For decades, hierarchs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have been instituting and upholding policies which protect sex abusers and further endanger and harm innocent abuse survivors within the church.
Less than a year ago, AP News released an investigative report detailing the Mormon Church’s highly ineffective policies in preventing and responding to sexual abuse. The most shocking part: the Church’s policies are not meant to protect its congregants, but rather to protect its own financial and reputational interests. This article and others like it have shed light on how decades of abuse in the Church have helped its hierarchs and legal team hone these policies to most effectively shield the Church from bad publicity and other harms, rather than protect its members.
Andrews & Thornton has discovered that these unchecked policies have developed a breeding ground for an epidemic of sexual abusers hiding behind the protection from prosecution and justice that the Mormon Church provides them.
Of the most horrendous and tragic policies the Mormon Church institutes is how it responds to reports of sexual abuse.
Bishops— the leaders of the individual parishes, called wards— and other clergy, are instructed to call the Mormon Church’s Sexual Abuse Hotline to seek guidance in responding to allegations of sexual abuse within their ward. Upon calling the Hotline, they are connected to one of the Mormon Church’s lawyers rather than a mental health professional or other resource to help stop the abuse. Time and again, the Church’s lawyers instruct Bishops not to report the alleged sexual abuse to appropriate authorities, such as the police or child protective services, and instead instruct callers to cover up the abuse.
Andrews & Thornton has also unearthed a trend where the legal counsel on the hotline habitually misinforms Bishops and other clergy of the appropriate mandatory reporting laws of the state in which the abuse has allegedly taken place. This ties the hands of Bishops and other members who want to report the abuse according to their conscience but are instructed that they will face severe legal consequences if they do so.
The most consistent policy enforced by the Church has been to preserve its sterling reputation at all costs for the sake of maintaining its membership and collecting donations and tithes.
Thousands of faithful Mormons are leaving the Church because they have learned of these harmful policies which run counter to the teachings of the Mormon Church—that the Church and its members should protect the innocent.
Importantly, hundreds of survivors of abuse are coming forward to pursue justice against their abusers and the religious institution which harbored and empowered them.
The attorneys at Andrews & Thornton are well-versed in sexual abuse claims. Andrews & Thornton represents survivors of sexual abuse within the Mormon Church from across the country, litigating cases in state and federal courts. Andrews & Thornton has represented thousands of sexual abuse survivors and has the knowledge and resources to help bring a strong claim on your behalf.
While monetary compensation likely will not make a survivor whole, it is a first step toward bringing closure to this difficult period of their life. We understand that speaking about abuse is a long process that requires a trusting relationship between law firm and client—we have trained mental health professionals available to help in the process of telling your story.
The ability to bring your claim may depend on the statute of limitation status in the abuse state. Several states have passed legislation that revives the statute of limitations for previously time-barred claims. This legislation generally provides a certain timeframe in which a claim can be filed; we refer to this as an “open-window.” Additionally, new federal law has been passed which removes the statute of limitations for sex abuse claims in federal court for more recent cases going forward. We have our finger on the legislative pulse around the nation to monitor which states have passed or are likely to pass this “open-window” legislation.
If you or your loved one has been sexually abused by a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, call or email our office for a free consultation now.