child sex abuse

Cochise County Superior Court Judge Timothy Dickerson said the state’s clergy-penitent privilege excused two bishops and several other church officials from Arizona’s child sex abuse mandatory reporting law because Paul Adams initially disclosed that he was sexually abusing his daughter during a confession to his bishop.

Last week, a federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment that accuses Bateman of making child pornography and provides new details about how he took wives as young as 9 years old as he worked to win followers to start his own small offshoot group of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Attorneys say a California jury has awarded $2.28 billion to a woman who was molested for years by her stepfather.

The ruling stems from a child sex abuse lawsuit filed by three children who accused the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of a conspiracy to cover up their abuse by their father, church member Paul Adams.

Seventy-eight-year-old Carl Matthew Johnson was sentenced Thursday on four counts of sexual abuse of a child stemming from his plea deal in January. The judge gave him nine years to life for three first-degree felonies and one to 15 years for a second-degree felony, all to run consecutively.

Behind-the-scenes conversations between legislative leaders and what Senate President Stuart Adams said was “a broad base of religious groups” helped thwart four separate proposals to add clergy to the list of professionals required to report child sexual abuse.

A polygamous leader from a community on the Utah-Arizona border pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal charges of kidnapping, and tampering with and destroying evidence.

In a court filing in Cochise County, Arizona, made public Wednesday, the children of the late Paul Adams asked an Arizona judge for permission to add Republican state Rep. Merrill F. Nelson and law firm Kirton McConkie as defendants in their lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints.

Russell Nelson's remarks were the first from a senior church leader on abuse since The Associated Press published an investigation into how the church handles reports of sexual abuse. He spoke at the church's twice-yearly conference that leaders use to reflect on current events and announce changes in doctrine.

An Associated Press review finds that over the past two decades, more than 130 bills have been proposed in state legislatures to create or amend child sex abuse reporting laws. After intense opposition from religious groups, the clergy privilege remained unchanged.

Investigators say Carl Matthew Johnson acknowledged the abuse. They say he was in a position of trust over the victims but aren't saying if the alleged abuse occurred while he was a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Records from a log of calls fielded by a law firm representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a church official deposition show that Republican State Rep. Merrill F. Nelson took the initial call from a bishop reporting that church member Paul Adams had sexually abused his daughters.