The following article discusses sexual abuse and child pornography

Sometime in 2010 or 2011, Paul Adams went to his Mormon bishop and confessed to not only molesting his young daughter, but also videotaping those sexual encounters and distributing them on the internet. What happened next, or rather what didn’t happen next, led to the continued abuse of that young child and the abuse of another daughter born several years later.

News of this case was originally reported by the Arizona Daily Independent in December of 2019, but new documents obtained by Truth & Transparency shed additional light on just how heinous Adams’ crimes were, what local religious leaders knew about those crimes, and when they knew it.

Paul and Leizza Adams were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormon Church, living in the border town of Bisbee, Arizona. On February 8, 2017, the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement was assigned to investigate a tip regarding a video found on the internet containing child pornography. The clip was traced back to Paul, an employee of DHS as a Border Patrol Agent. A search warrant was immediately secured and executed in conjunction with the FBI and local law enforcement from Cochise County.

While the search warrant was being served at the couple’s residence, Paul was arrested and questioned at the Border Patrol station where he was on duty. He confessed to having molested his two daughters, born in 2005 and 2015, over the course of their lives. Court documents show that a number of videos and images involving the two daughters were found inside Adams’ home along with thousands of other pieces of child pornography.

A federal indictment with eight separate counts, all related to sexual abuse and production of child pornography with his daughters, was handed down on March 8, 2017. On December 16 of the same year, while Adams was in custody, but before his case was adjudicated, Adams died by suicide.

During the investigation into Paul, it was discovered that his wife, Leizza, knew about the abuse as far back as 2010 or 2011 and did nothing to stop it from happening. Cochise County charged her for crimes related to enabling and covering up the abuse. Leizza ultimately agreed to plead no contest. She was sentenced to two years in prison and is set to be released in the summer of 2020.

Truth & Transparency was able to obtain public records related to Leizza Adams’ case that not only paint a graphic picture of unspeakable abuse for over 6 years, but also gives a glimpse at real, tangible consequences that can occur when abuse is not reported. During Leizza’s sentencing, two key witnesses testified regarding their knowledge of the abuse.

Shaunice Warr was a Border Patrol Agent with Paul and attended the same Mormon congregation as the Adams family. She was a friend to Leizza through church and was, according to her, Leizza’s best friend. Warr testified that from the time she moved into the area, around 2011, until the time Paul was arrested, she had a strong sense that something was off in the Adams household and that some kind of abuse was happening. These feelings were based on how Leizza and the children acted around Paul and her own observations of Paul at work. Paul had an aggressive personality and had previously been disciplined for engaging in illegal activity with undocumented immigrants and making terroristic threats against the Border Patrol.

Warr did not have any proof or specific knowledge of any abuse, but felt so strongly that she repeatedly encouraged Leizza to leave Paul over the course of several years. According to Warr, Leizza would then quickly change the subject and never disclosed any abuse. When Paul was arrested, Warr immediately went to Leizza, as a friend, to find out what happened. Leizza was evasive at first but eventually admitted to Warr that Paul was sexually abusing their two daughters and that Paul had confessed to their local bishop, possibly as far back as 2010.

ICE Special Agent, Robert Edwards, who described this as one of the worst cases of abuse he has ever seen in his career, testified that he learned about the potential disclosure of the abuse to the bishop from Warr and went, unannounced, to speak with the bishop. John Herrod, a local doctor, was the bishop of the congregation the Adams’ attended from approximately 2004 to 2012 and agreed to talk to Agent Edwards when asked.

Herrod told Edwards that he believed the initial confession from Paul occurred in 2011. During this confession, it was disclosed to the bishop that the Adams daughter, who was six years old at the time, was being sexually abused and that the assaults were being video recorded. Herrod said that over the next 2 years, Paul continued to come and see him on a regular basis and often told him that the abuse was ongoing. Leizza was present during many of these confessions and, according to Herrod, would usually have no reaction to the disclosures. In 2012, a new bishop was installed and Herrod was no longer involved in the matter.When asked why he never called the police, Herrod explicitly stated that he had received instructions from the Mormon Church’s legal team in Salt Lake City not to report the abuse, but continue the one-on-one “counseling sessions” instead.

