Deseretnews.com

LDS Church abuse lawsuit set for mediation

Home teacher has denied allegations of 1980s incidents

By, Associated Press

 

      PORTLAND, Ore. — A $45 million sex-abuse lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be mediated by a judge in an effort to reach a settlement instead of going to trial, attorneys said Thursday.
      Kelly Clark, a Portland lawyer whose client is suing the LDS Church, said the mediation is set for August 9 and 10.
      The dates were confirmed by Stephen English, a Portland attorney representing the church.
      If the case is not settled, a trial date has been scheduled for Oct. 18, Clark said.
      The lawsuit claims that a home teacher, Kenneth I. Johnson Jr., sexually abused a Beaverton boy as many as two times a week from 1987 to 1989.
      The church is responsible because Johnson was authorized to act on its behalf, giving him access to the boy, according to the complaint.
      The lawsuit claimed the duties authorized by the church included "educational and tutorial services, counseling, spiritual and moral guidance, religious instruction, and other duties" that would put Johnson "in a position of trust and confidence with LDS members and their children."
      Johnson has denied the allegations in court documents.
      English has said Johnson was acting as a family friend, not a church official.
      The church later excommunicated Johnson, claiming that church officials had not been told about the alleged abuse at the time.
      As part of the mediation agreement, the alleged victim — identified only by the initials "D.I." — has asked the church for reforms, Clark said.
      "My client is absolutely committed to achieving some changes in the child abuse policies of the Mormon church as part of his settlement," Clark said.
      Clark recently won an Oregon Supreme Court ruling in a pretrial motion asking the church to disclose detailed financial information for the first time since 1959.
      The ruling could set the course for a larger legal battle over the rights of the church if a settlement is not reached, attorneys said.
      "We have a motion in which we’re challenging the constitutionality of access to our confidential records," English said.
      Clark sought the ruling to determine if $45 million in punitive damages was a reasonable request.
      A book co-authored by Richard Ostling, a former Associated Press and Time magazine religion writer, titled "Mormon America: The Power and the Promise," estimated the church’s net worth at between $25 billion to $30 billion in the late 1990s.

 

July 13, 2007

Order to release financial data has LDS Church, courts on collision course
By Peggy Fletcher Stack (AP)

Oregon justices rule in ‘home teacher’ sex abuse suit

An Oregon Supreme Court ruling ordering the LDS Church to release detailed financial information to an alleged abuse victim could have wide-ranging implications for the church, which has not disclosed its assets publicly since 1959.

The plaintiff in the Oregon case, who alleges repeated sexual abuse by his LDS "home teacher," argues that knowing the church’s net worth is necessary to help a jury decide if $45 million in punitive damages is reasonable. The church counters revealing such information would violate its religious rights.

"The church respects the rule of law, but has profound constitutional concerns based on its constitutional right to protect the free expression of its religion," said Stephen F. English, an attorney for the church in Portland, Ore. LDS spokesman Scott Trotter declined to say what the church will do next, but it may not have to do much. The decision was reached on narrow pretrial grounds, which means the trial court could ultimately side with the church’s position.

But the case has drawn renewed attention to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ insistence on keeping its assets confidential, although it certainly is not alone among churches in the practice.

The federal government does not require such disclosure and few religious groups do so voluntarily, said Dan Busby, vice president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability in Winchester, Va.

Still, Mormonism is unique in the way it collects tithes and offerings from local church units into a common pool at its Salt Lake City headquarters, then disperses the money to areas as needed. An all-volunteer clergy governs the church, but chapels and temples, missionary allowances and educator salaries are paid out of general church funds.

Because LDS assets are listed together, rather than by region, financial disclosure of any part of the assets would reveal all the church’s holdings. To Mormon leaders, that’s an unfair expectation.

"I’m not aware of any group or denomination that would funnel all money into the central repository. That would be totally unheard of in Protestantism," Busby said. "Most denominations require that local churches pay a percentage or per capita amount to headquarters, but usually only 10 or 15 percent used to fund headquarters operations."

Even the Catholic Church, which has a centralized leadership at the Vatican, is financed at the diocesan level. That’s why several U.S. dioceses have filed for bankruptcy after being hit with millions of dollars in abuse awards, but no one asked to see all the Vatican‘s records.

