Mormon Church Facing New Sex Abuse & Trafficking Lawsuits | Ep. 1991
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2025
⏱️ 176 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We sit down with the attorneys behind the explosive lawsuits filed against LDS Church, alleging decades of systemic child sexual abuse and institutional cover-up. These lawsuits include shocking claims of abuse facilitated by Church leaders across multiple states and even international borders, with some cases framed under federal trafficking statutes.The attorneys reveal how these cases aim to hold the Church accountable, explain the legal strategy behind the state and federal coordination efforts, and share the stories of survivors fighting for justice.
00:05:30 Anne Andrews
00:06:55 Kimberly DeGonia
00:08:55 Kolby Reddish
00:16:38 The human trafficking statute and how we define human trafficking
00:36:50 The Atonement and the church protecting itself
00:41:25 Describing the events in the way that lawyers do - High Level and what that means
00:42:43 Importance of the victim’s age
00:52:17 Discussion of the American criminal justice system
01:08:25 Charges are filed against Payton
01:19:50 Was Payton ever disciplined by the church?
01:32:50 Movement to consolidate the cases in Los Angeles
01:52:18 Dispelling myths on mandatory reporting laws
01:55:52 Rough timeline of proceedings ahead
02:17:00 Issues of Church and State laws?
02:24:00 What suggestions do they have for the LDS church to handle these situations better?
02:33:32 What is their motivation in defending these cases?
02:52:11 Final thoughts
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. |
| 0:03.8 | I'm your host, John DeLynn. It's February 11th, 2025. |
| 0:08.0 | And today we have a very sobering, somber and unpleasant and unfortunate sort of, but very important story to share with you all. |
| 0:26.1 | Today, we have attorneys Ann Andrews and Kimberly. |
| 0:29.3 | Tell me how to pronounce your name again, Kimberly? |
| 0:30.0 | Degonia. |
| 0:34.7 | Degonia. Thank you. I need to practice that. I'm sure I'll be saying it more in the future. |
| 0:41.1 | We have some very serious new rounds of allegations against the Church of Jesus Christ of Lattery Saints or the Mormon Church for systemically covering up |
| 0:49.4 | sex abuse for protecting perpetrators at the expense of victims. |
| 0:56.0 | We have covered this topic, unfortunately, way too often on Mormon Stories podcast, |
| 1:02.0 | and there's a whole new round. |
| 1:04.0 | And it's not just one case, it's not just a couple of cases. |
| 1:09.0 | It's a whole cluster of cases, not just in the state of California, but also in Utah and also nationwide. |
| 1:16.8 | And then in addition, there's now a federal proceeding under sort of new, as I understand it to be, sort of newish federal trafficking legislation or guidelines |
| 1:31.8 | or policies as well. I don't know all the legal terms, but that's why I have Colby Reddish here |
| 1:36.5 | as my sort of co-hosts today. Colby, welcome to Mormon Stories podcast. Welcome back. We're so glad to have you. |
| 1:45.2 | Hi, John. Thank you so much for having me, even on such a serious topic. |
| 1:49.4 | For folks that remember, this is the topic that basically catalyzed my faith crisis. |
| 1:53.5 | And so I still care a lot about this and still care a lot about the children that are in the church. |
| 1:58.2 | Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we'll include in the show notes the interview that we did with you, Colby. |
| 2:05.1 | But just bizarrely and strangely, what makes this case, one of these cases even more just |
| 2:11.5 | gut-wrenching for me is that it involves a family that I knew. |
... |
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