Kirton McConkie, a large law firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah, was contracted out in 1995 by the Mormon Church to establish a hotline. Bishops around the world were told they must call this hotline for guidance anytime abuse was disclosed.

The Mormon Church’s policy on reporting abuse states that when local laws require the bishop to report, they instruct bishops to do so. In Arizona, clergy are exempt from reporting, which is presumably why Herrod was instructed not to report Paul to the police. Requests for comment from the Mormon Church and Kirton McConkie have gone unanswered.

The new adoptive families of the survivors feel the stated church policy failed. Tuscon attorney, Lynne Cadigan represents three of the Adams children, including the two daughters who were sexually assaulted. She stated “What the parents of the victims want more than anything is for the Mormon Church to change their policy and report all abuse.”

Cadigan, who has spent 35 years representing victims of sex abuse, believes the fact that the bishop knew about ongoing abuse negates the reporting exception as laid out by Arizona Statute. Cadigan also believes that, even if the bishop was not required to report, Shaunice Warr was required to report the abuse. At the time, Warr was a peace officer and, therefore, a mandated reporter. Neither Warr nor Herrod responded to request for comment.

Cadigan tells Truth & Transparency that if the Mormon Church refuses to change their policy they are “considering bringing legal action against the church for the horrific abuse that inflicted upon these children.”

The following documents contain graphic descriptions of child abuse

Paul Adams’ Indictment

Leizza Adams’ Mitigation Hearing containing Warr’s testimony

Leizza Adams’ Sentencing Hearing containing Agent Edwards’ testimony

If you are a survivor a abuse, below are a list of resources that can be utilized in the United  States. If you are not a resident of the US, we encourage you to search  for resources near you.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

National Sexual Assault Hotline

In early February 2018, a twenty-year-old man named Benjamin Alyk contacted the Davis County Attorney’s Office in Utah and informed them that he was prepared to confess to having manufactured and distributed child pornography when he was 15 and 16 years old. Alyk met with Brent Baggs, Investigator for Davis County, on February 14, 2018, at the office of his attorney, Todd Sessions.

During this meeting, Alyk confessed to having participated in viewing, manufacturing, and distributing child pornography from the time he was 14 until he was 17. Additionally, he revealed that he confessed to his religious leaders on at least two occasions, including once eight months prior to turning himself in. According to court documents, those leaders “had not made a report to law enforcement.”

The Crime

According to an Affidavit for Search Warrant obtained by Truth & Transparency Benjamin Alyk confessed to having stumbled across a website that acted as an image-sharing community for pedophiles. Alyk told Investigator Baggs that when he was either 14 or 15 years old the security on the site began to increase and, in order to obtain new material, he would be required to share child pornography in order to receive it in return.

This new security development led him to use a Flip Video camera he received for his birthday to capture videos of two children, 4 and 6 years old, going to the bathroom. He claims he made three videos of them and traded them for child pornography before eventually deleting them from his devices.

Some time later, when he was 15 or 16, he received a GoPro camera for Christmas and discovered that he could control it remotely. He set up the camera to secretly record children who were in the care of his mother in her in-home daycare.

With his hidden camera, Alyk says he filmed four different children, ages 4 to 6, changing in and out of their swimsuits and using the bathroom. He traded these videos online for links to child pornography.

Alyk claims to have stopped viewing child pornography at the age of 17 and transitioned to only viewing pornography with participants who were 18 years and older until the time he left on his Mormon mission in October 2016, just one month shy of his 19th birthday.

Confession to Church Leaders

On June 26, 2016, Alyk received a letter from the Mormon Church, officially The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, calling him to serve a two-year mission in the Dominican Republic. The letter indicated he would report to the church’s Missionary Training Center on October 26, 2016.