The question of LDS finances has been a sensitive issue since at the least the mid-20th century

Until then, the church gave a detailed financial report every year at its semi-annual General Conference. It discontinued the practice, though, when it had to disclose that the church had outspent its income.

In 1957, the LDS Church lost $1 million in tithing funds invested in government bonds, according to a 1996 essay by historian D. Michael Quinn. In 1959, the church outspent its income by $8 million.

"There was good reason for the church’s annual financial report to give fewer details," Quinn wrote in Sunstone, an independent LDS magazine.

By 1962 the church deficit was at $32 million and the church was struggling, Quinn said, "to avoid the worst financial crisis of its history."

The church then brought in N. Eldon Tanner, the church’s "modern financial wizard," to the LDS First Presidency to lead it back into the black. When the church was firmly back on its feet, there was no incentive to return to the detailed financial accounts of the past. But that doesn’t mean people haven’t tried to figure out the church’s wealth.

In 1997, Time magazine estimated the LDS Church’s net worth was between $25 and $35 billion – $12 billion in U.S. meeting houses and temples; $5 billion in meeting houses and temples in foreign countries; $6 billion in unspecified investments; $5 billion in ranch and farm real estate and $1 billion in "schools, etc."

Mormon leaders said the magazine had "grossly exaggerated" the church’s wealth and pointed out that the bulk of its assets were "money-consuming, rather than money-producing.”

The Oregon case is not the first time attorneys for abuse victims have sought LDS financial figures.

In 2001, attorney Timothy N. Kosnoff sought the same information for his client, Jeremiah Scott, a former Oregon man who claimed he was sexually abused by an LDS Sunday School teacher. Scott was asking for $1.5 billion dollars in damages. The court ruled against the church, but the case was settled for $3 million without any disclosure.

The latest bid to expose the church’s net worth stems from a lawsuit filed last year that accuses Kenneth I. Johnson Jr. of molesting a Beaverton youth as often as twice a week in the late 1980s.

Johnson, who has denied the accusation, was the boy’s home teacher, a church-assigned monthly visitor. English said Johnson was acting as a family friend, not a church official, and LDS church officials did not know about the alleged abuse while it was happening.

Salt Lake Tribune
July 12, 2007

Court says LDS Church must release long-veiled financial information
AP

Portland, Oregon
The Oregon Supreme Court rejected an effort by the Mormon church to withhold financial information from the lawyers for a man who claims a "home teacher" frequently molested him about 20 years ago.

Despite the legal defeat, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not immediately release the detailed financial information about its net worth, The Oregonian newspaper reported.

Kelly Clark, an attorney for the Oregon man suing the church, said it would be good for a jury to have the information before considering his request for $45 million in punitive damages. A trial is scheduled for Aug. 6.

"A jury needs to know the entire financial context to know whether a punitive award is too much or sufficient or not enough," Clark said.

The LDS church sought emergency relief from a trial court order to turn over the financial information, but the Oregon Supreme Court late Monday rejected the appeal. The pretrial decision was reached on narrow pretrial grounds and doesn’t mean the court would not ultimately side with the church’s position that the Constitution protects its right to keep financial information private.

"The church is considering its position," Stephen F. English, the LDS church’s lead Portland attorney, told the newspaper. "The church respects the rule of law but has profound constitutional concerns based on its constitutional right to protect the free expression of its religion."

The LDS church has not released financial information since 1959.

"It’s the secret of secrets," said Timothy N. Kosnoff, a Seattle attorney who sought the information in 2001 on behalf of a former Oregon man who claimed he was sexually abused by an LDS Sunday school teacher.

Kosnoff never got the information because the church agreed to pay his client $3 million.

The latest bid to expose the church’s net worth stems from a lawsuit filed last year that accuses Kenneth I. Johnson Jr. of molesting a Beaverton youth as often as twice a week in the late 1980s.

Johnson, who has denied the accusation, was the boy’s home teacher, a church-sanctioned lay official authorized to provide educational and religious guidance, according to the suit.

