Welcome to the home page of MormonAbuse.com, a website dedicated to justice and healing for survivors of child sexual abuse arising out of the Mormon Church.This site is sponsored by Kelly Clark, an attorney in Portland, Oregon, who has handled over 150 cases of childhood sexual abuse, including cases against the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, and other churches, youth organizations, and a wide variety of other “institutions of trust.” To see a full listing of the extensive work on child sexual abuses cases Kelly Clark has handled, click here.

We know many sexual abuse survivors must work through incredibly complex emotions of confusion, anger, shame, and depression as they take back their emotional and spiritual power from the perpetrators who abused them and the institutions of trust who sponsored the relationships out of which the sexual abuse arose. This process often takes a long time and for many survivors of sex abuse, it is a huge step even to admit to themselves, let alone to others, that such unspeakable crimes were committed against them. Sometimes the process of disclosure itself can take years, even decades.

Lawsuits are not for everyone, but for some sexual abuse survivors, holding the abusers and institutions accountable legally is an important step in their healing. We want to help survivors in any way possible–including discussing your legal options with you. Whether you ultimately decide to pursue justice or not, you should know what your rights are.

All of the above facts are true for child sex abuse in any situation, but even more so when the sex abuse arises out of a religious faith culture, such as the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Church. In addition to the shame and guilt that accompany any child sexual abuse, religious child sexual abuse is more complicated still. The very notion of trust, of faith, of God, of any spiritual sense at all can be horribly damaged and twisted when a child is sexually invaded by a trusted adult– often, in the LDS context, an adult who carries a “Call,” i.e., someone who is supposed to be acting on God’s behalf, and who was sent by an organization that proclaims itself as the True Reconstituted Church of Jesus Christ. We are committed to helping people whose childhood faith could not let them separate God from their sexual abuser, and who are now struggling to make sense of it all.

Kelly Clark is licensed in the State of Oregon, as well as federal Courts, including the US District Court for the District of Oregon, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the US Supreme Court. He has brought child sexual abuse cases in numerous states around the country, affiliating with local counsel when necessary. For the last fifteen years he has been one of the leading advocates in the Western United States for childhood sexual abuse survivors. As a member of the Oregon Legislature in 1989 and 1991, he was co-author of Oregon’s extended statute of limitations for child sexual abuse survivors, and co-authored Oregon’s ban on the possession of child pornography.

His successes include the landmark cases of Fearing v Bucher and Archdiocese of Portland (Oregon Supreme Court, 1999) and Lourim v Swenson and Boy Scouts (Oregon Supreme Court, 1999), which, taken together, both strengthened the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse survivors and at the same time held “institutions of trust” liable for abuse arising from the relationships sponsored by those institutions. He as also won victories against the LDS Mormon Church, including numerous trial court wins on questions of statutes of limitations, agency and punitive damages–and in the summer of 2007, won an important victory when the Oregon Supreme Court refused to overturn a trial court order requiring the Mormon Church to disclose its financial strength and records as part of a punitive damages case against the Church. DI v Johnson and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (Oregon Supreme Court, mandamus proceeding, July, 2007).