http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/600380/Lawsuit-filed-against-church-for-coverup-of-sex-abuse.html?nav=5006

MARTINSBURG - A lawsuit filed in Berkeley County against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormon Church, and local church officials accuses church leaders of covering up allegations that the son of local church officials sexually abused 12 children over the course of more than five years.

Christopher Michael Jensen, 22, of Cheswick Drive, Martinsburg, was found guilty of one count of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of sexual abuse by a custodian Feb. 6 following a jury trial in Berkeley County Circuit Court.

The criminal charges involved only two of the 12 children suing the church, who were ages 3 and 4 at the time of the abuse.
***
The suit says the church has not accepted responsibility for what it allegedly did or failed to do, despite allegedly being confronted with information about the alleged abuse on several occasions.

The suit also alleges that the church has continued its cover up, sending emissaries from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Martinsburg to instruct witnesses not to talk with attorneys representing the children suing the church.

In addition, the suit alleges that the church, through its leaders, has tried to intimidate the families of the children suing the church and has allegedly directed fellow church members to try to convince them to abandon their claims "lest they run afoul of church teachings regarding forgiveness," a copy of the suit reads.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages. The Mormon Church receives $5 billion to $7 billion per year in tithing from members and Time magazine estimated in 2001 that the Mormon Church owned financial assets and real estate in excess of $120 billion, according to the suit.

"Punitive damages, in addition to compensatory damages, are not only warranted in these circumstances, but also are necessary to send a message to this institution and its agents that abusing young children is not acceptable, that compliance with secular laws requiring that sex abuse be reported to the authorities is mandatory and that the church's self-interest cannot be elevated over the needs of young children," a copy of the suit reads.

Wow, I know if Susan , just re-lit this board with info, the whole group will eventually be in the know! One person yesterday had mentioned sending this info to the New York Times or the The Salt Lake tribune. I don't have those contacts, but I don't see why this shouldn't see the big press. This is almost as bad as Jodi Arias and definitely worse than Elizabeth Smart. 12 kids over the course of five years! That's horrible!!

If you know the contact info for the attorneys handling this, I would love to join this lawsuit. The exact same thing happened to me and my bishop was the son of an apostle.

Anagrammy

(use anagrammy on gmail to reach me)

I can do that annagrammy , I use to attend the Martinsburg ward Years ago with my family. However I might just post it here though.

Great - this is a chance for all victims to join together and make this a class action lawsuit.


Anagrammy

Steve Benson has contacts.

Top

During my time as AP (2001), my companion and I had to spend a week basically on house arrest while we babysat a missionary who had been accused of molesting a little girl (My MP confided to us that there had been "inappropriate touching.") The reason we had to spend a week with him was because the church was trying to convince the family not to press charges. The family finally agreed to stay silent but demanded that the missionary leave the country immediately. Late one evening my companion and I got a phone call and we quietly loaded the missionary into a car and dropped him off at the airport in SLC. We had to stay there until the plane took off. I really didn't realize what I was taking part in at the time but looking back it seems to fit the pattern of the church acting unlawfully to save face.

If that's not enough, I can think of at least 4 people I know personally who were sexually abused by priesthood holders and no charges were ever laid. I honestly believe that this is a much bigger issue in the LDS church than most people realize.

Though I wasn't touched at the time, my masturbation interrogation left scars on my psyche. I want to church to pay until it hurts.

This type of activity is a potential atomic bomb. Few outsiders realize that EVERY male member of TSCC holds a priesthood office. That includes every pervert and every pedophile. This is huge, because the non-mo public is sensitized to the subjects of "clergy" and abuse. The practice of hiding it and trying to handle it in-house is so well-established in Mormonism that this is bound to repeat, and become public knowledge much more frequently than in the past. They'll have more trouble hiding it.

Let's just hope that it saves more children from abuse, and as a nice side effect, discredits Mormonism in the eyes of the public, helping tear down their carefully and professionally crafted fake public image.

It's one thing to have something happen.

The following is acting like mobsters -

"The suit says the church has not accepted responsibility for what it allegedly did or failed to do, despite allegedly being confronted with information about the alleged abuse on several occasions.

The suit also alleges that the church has continued its cover up, sending emissaries from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Martinsburg to instruct witnesses not to talk with attorneys representing the children suing the church.