English said Johnson was acting as a family friend, not a church official, and LDS church officials did not know about the alleged abuse while it was happening.

Church can’t hide its worth

Supreme Court – The LDS church loses a round in a fight to keep its finances secret on religious grounds

Thursday, July 12, 2007

ASHBEL S. GREEN

The Oregonian Staff

Oregon‘s top court has rejected the Mormon church’s bid to shield detailed financial information about its net worth — a closely held secret for nearly half a century.

Despite the legal defeat, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not immediately release the financial information to lawyers for a Portland-area man who claims he was molested by a church "home teacher" in the late 1980s.

"The church is considering its position," said Stephen F. English, the LDS church’s lead Portland attorney. "The church respects the rule of law but has profound constitutional concerns based on its constitutional right to protect the free expression of its religion."

English said he would renew the church’s legal arguments in a hearing Tuesday before Multnomah County Circuit Judge John A. Wittmayer.

Kelly W.G. Clark, a Portland attorney whose client is suing the LDS church, said a jury should have the financial information before considering his request for $45 million in punitive damages.

"A jury needs to know the entire financial context to know whether a punitive award is too much or sufficient or not enough," Clark said.

A trial is scheduled for Aug. 6.

The LDS church has not released financial information since 1959. A book claims it is among the most affluent churches in the world. "Mormon America: The Power and the Promise" estimated the church’s net worth at between $25 billion to $30 billion in the late 1990s.

Richard N. Ostling, a former Time Magazine religion writer and co-author of the book, said the church had about $6 billion on Wall Street and in church-controlled businesses and cash. It owned $5 billion in real estate.

"The land owned by the church is roughly comparable to the state of Delaware," Ostling said.

LDS church officials said his estimates were exaggerated but did not offer its own numbers, Ostling said.

"The full financial facts are probably known to only 15 or 20 men in Salt Lake City," he said.

Timothy N. Kosnoff, a Seattle attorney, was seeking the church’s financial information in 2001 on behalf of a former Oregon man who claimed he was sexually abused by an LDS Sunday school teacher.

Kosnoff never got the information because the church agreed to pay his client $3 million, the largest publicly known sex abuse settlement in the country at the time.

"It’s the secret of secrets," Kosnoff said. "They don’t share it even with their own members."

The latest legal showdown over the net worth of the LDS church stems from a 2006 lawsuit that accuses Kenneth I. Johnson Jr. of molesting a Beaverton youth as frequently as two times a week from 1987 to 1989.

Johnson was the boy’s home teacher, a church-sanctioned lay official authorized to provide educational and religious guidance, according to the suit.

Johnson denied molesting the boy in court papers. He did not return calls seeking comment.

The suit says the church is responsible for Johnson’s conduct because he used his position as an LDS home teacher to gain access to the boy.

English said Johnson was acting as a family friend, not a church official. LDS church officials did not know about the alleged abuse while it was going on. They excommunicated Johnson when they found out a decade later. Even if the jury finds the church responsible for Johnson’s conduct, English said, forcing it to turn over detailed financial documents goes too far.

"The church feels very strongly that these are part of their religious belief system and are confidential," he said. "When you’re seeking punitive damages against Johnson, the church’s net worth ought to be irrelevant."

Clark said Oregon‘s punitive damage law requires defendants — religious and secular — to turn over financial information. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that laws that treat religious and nonreligious groups the same do not violate the First Amendment.

"We’re arguing that the same rules that apply to everybody else in society apply to the LDS church," Clark said.

The LDS church sought emergency relief from a trial court order to turn over the financial information, but the Oregon Supreme Court late Monday rejected the appeal.

The pre-trial decision was reached on narrow pre-trial grounds and doesn’t mean the court would not ultimately agree with the church’s position that the Constitution protects its right to keep financial information private.

2 men sue Mormons, Scouts over abuse

$6.5 million – The brothers claim a Scout and church leader molested them from 1983 to 1985

The Oregonian/January 23, 2007
By Peter Zuckerman

Two brothers filed a $6.5 million lawsuit Monday against the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts of America for alleged sexual abuse in the 1980s by a Portland church teacher and Scout leader.

