Mormon Church Sex Abuse Lawsuits

On this page, our lawyers will discuss sexual abuse lawsuits against the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). We will explain the legal requirements for bringing a sex abuse lawsuit against churches and we will also examine the average settlement payout value of these cases.

Our expectation is that there will be a global LDS Church sex abuse settlement in 2025.  If this happens, you want to act now to have the opportunity to participate in a global settlement.  Contact us today at 800-553-8082 or get a free consultation.

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LDS Church Sex Abuse News & Updates

December 10, 2024: New LDS Church Lawsuit in California

A lawsuit in California state court alleges a former secretary to a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) sexually abused a minor in 2000-2001. The plaintiff, filing as Jane Doe, claims the sexual abuse occurred during private sessions authorized by church leaders, who allegedly failed to intervene despite knowledge of the misconduct. The defendant, previously convicted of abusing multiple children and serving a 14-year prison sentence, is accused of a pattern of predatory behavior.

The LDS Church is facing 91 new child sexual abuse lawsuits filed across 26 California counties. Each lawsuit alleges that church officials or leaders sexually assaulted the plaintiffs during their youth and that the church failed to protect them from harm.

November 19, 2024 – LDS Church in Napa Valley Named in Sex Abuse Lawsuit

A lawsuit alleges a former secretary to a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) abused a minor in 2000-2001. The plaintiff, filing as Jane Doe, claims the abuse occurred during private sessions authorized by church leaders, who allegedly failed to intervene despite knowledge of the misconduct.

The defendant, previously convicted of abusing multiple children and serving a 14-year prison sentence, is accused of a pattern of predatory behavior. The lawsuit highlights systemic issues, noting over 150 church leaders have faced similar accusations since 2001.

sexual abuse lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by a woman who alleges that 2 leaders of that Church sexually abused her over a long period of time when she was a child in the early 1990s. The lawsuit claims that the church leaders groomed and molested the plaintiff over a 1 year period and then began raping her when she was 8 years old. Some of the alleged acts of abuse took place at the church’s meetinghouse.

November 15, 2024 – LDS Sex Abuse Settlement Buzz

There is a lot of talk among plaintiffs’ sex abuse lawyers about a potential global LDS sex abuse settlement in the upcoming months.  Just rumors but this is coming from multiple sources.

October 01, 2024 – LDS Leader Prison Sentence Affirmed

The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the 30-year sentence of Michael Adam Davis, a former Dodge County Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in December 2018. Davis, convicted of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct and indecent exposure, filed an appeal citing ineffective counsel, alleged constitutional violations, and errors in the trial process. The court rejected these claims, finding his defense adequate and ruling that the district court did not err in allowing key evidence, including text messages and witness testimony.

Davis also argued that his criminal history score was improperly calculated, claiming that his felony offenses should count as one incident since they involved the same victim. The court disagreed, noting that the offenses occurred years apart and thus could not be considered part of the same behavioral incident. A petition for further review of the appellate court’s decision was denied on October 15, 2024, solidifying Davis’ conviction and sentence.

September 16, 2024 – New LDS Sex Abuse Lawsuit in New York

September 15, 2024 – Wife of Polygamist Leader Convicted of Sex Crimes

Josephine Bistline, one of the wives of Samuel Bateman, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), has been convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for her sole in the sexual abuse of young women within the church. Josephine was accused of actively recruiting and grooming young, underage girls to marry and have sex with Bateman between 2019 and 2022. Some of the alleged victims were as young as 9 and 10 years old.

August 21, 2024 – LDS Reportedly Will Pay $250 in BSA Sex Abuse Settlement

The Church of Latter Day Saints is reportedly contributing $250 million to the sex abuse settlement fund in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy. Why? Because the Boy Scouts had credible allegations showing that an LDS scout leader sexually abused hundreds, possibly thousands of boys during his time in the organization.

June 7, 2024 – LDS Leader Won’t Be Charged With Failure to Report Abuse

The Dauphin County District Attorney’s office publicly announced today that they will not be pursuing criminal charges against LDS church leader Rhett Hintze for failing to report child sex abuse allegations made against a fellow church leader. Hintze was accused of having knowledge of specific acts of sexual abuse committed by a fellow LDS member, but neglecting to report it to the police.

May 1, 2024 – $2.28 Billion Verdict in Sex Abuse Case Against LDS Stepfather

A jury in California awarded a staggering $2.28 billion in damages to a woman who alleged that she was sexually molested by her stepfather for many years. The Mormon Church was named as a defendant in this LDS Church lawsuit because the stepfather, and the woman’s mother, were active LDS members and many of the acts of abuse allegedly took place at LDS church properties.

