Another Mission President Rapist

[2bizE]

MormonLeaks has leaked some emails about our favorite outside council and the church investigating another mission president. This time, the girl was 13 years old. Of course the police were never notified.
https://mormonleaks.io/newsroom/2018/11 ... -of-abuse/

[Hagoth]

It's interesting that the general authorities (?) who interviewed him were not at all convinced that he wasn't lying and it sounded like they made multiple attempts to get him to come clean. Even so, as 2bizE says, their intent was to keep it quiet and not involve the law. Also interesting, the interviewers' report volunteers that they thought the mission president lied about the girl's age because of a local cultural convention that 14-year old girls are old enough to be sexually active.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

It's interesting that the general authorities (?) who interviewed him were not at all convinced that he wasn't lying and it sounded like they made multiple attempts to get him to come clean. Even so, as 2bizE says, their intent was to keep it quiet and not involve the law. Also interesting, the interviewers' report volunteers that they thought the mission president lied about the girl's age because of a local cultural convention that 14-year old girls are old enough to be sexually active.

Yes must be a South American country if I had to guess.

[Palerider]

This guy's wife really made a big mistake trying to get the young lady to recant her story. Especially by doing so through the girl's mother.

Apparently in the text messages it becomes clear that the girl was accurate in her description of the time spent with the MP and his wife.

Also the young lady may have seriously not wanted her mother to know she had been molested for privacy reasons and to not involve or upset her mother and now the MP's wife has ruined that by disclosing what should have been kept confidential by church standards.

This woman is really dreading in a big way the tsunami of shame that could be headed her way if indeed her husband is guilty. I'm sure she's desperate to do anything to avoid it.

[blazerb]

The location of the abuse is odd. The notes say that it occurred in the US, but as Hagoth noted, it sounded like it happened somewhere else. I wonder if the temple is in a third world country and the accused has bought into some local customs. Or maybe it is a reference to some polygamous groups that feel that 14 is old enough to marry. Utah allows 15-year-olds to get married with parental and court approval. That does not quite match up with the cultural expectation of 14 mentioned in the notes.

Another thing, I expect church leaders to defend other leaders because the other leaders should have been called using the "gift of discernment." However, these emails show pretty clearly that leaders don't trust discernment much at all. I think they know about a lot of fails. They may not have been this big, but they happen all the time.

[Thoughtful]

Why don't these victims sue the perpetrator and the Church? I read all of these stories but I can't understand this. If one of my kids were abused by a church leader then I would gather all the evidence I could, present it to law enforcement for an investigation and possible charges. Are people really that devoted to the church that they would rather see their children suffer rather than hold the church accountable? Nonsense!

There's a podcast about this on A Thoughtful Faith, Litigating the Mormon Church.

[Hagoth]

The location of the abuse is odd. The notes say that it occurred in the US, but as Hagoth noted, it sounded like it happened somewhere else.

I served my mission in some US border towns where a lot of people spoke only Spanish, so there's a possibility that this might have happened in someplace like That.

[2bizE]

I suspect in time, the location will come out as well as the MP. It lists his various callings and someone will figure it out. Could be anywhere from California to Florida, Puerto Rico.
This was a few years ago, so the church private Investigators must have succeeded in keeping it out of the news. The guy probably has had his second anointing by now, too.