I just read this in my daily email from Crooked Media (I highly recommend their daily post):
In 2022, the Associated Press first reported that Paul Douglas Adams, who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—the Mormon church—had confessed to his bishop that he had been sexually abusing his daughter, who was then ju…
I just read this in my daily email from Crooked Media (I highly recommend their daily post):
In 2022, the Associated Press first reported that Paul Douglas Adams, who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—the Mormon church—had confessed to his bishop that he had been sexually abusing his daughter, who was then just five years old. The bishop with whom Adams spoke followed church policy and called what church officials refer to as the “helpline” for guidance. Lawyers for the church who staff the helpline told the bishop not to call the police or child welfare. And the bishop didn’t, despite his professional occupation as a family physician (another Mandatory Reporting profession). That was some seven years before Adams was apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security in 2017, after authorities were able to trace the videos he recorded and uploaded of himself raping two of his daughters.
Arizona, like many other states, requires clergy, physicians, nurses, anyone who reasonably believes a child has been abused, to report the abuse. But an Arizona judge dismissed the high-profile lawsuit against the LDS Church, ruling that the bishops and other church officials who knew of the abuse were protected by clergy-penitent privilege. The church’s decision not to report allowed Adams to continue abusing his first daughter for seven years, then a second daughter, beginning when she was only 6 weeks old. The attorney representing the Adams children, Lynne Cadigan, said she will appeal the ruling, adding that if it is allowed to stand, it will “completely eviscerate the state’s child protection law.” Cadigan argued that the church interpreted clergy-penitent privilege more broadly than the state law intended in the Adams case. In the judge’s ruling, the law applies to others in the church who learned of Adams’s confession, including the disciplinary council that oversaw his eventual excommunication. That, Cadigan argued, is indecent. She lamented, “How do you explain to young victims that a rapist’s religious beliefs are more important than their right to be free from rape?
I just read this in my daily email from Crooked Media (I highly recommend their daily post):
In 2022, the Associated Press first reported that Paul Douglas Adams, who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—the Mormon church—had confessed to his bishop that he had been sexually abusing his daughter, who was then just five years old. The bishop with whom Adams spoke followed church policy and called what church officials refer to as the “helpline” for guidance. Lawyers for the church who staff the helpline told the bishop not to call the police or child welfare. And the bishop didn’t, despite his professional occupation as a family physician (another Mandatory Reporting profession). That was some seven years before Adams was apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security in 2017, after authorities were able to trace the videos he recorded and uploaded of himself raping two of his daughters.
Arizona, like many other states, requires clergy, physicians, nurses, anyone who reasonably believes a child has been abused, to report the abuse. But an Arizona judge dismissed the high-profile lawsuit against the LDS Church, ruling that the bishops and other church officials who knew of the abuse were protected by clergy-penitent privilege. The church’s decision not to report allowed Adams to continue abusing his first daughter for seven years, then a second daughter, beginning when she was only 6 weeks old. The attorney representing the Adams children, Lynne Cadigan, said she will appeal the ruling, adding that if it is allowed to stand, it will “completely eviscerate the state’s child protection law.” Cadigan argued that the church interpreted clergy-penitent privilege more broadly than the state law intended in the Adams case. In the judge’s ruling, the law applies to others in the church who learned of Adams’s confession, including the disciplinary council that oversaw his eventual excommunication. That, Cadigan argued, is indecent. She lamented, “How do you explain to young victims that a rapist’s religious beliefs are more important than their right to be free from rape?
That’s worse than disgusting!!