March 15, 2024 – New Law on Mandatory Reporting

The debate continues over whether a new bill awaiting Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s signature adequately protects children from abuse, as experts remain divided on mandated reporting for clergy. HB432 shields faith leaders from civil or criminal liability if they report ongoing child abuse disclosed during a confession but does not require them to do so.  This bill promotes opportunities to intervene in abuse cases, but the problem is it does not fully address the need for mandatory reporting to protect children.

This is all a reaction to some high-profile sex abuse cases, including a woman whose case was dropped after her abuser’s bishop declined to testify due to fear of legal repercussions. The woman believes the bill could encourage clergy to report abuse without fear of retribution and hopes it will lead to broader changes in handling child sex abuse within the LDS Church and beyond. Meanwhile, a similar bill failed to advance, highlighting ongoing legislative challenges in addressing clergy reporting requirements.

January 5, 2024 – How the LDS Church Suppresses Sex Abuse Claims

In 2017, an attorney from the LDS Church’s Risk Management Division met with a woman and her mother after she disclosed that her father, a former bishop, had sexually abused her as a child.

Audio recordings of these meetings reveal how the attorney while expressing concern, discouraged a lay bishop from testifying against the father by citing clergy-penitent privilege laws. This legal strategy led to the dismissal of the charges against the father, despite his confession to the bishop. The church then offered the woman and her mother $300,000 in exchange for a confidentiality agreement and the destruction of their recordings.

Despite the church’s attempts to manage the situation internally, the woman and her mother recorded multiple conversations with the father, and he admitted the awful things he had done.

These recordings were handed over to the police, leading to the father’s arrest. So far, so good. But without the bishop’s testimony, the prosecution could not proceed, and the father faced minimal consequences. The case highlights the church’s practice of using legal strategies and nondisclosure agreements to handle allegations of child sex abuse internally at the expense of justice and transparency.

December 15, 2023 – Recordings Reveal Sex Abuse Cover Up By Church

Several news outlets, including PBS, are reporting that audio recordings obtained by the Associated Press reveal how the LDS Church, with the help of a Salt Lake City attorney, concealed evidence of sexual abuse by a prominent church member. The story highlights how the LDS Church employed a “risk management” strategy in response to evidence of sexual abuse, rather than reporting the evidence to the police.

December 1, 2023 – Case Dismissed in Arizona

An Arizona judge dismissed a high-profile child sexual abuse lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ruling that church officials who learned of the abuse through a spiritual confession were not obligated to report it to authorities due to the state’s clergy-penitent privilege.

Cochise County Superior Court Judge Timothy Dickerson stated that the privilege excused two bishops and other church officials from the mandatory reporting law, as the knowledge of the abuse came from confidential communications. Despite excommunicating Paul Adams, the church’s decision to withhold his abusive behavior from civil authorities allowed him to continue abusing his daughters for seven years, during which he recorded and posted videos of the abuse online. The abuse only stopped when Adams was arrested by Homeland Security agents in 2017. Adams died by suicide while awaiting trial.

This interpretation of the clergy-penitent privilege essentially provides a shield for perpetrators of child sexual abuse, enabling them to continue their crimes without fear of legal repercussions. The decision undermines the effectiveness of mandatory reporting laws designed to protect vulnerable children and could potentially lead to more instances of abuse going unreported and unchecked. You lose the right to religious confidentiality when you molest children.

March 15, 2023 – LDS Bishop Arrest on Sex Abuse Charges

A former bishop in the LDS Church, John Goodrich, was arrested this week and being charged with sexually abusing his daughter while on a school trip. A grand jury in Virginia found probable cause that Goodrich committed four felonies, including rape by force, threat or intimidation, forcible sodomy, and two counts of felony aggravated sexual battery by a parent of a child.

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Sex Abuse Within the LDS Church

The Mormon Church is officially called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The LDS Church boasts a worldwide membership of around 15 million, with more than 6.5 million adherents based in the United States.

Comparable to other religious institutions like the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church has confronted its own sequence of sexual abuse controversies that have emerged in recent times. Although the Church openly condemns all types of abusive conduct, including sexual, physical, and verbal mistreatment, families have expressed apprehensions regarding the Church’s reluctance to effectively address this matter.

Lately, multiple complainants have accused the Church and various officials of neglecting to protect their children from instances of sexual abuse. Despite some civil trials concluding with undisclosed settlements, the Church’s leadership consistently denies any wrongdoing, seemingly prioritizing safeguarding the institution over attending to the needs of abuse victims.

Should anyone encounter abuse or witness a loved one affected while affiliated with the Mormon Church, seeking legal counsel might present a potential path to resolution. Engaging with an attorney specialized in cases of Mormon Church sex abuse could offer invaluable guidance and support.

Sexual Abuse Lawsuits Against Churches

Recently, victims of sexual abuse within a church or involving clergy had limited recourse. Often, filing a civil lawsuit was unfeasible due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, as too much time had elapsed.