In addition, the suit alleges that the church, through its leaders, has tried to intimidate the families of the children suing the church and has allegedly directed fellow church members to try to convince them to abandon their claims "lest they run afoul of church teachings regarding forgiveness,""

About five or six years ago this person told me "The public has no idea what transpires behind the scenes to settle sex abuse cases out of court."

The informant worked for Kirton McConkie for about ten years and recently quit their employment claiming, "I could no longer live with myself and see what was going on and how the abuses were being covered up."

I asked the informant if they were willing to blow the whistle on the situation but they were too fearful of personal repercussions. I was disappointed with that response but assumed this person knew first hand the heavy handed methods employed the powerful.

If the victims in the lawsuit mentioned in this thread win I hope that the court will order the Morg to make public their financial books so that the court can establish a proper penalty and compensation.

Imagine the reaction of General Conference goes if the annual audit reporter robot mentioned the dollar total TSCC paid out through Kirton McConkie to settle abuse claims out of court. And also added the legal fees paid annually to Kirton McConkie to defend the Morg against abuse charges.

Indeed, this is one truth about the Church that Boyd K Packer would not find faith promoting. LOL

I did some googling because I had no idea where Martinsburg was and somehow I found the court documents.

http://blog.kosnoff.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2013-10-24-Jane-Doe-1-et-al-v-LDS-Berkeley-County-West-Virginia-Civil-Action-Number-13-C-656.pdf

And hey they (the lawfirm) have a Facebook page with a post about the suit against TSSC.

https://www.facebook.com/KosnoffFasy

Thanks for posting the link. I read through it and it made me just shake with anger. His mother believed he had enough of a problem to make him sleep outside always from his siblings to prevent abuse, but pushed other families to hire him as a babysitter. She was in the house when a lot of this abuse occurred, "co-sitting." When he was sent home from his mission to face molestation charges they wouldn't let him stay in their own home, but the parents, bishop and stake president had no problems encouraging other families with young kids to house him. Guess what happened? How can at least 6 families experience abuse and only 1 mother call the police? It's a mandatory reporting situation. Sad thing is, guy probably was abused himself. My money is on the parents...

I do hope this hits a bigger news cycle and forces some change in policies before they settle. SLC ... Apparent a told local leaders to just stay out of it...

This is going to hurt. Taking the tonsils out via the rectum.

Remember Joe Paterno?

When people find out where to line up, it's going to be fugly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2013 11:55PM by thingsithink.

Thanks for finding that pleading. I have copied down the attorney contact info and will be in touch with them.

I'll keep you posted.

Karma may be a bitch, but she's our bitch!

Anagrammy

I hope they take this to the mat.

You can bet there's probably been 10 more victims for every one we hear about. Not only that, there are a slew of these scum bags hiding behind their daddys coat tails.

The church has been intimidating victims since its very beginnings. Enough already.

They have honed it to a fine science. They do a damn good job of protecting the perp and re-victimizing the victims.

ALL in order to protect their precious FALSE reputation and their over inflated bank accounts. Money they've collected from the very victims they should be protecting.

The Mormon church has blood on its hands. If ever sexual assault victim came forward, the mormon church would be finished by the end of next week.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2013 12:45AM by Mia.

Amen, sister.

Is this the October surprise!? If it isn't, I don't know what else it could be. I'm gonna go pop some popcorn...

"Is this the October surprise!? If it isn't, I don't know what else it could be. I'm gonna go pop some popcorn..."

LOL. Nobody would have realized this was the October surprise if you hadn't pointed it out. That's how surprising it is.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2013 01:12AM by thingsithink.

Is this lawsuit the first of its kind with LDS Inc? I would imagine others have tried to sue the church right? Or did they all settle out of court secretly?

The church paid out a VERY large settlement so that they didn't have to open their books. I would guess they will try to do the same thing this time around.

I lived in that stake for 5 years. Never attended a meeting but lived there.

The descriptions on the facebook page of what this piece of shit did are horrific. I hope this doesn't get settled out of court.

The lawsuit complaint was sickening.

Too many suing victims for this to be kept under wraps, and LDS Inc sounds like it certainly has some dirty hands in this mess. Lots of victim blaming, and witness tampering.

This is the big one we have all been waiting for.

This might break LDS Inc, if it gets the proper publicity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2013 02:40AM by deco.

Remember;

-TSCC DOESN'T PAY FOR ANYTHING! but, the members do!

-most jurisdictions have Clergy - Confessor Privilege written into their juris prudence; sometimes written, sometimes as common law.

The complaint stated several time that the LDS clergy was required by law to report to law enforcement.

I am assuming the attorney writing the complaint would be familiar with the laws of the state.

There might not be a corporate entity left for LDS members to pay into. From the sounds of the complaint, there might be criminal charges against LDS officials.

If the following is any indication, clergy privilege won't save their repulsive hides.

https://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/state/index.cfm?event=stateStatutes.processSearch
Checkboxes selected:
State: West Virginia
Topic: Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect (which is listed second in the Child Abuse and Neglect category)

=====================================
State Statutes Results
West Virginia
Child Abuse and Neglect
Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect


Citation: W. Va. Code Ann. § 49-6A-2 (LexisNexis through W. Va. 2012 Legis. Serv., S. B. 161)

When any member of the clergy has reasonable cause to suspect that a child is neglected or abused, or observes the child being subjected to conditions that are likely to result in abuse or neglect, such person shall immediately, and not more than 48 hours after suspecting this abuse, report the circumstances or cause a report to be made to the Department of Health and Human Resources.

------------------------------------
Citation: W. Va. Code Ann. § 49-6A-7 (LexisNexis through 2012 1st Ex. Sess.)

The privileged quality of communications between husband and wife and between any professional person and his or her patient or client, except that between attorney and client, is hereby abrogated in situations involving suspected or known child abuse or neglect.
=====================================

It would serve the church right if they went down over a sex issue. Talk about karma.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2013 03:01AM by madalice.

It was a smart move by the plaintiffs attorney to have this in the media, and plastered all over the internet.

Sexual exploitation of powerless innocents is THE FOUNDING TENET of Mormonism. And it is ALIVE and WELL today. The LDS culture of sexual exploitation cannot help but tend to attract like-minded pervs into the fold to join the party.

The highest aspiration of Mormon males is to qualify themselves to eternal participation in an endless copulation orgy with females without number. An eternal orgasm.

Joseph Smith was not a fan of delayed gratification, so he cleverly proceeded to start his personal orgy early in his eternal progression.

His legacy lives on today.

By their fruits ye shall know them.

I have the sense this sort of abuse is much more widespread than any of us may imagine, and we've got to do whatever we can to make it stop. I just posted a notice on the San Diego edition of Craigslist urging any sexual abuse victims to come forward. Here's the link: http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/com/4154373050.html

Maybe if a few of us do this nationally, it will help get the word out that the church is finally being held accountable for this abuse.

Sadly this is not new behavior for this area. A link to Another, similar case from 1996.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/17/us/mormon-leaders-in-west-virginia-accused-in-suit-on-child-abuse.html

Hit 'em in the pocket book - that's the only way to hurt 'em big. And Lawd knows they sho do deserve it fo this lil' ol escapade. }:-)>

"...the church, through its leaders, has tried to intimidate the families of the children suing the church and has allegedly directed fellow church members to try to convince them to abandon their claims "lest they run afoul of church teachings regarding forgiveness,"

Fkn H! My eyes are fkn pinwheels and I'm yelling at the screen. This fkn CULT has the nerve to consider me "hopeless" and "without morality" for my atheism, yet they display neither when it comes to the care and protection of children in their care, never mind the adults. Jesus, come down now and strike this sorry excuse of a church to oblivion.

Amazing...yesterday I was googling Lds inc v and found the OP suit. I was going to post this information this morning.

Now I know this board is true. :)

Witness tampering is a big crime against the victims in this case. Someone should be going to jail!

It is very evident that the "church" requires members to forgive the TSCC of error, but not the TSCC no matter how unjust. But remember in their eyes the TSCC is an entity and not a person...and I guess they feel an entity can not sin. IMO the church as an entity feels that entity is not subject to its own doctrine of taking responsibility for its unlawful acts.

Go to hell you sick bastards...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2013 08:39AM by oldklunker.

I think this story just blew up all over the net. I think the rug that TSCC likes to hide all it's garbage under is getting just too large to hide the lies!

Wouldn't it be cool if victims from around the country banded together and made this a huge lawsuit. It would almost be the end of the cult!!

I hope they have a real strong vendetta against TSCC.

If they are simply hurt and are seeking damages, they might settle. I hope they don't need the money, refuse any and all out of court settlements and force those books open.

That would be a great crack in the dam.

Maybe there's a way to make donations to help their lawsuit for those of use who are in support of their lawuit, but aren't currently suing the church for anything.