The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, contends that Timur Van Dykes, 50, of Portland used positions of trust to molest the boys, who were not identified, in the years 1983 to 1985. During those years Dykes served as a leader of Boy Scout Troop 719, which was supervised by the Cherry Park Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Dykes, also known as Vandykes, has been convicted of at least 23 sexual crimes against boys since 1985, when he was indicted by a Multnomah County grand jury and later convicted of sexual abuse and sexual penetration with a foreign object.

One of his earliest victims, also a Portland-area Boy Scout, led a troubled life after being molested and committed suicide in April 1995, the boy’s mother told The Oregonian after her son’s death.

Dykes served time in the Oregon State Penitentiary and now lives in Southwest Portland, where he is listed by the state as a sexual predator of infant males and boys 7 to 15.

Through his parole officer, Dykes declined to be interviewed.

Dykes’ crimes have resulted in at least three lawsuits against the Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Boy Scout officials, who learned about the case Monday, said Dykes was registered for scouting from 1981 to 1984. They declined to comment on specifics of the lawsuit.

Confidential Boy Scout files obtained by The Oregonian indicate that Dykes resigned in 1985 and was banned from the organization in 1987, two years after Dykes was first charged with molesting boys and at least three months after the Scouts concluded that he molested five boys from two families.

People generally aren’t put on the Boy Scouts national blacklist until allegations against them have been substantiated, Boy Scout officials said, and authorities probably suspended Dykes immediately after he was investigated.

The suit filed Monday claimed that in the years 1983 to 1985 Dykes molested one of the boys once but committed multiple offenses against the other, including fondling and oral sex.

The lawsuit says that although the offenses were committed years ago, the victims did not realize until 2005 and 2006 that the abuse resulted in continuing damage and injuries.

Kelly Clark, a Portland-based attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the brothers, said that a quicker and more forthright response from the Boy Scouts and Mormon church could have helped the victims recover.

"The last 20 years of these men’s psychological suffering did not have to happen," said Clark, who has handled more than 100 claims of child sexual abuse against the Catholic Church.

"Had the church but followed the law — reported allegations of child abuse involving this very same individual to law enforcement in the 1980s as they were required to do — we believe these men could have begun the healing process 20 years ago," Clark said.

In a statement, church attorney Steve English of Portland said: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints condemns child abuse and does not tolerate such actions by anyone affiliated with our faith. . . . The Church adamantly denies allegations of responsibility in this case and will defend itself vigorously."

The church excommunicated Dykes more than 20 years ago, English said.

Sex abuse in the Scouts was "very prevalent" before 1988, when the Boy Scouts overhauled their child abuse prevention, said Don R. Cornell, Boy Scouts field services director.

Cornell said that Oregon‘s Cascade Pacific Council, which has 16,000 adult volunteers, bans five to 10 leaders a year for reasons that include child abuse and ignoring Boy Scout policies.

The abuse described in the lawsuit wouldn’t happen today, he added. Two years ago, he said, the Boy Scouts of America began doing background checks on people who register to volunteer.

Deseretnews.com

Mormon church, Boy Scouts accused in sex-abuse lawsuit

Associated Press: Monday, January 22, 2007

 

      PORTLAND, Ore. — Two brothers who claim they were sexually abused as children by a "home teacher" filed a $6.5 million lawsuit Monday against the Mormon church and Boy Scouts of America.
      The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges the Boy Scouts and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were responsible because Timur Dykes was their authorized representative in the mid-1980s.
      Dykes was convicted of child sexual abuse, according to the lawsuit filed by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who has represented victims of alleged abuse by Roman Catholic priests.
      Dykes, also known as Timur Van Dykes, is listed on the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice Web site as a "predatory sex offender" who gains access to vulnerable boys and families through positions of trust.
      Dykes is serving probation until 2015, said Robb Freda-Cowie, department spokesman.
      Efforts to find a phone listing for Dykes were unsuccessful.
      The church and Boy Scouts said they had not seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment. The brothers were born in 1972 and 1973.
      The lawsuit alleges the church never reported sex-abuse allegations involving the older brother to police. If so, police would have discovered other victims, the lawsuit claims.
      Each brother seeks $3 million in general damages and $250,000 in economic damages.