However, contemporary laws are easing this situation. Many states have revised their laws to either remove or extend the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims in civil court. Some states have completely abolished the statute of limitations in lawsuits concerning child sexual abuse. Furthermore, the mounting evidence indicating that church authorities were aware of the abuse and attempted to conceal it has led to the churches themselves becoming viable defendants in such cases.

The spotlight has primarily focused on sexual abuse claims associated with the Catholic Church. While the Catholic Church has been the subject of a significant number of sexual abuse lawsuits, clergy sexual abuse claims extend beyond Catholic institutions. Numerous other religious denominations and organizations have encountered allegations of clergy sexual abuse. Revelations of sexual abuse within the United Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist Convention have brought to light similar issues within these institutions. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faces similar challenges in this regard.

Who Can File a Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against the LDS Church?

If you have been the victim of sexual abuse connected to the Mormon Church, officially known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), you may have the right to file a lawsuit and seek financial compensation. Victims of abuse tied to the church can hold the organization accountable, particularly when there is evidence that the church enabled, concealed, or failed to prevent the abuse.

To successfully sue the LDS Church in a sexual abuse case, victims must typically prove two key elements: (1) that the abuse occurred, often by a church member or at a church-sponsored event, and (2) that the church acted negligently, such as by failing to take action after learning about the abuse or by allowing abusers to remain in positions of trust. Many lawsuits against the Mormon Church also allege systemic issues, such as policies designed to protect the institution rather than victims.

Statute of Limitations for Filing LDS Sexual Abuse Lawsuits

The statute of limitations, or the deadline for filing a lawsuit, is a critical factor in sexual abuse cases. Historically, many victims of childhood sexual abuse have been unable to pursue legal claims because they did not come forward within the required time frame. However, recent legal reforms in several states have opened new opportunities for survivors.

States like California, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania have extended or eliminated the statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits in certain circumstances. For example:

• California has enacted “lookback windows,” temporarily removing the statute of limitations for older claims.
• New York implemented the Child Victims Act, which opened a similar window for survivors to file lawsuits regardless of when the abuse occurred.
• Maryland and Pennsylvania have recently passed or are considering legislation to give survivors more time to seek justice.

These changes make it possible for survivors in these states to file LDS sexual abuse lawsuits, even if the abuse happened decades ago.

How LDS Church Operates Financially

The LDS Church operates under a hierarchical structure, with local bishops managing individual congregations (known as wards), but they are ultimately directed by the central church leadership.

Sex abuse lawsuits lawsuit argues that the church used its influence to protect itself rather than address the abuse. It also suggests that the church, by continuing to collect tithes and donations from members in New York while hiding the abuse, financially benefited from these acts. The plaintiffs claim that the church used intimidation tactics to silence victims, further deepening its liability.

One thing is for sure: the LDS Church has a ton of money. It collects billions of dollars annually in tithes from its extremely loyal member. This money is used not only for church administration and charitable efforts but also for major financial investments. The Church established a non-profit entity, Ensign Peak Advisors, which managed a vast investment portfolio reportedly exceeding $100 billion, largely funded through tithes.

The plaintiffs argue that while the church benefits from tax exemptions as a religious entity, it uses these funds for commercial investments without adequate transparency. This financial backdrop is significant because it highlights the church’s vast resources, which the plaintiffs’ LDS sex abuse lawsuit say were used to cover up wrongdoing while still profiting from its membership.

Settlement Value of LDS Church Sex Abuse Lawsuits

So how much settlement compensation can victims expect to get in a successful sexual abuse lawsuits against the LDS Church? Sex abuse lawsuits against churches and other institutions generally have a high average settlement value. The Catholic church in the U.S. has paid out over $3 billion in compensation to sexual abuse victims over the years. The average settlement payout in church sex abuse cases is $275,000 to $350,000.

How the Church of Latter-Day Saints Deals with Sex Abuse Settlements

We all recently got an up-close look at how the Latter-day Saints deal with sex abuse cases.  In audio recordings related to a child sex abuse case in Idaho, a director of risk management from the Mormon Church allegedly offered the victim a $300,000 confidentiality agreement, as reported by the Associated Press.

What happened was a dentist and ex-bishop of the Mormon church was arrested in Mountain Home, Idaho, following accusations by his adult daughter of childhood sexual abuse. The dentist had been brought before his church bishop by family members for confession and was subsequently excommunicated.

A criminal case ensued. But the daughter supposedly did not want to pursue it. So the dentist went back to being a dentist.  The dentist’s daughter and wife claimed that prosecutors indicated they needed the bishop’s testimony about the confession for their case.

The church helped. It reportedly discouraged the bishop from testifying, citing Idaho law which exempts clergy from reporting crimes confessed in a religious context.

