Judge limits privilege defense in AZ Mormon sex abuse case

[Jilly_in_VA]

An Arizona judge overseeing a high-profile lawsuit accusing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of conspiring to cover-up child sex abuse has ruled that the church may not refuse to answer questions or turn over documents under the state’s “clergy-penitent privilege.”

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. But an exception to that law — the privilege — allows members of the clergy who learn of the abuse through spiritual confessions to keep the information secret.

Judge Laura Cardinal ruled on Aug. 8 that the late Paul Adams waived his right to keep his confessions secret when he posted videos of himself sexually abusing his two 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.

“Taken together, Adams’ overt acts demonstrate a lack of repentance and a profound disregard” for the principles of the church, widely known as the Mormon church, Cardinal said in her ruling. “His acts can only be characterized as a waiver of the clergy-penitent privilege.”

https://apnews.com/article/mormon-lawsuit-arizona-sex-abuse-25231a4c668e2e69ae45df484096f7b7

BOOM!

[Raster]

1. I was born and raised in the church... and crap like this is far from unique.

Yes, there is sexual abuse of youth in the church. And the only thing the Mormons learned from all the Catholic abuse scandals is NOT to let it be publicly known, and if at all possible, head off any legal actions before they made it to a courtroom.

The church's policy when they installed their "help line" was for church hierarchy to mitigate any potential problems before it ever reached the public. To be clear: their intent was NOT necessarily to stop the abuse, but to make sure the church was not held liable in any way.