage between a man and a woman is well known and will remain unchanged,” according to a statement …

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Mormon Bishop Charged With Raping Toddlers [VIDEO]

The Associated Press reports: A former Utah city mayor and bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been arrested on accusations he sexually abused at least three children decades ago. Carl Matthew Johnson, 77, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Davis County jail in northern Utah on suspicion of seven counts of sex abuse of …

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Mormon Leader Lies About Brigham Young’s Use Of Electroshock Torture On Gay Students During Tenure

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: In a landmark speech Friday at the University of Virginia, Latter-day Saint apostle Dallin H. Oaks said he had recently “come to understand better the distress of persons” — including LGBTQ individuals — who feel that some religious believers invoke the U.S. Constitution to deny rights to others. The address was hailed by some as …

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Wife Of Child Predator Sues LDS For Turning Him In

Oregon’s Statesman Journal reports: A Turner woman is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for $9.54 million after her husband’s confession to church leaders led to his arrest, conviction and imprisonment on child sexual abuse charges. The lawsuit, which accuses local church leaders of violating confidentiality and the “priest-penitent privilege,” contrasts sharply with other cases accusing the …

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UTAH: Mormon Church Opposes Ex-Gay Torture Ban

The Associated Press reports: A proposed conversion therapy ban in Utah is in danger of being derailed after The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-day Saints came out in opposition, just months after it said it wouldn’t stand in the way of a similar measure under consideration. The church said in a statement that the regulatory rule prohibiting Utah …

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Mormons Get New Warning Against Coffee And Vaping

The Associated Press reports: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a warning to members that coffee is prohibited no matter how fancy the name, that vaping is banned despite the alluring flavors and that marijuana is outlawed unless prescribed by “competent” doctors. The new guidance in the August issue of a church youth magazine does not …

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Kidnapping Victim Elizabeth Smart’s Father Comes Out

The Deseret News reports: Ed Smart, the father of kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart, shared in a Facebook message with family and friends Thursday that he is gay, divorcing his wife and doesn’t see a place for himself in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In “one of the hardest letters I have ever written,” Smart wrote that “I …

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Brigham Young University Valedictorian Comes Out In Graduation Speech: I’m Proud To Be A Gay Son Of God

Newsweek reports: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers same-sex marriage to be a “serious transgression” — and, until this spring, treated Mormons involved in these unions as apostates, subject to church disciplinary hearings that could result in their excommunication. So a commencement ceremony on Friday at Brigham Young University, the flagship academic institution of the Mormon Church, …

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Reversal: Mormon Church To Baptize Children Of LGBTs

The New York Times reports: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a remarkable reversal to its policies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on Thursday. The decision rolls back a 2015 policy that barred children living with same-sex couples from important religious practices like baby-naming ceremonies and baptisms. That policy also declared that church members in …

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