Then in tried to settle any sex abuse lawsuit quietly. In an AP-released recording, the church’s risk management director is heard offering the Idaho dentist’s family $300,000 to avoid suing the church or revealing the payment. This recording was made by a church member who was present to support the victim and had not agreed to confidentiality.

This is a bad look. The church tried to defend itself – on Twitter of all places – that only the perpetrator could waive the privilege that prevented the bishop from testifying.

Settlements and Verdicts in Church Sexual Abuse Lawsuits

At their core, Mormon sexual abuse lawsuits are about seeking justice for the emotional pain and suffering endured by survivors. The devastating psychological impact of abuse often lasts a lifetime, affecting trust, relationships, mental health, and overall quality of life.

Damages for emotional pain and suffering acknowledge these profound losses. Survivors may be compensated for conditions like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as the ongoing challenges of rebuilding their lives after such trauma. These damages do not take away the pain.  None of these plaintiffs are really made whole. But settlement compensation does provide a measure of relief for the lasting effects of abuse.

Survivors may also recover compensation for medical expenses related to their healing journey. This includes costs for therapy, counseling, psychiatric treatment, and medications necessary to address the trauma caused by the abuse. In severe cases, inpatient care, rehabilitation, or long-term therapy may be required. Both past expenses already incurred and future costs anticipated for ongoing treatment can be included in these damages, ensuring survivors have access to the support they need.

In addition to compensatory damages, some Mormon church lawsuits may include punitive damages. These damages are awarded in cases where the church’s actions—or inactions—were particularly egregious. For instance, if the LDS Church concealed abuse or allowed known abusers to remain in positions of trust—and we know for sure this happened in many cases—punitive damages may be awarded to punish the organization and discourage similar misconduct in the future. These damages send a strong message about accountability and the importance of protecting vulnerable individuals. They also drive higher settlement amounts in these cases.

Ultimately, the financial compensation awarded in these cases is influenced by the severity of the abuse, the survivor’s long-term needs, and the level of negligence by the LDS Church or its leaders.

Below are some example LDS church sex abuse settlement amounts and jury payouts:

• $950,000 Settlement (California 2024): The Mormon Church paid $995,000 to settle its share of a civil case in which a church member in Lake Elsinore, California was convicted of sexually molesting a young girl. The abuser spent several years in state prison. The lawsuit alleged that the woman repeatedly told church officials, including local bishops, about the sexual abuse but that they failed to report it to law enforcement in violation of church policy and also used “intimidation and shaming tactics” to keep her from telling anyone outside the church.
• $1,100,000 Settlement (Washington 2024): A 5 year old boy was sexually abused multiple times by a teenager at an LDS run preschool. The parents of the victim reported the initial abuse to their LDS bishop. Despite being aware that the same boy had been accused of similar misconduct at least once before, the bishop discouraged the parents from pressing charges.
• $2,280,000,000 Verdict (California 2023):  A California jury awarded $2.28 billion to a woman molested by her stepfather from age 5 to 14. The lawsuit implicated her mother and the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, alleging the church ignored reports of abuse and used intimidation to silence her. The stepfather, arrested in 1997 and imprisoned for three years, failed to appear at the trial. The church and mother settled for $1.2 million combined. The jury awarded $836 million in damages and $1.44 billion in punitive damages against the stepfather.
• $1,000,000 Settlement (California 2023): In this case, the plaintiff alleged that her stepfather subjected her to sexual abuse during social gatherings, meetings, and while on the property of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where they were members. The lawsuit claimed that, despite notifying the church about the abuse, no steps were taken in response. Ultimately, the church opted to resolve the matter through an out-of-court settlement, reaching a sum of $1 million.
• $95,000,000 Verdict (New York 2023): An individual in upstate New York received a $95 million settlement after alleging that a Catholic Priest sexually abused him in a car back in 1979. The compensation comprised $50 million in punitive damages imposed on the church for its role in concealing the abuse.
• $19,200,000 Settlement (Pennsylvania 2021): The Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese set up a $19 million fund to provide compensation to victims of clergy sexual abuse. More than 200 individuals filed claims and agreed to the settlement offers within the fund, resulting in an average payout of approximately $86,000.
• $1,000,000 Settlement (Ohio 2020): The victim in this case claimed that a priest sexually abused him six times while attending a Catholic high school causing him lifelong depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
• $34,960,000 Verdict (Montana 2018): A pair of women in this case alleged that a member of their Jehovah’s Witness church congregation sexually abused them as children for a period of over 13 years. They sued the church for covering up the abuse and not reporting the church member to the authorities.

Contact Us About Sex Abuse Lawsuits Against the LDS Church

We are currently seeking new sexual abuse lawsuits against the LDS Church. Contact us today at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation.