Flurry of lawsuits hits LDS church

One of our favorite sister publications is Floodlit.org, which covers abuse in the Latter-day Saint (LDS) denomination. Floodlit does a wonderful job in covering issues church that uses its wealth and power to cover-up abuse, even as it talks a good game.

Candidly, although no one here is LDS, we are very fond of our LDS friends. Overwhelmingly, we’ve found rank and file members to be honest, kind, gracious, and diligent.

The problem with LDS is leadership. Much like the Episcopal Church, if you read the proclamations about a zero-tolerance policy, you’d think it was a safe place. But as with the Episcopal Church, the reality is often far different, with minimal accountability, thin enforcement, and a uniquely LDS brand of clericalism. Ostensibly, no one in the denomination gets paid to serve as clergy, and at the stake and ward level, that’s true. But complain about a missionary president or stake president, and you’ll likely discover you’re talking to the hand.

So, we encourage readers to consider supporting the excellent work of Floodlit.org, and we’re reprinting with permission the organization’s article about a recent flurry of lawsuits against the church below.

Kudos to this excellent organization and its volunteers.

Finally, as to the decision by the LDS church to seek removal to federal district court, we know what you’re up, and we don’t respect you for it. Indeed, your antics are straight out of the Roman Catholic playbook.

Victims deserve care and full compensation without the need to resort to litigation.

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FLOODLIT.org has learned of a new wave of 91 child sex abuse lawsuits filed against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California.

Starting on Aug. 26, the Slater Slater Schulman LLP law firm filed 91 civil suits in 26 California counties, each on behalf of a different abuse survivor who says a Latter-day Saint official, employee or other leader sexually assaulted them, and that the church failed to protect them from harm.

In all, the lawsuits accuse 97 former Mormon leaders and church members of child sexual abuse, including:

• 20 bishops
• 20 elders
• 8 missionaries
• 5 high priests
• 6 teachers
• 4 counselors
• 3 youth leaders
• 1 stake president
• 30 other leaders/members

On Sep. 6, the law firm submitted a petition for coordination to the Riverside County Superior Court, requesting that it consider the 91 separate lawsuits as coordinated actions.

The petition said more lawsuits may be included in the future.

On Oct. 8, the Mormon Church filed a notice of removal to the US District Court for the Central District of California, requesting that the lawsuits be removed to federal court.

FLOODLIT.org is requesting copies of court records for each civil case.

An initial review of 10 of the lawsuits showed that in each case, Mormon officials allegedly covered up or failed to report abuse to law enforcement.

In three of those cases, sexual abuse allegedly took place in a bishop’s office at a Mormon church building.

Since 2022, FLOODLIT.org has researched and reported on sexual abuse in the Mormon Church. The database at https://floodlit.org/accused/ contains over 1,000 published case reports about accused individuals, including over 100 former Mormon bishops.

The Mormon Church has not published a list of known sex offenders in its ranks.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is headquartered in Utah.

We will continue to follow this story and provide updates at https://floodlit.org/coordinated-lawsuit-california/.

We are asking the public to consider donating to help FLOODLIT pay for copies of court records as we investigate and report on these cases. You can donate via our website. We are a non-profit organization.