Sometime in late November or early December of that year, Alyk arrived to the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo West Mission, then presided over by President James Hunter Nuckols. According to the Affidavit for Search Warrant, Alyk confessed to Nuckols in December 2016, sharing with him the same details discussed with Investigator Braggs. Alyk was immediately sent home to Utah.

After coming home, Ayk confessed to his local church leaders and ultimately went before a disciplinary council in June of 2017, eight months before turning himself in to authorities. He was living with his parents. Alyk’s parents had closed down the daycare in February 2017, two months after he had arrived home.

In the Mormon Church, a disciplinary council is an ecclesiastical trial where local authorities determine whether or not a member has committed a sin worthy of discipline. Outcomes of disciplinary councils range from formal probation, to disfellowshipment, to excommunication. It is also possible for a disciplinary council to take no action at all.

In the case of Alyk, as a holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the disciplinary council would have been before 15 men; the Stake President ,his two counselors, and the 12 members of the local High Council. It is unclear what the outcome of the disciplinary council was for Alyk, but he tells Investigator Braggs that “the Church had not made a report to law enforcement”. This statement is supported by court documents obtained by Truth & Transparency, indicating that Alyk turned himself in voluntarily sometime close to February 7, 2018.

In Utah, clergy are not required to report sex abuse to authorities if they are made aware of the abuse through the confession of the perpetrator. Utah State Representative Angela Romero recently announced her intent to propose legislation to remove the clergy exemption. Based on the current law in Utah, and what is currently known about this case, the Mormon Church did not violate the law.

The Mormon Church requires that clergy who are made aware of abuse immediately call an internal helpline where they are given legal guidance on what additional steps should be taken. It is unclear if the helpline was used in this case. Requests for comment from the Mormon Church and their outside counsel, Kirton McConkie, have gone unanswered.

The Daycare

The daycare in question was a legally licensed establishment, owned and operated by Alyk’s mother out of the family home. The earliest known date that the business was formalized with the local government is December 23, 2014, when she applied for and received a DBA from the Utah Secretary of State. It is known, however, from Alyk’s confession, that the daycare was in operation at least as far back as 2011, which is the earliest he admits to having watched one of the children use the bathroom while they attended daycare.

Alyk told Investigator Braggs in February 2018 that, up to that point, his parents “have limited knowledge of the case.” Truth & Transparency's attempts to confirm this with Alyk, his mother, and his attorney Todd Sessions have gone unanswered. If true, Alyk would have had to come home to live with his parents after serving only two months of his mission and gone through a church disciplinary council without his parents knowing the true reason for these events.

According to a document filed with the Utah Secretary of State on April 5, 2017, the DBA registration for the daycare was canceled. Additionally, the parent of one of Alyk’s victims, who agreed to speak to Truth &  Transparency on the condition of anonymity, says that sometime in January of 2017 they were informed that the daycare would be closing in March of 2017.

A short time later, they received another notification that the close date would be moved up to February 2017, two months after Alyk came back home to live with his parents and a full year before he ultimately turned himself in. These notifications, according to the source, made no indication that child pornography had been produced in the home or that their child could possibly be a victim.

The victim’s parent says that they were completely unaware of any issues related to illegal activity until being contacted in June 2018 by someone from Davis County. It was then that they were told Alyk had manufactured child pornography in the home and that their child appeared in the videos.

Legal Proceedings

The documents obtained by Truth & Transparency show that sometime close to February 7, 2018, Alyk voluntarily turned himself in to the Davis County Attorney’s Office. About seven days later, on February 14, 2018, Alyk met with Investigator Braggs and confessed to manufacturing and distributing child pornography. On April 5, 2018, a search warrant was issued for all of Alyk’s electronics.

Later that summer, on August 1, 2018, Alyk was charged with eight second degree felonies. Six are for voyeuristic image distribution and two are for sexual exploitation of a minor.

The Davis County Attorney’s Office had it within their discretion to charge Alyk as an adult or a minor. They chose to charge him as a minor. Requests for comment from the Davis County Attorney's Office on what led to that decision have gone unanswered.

According to the Disposition Order, Alyk pleaded guilty to all eight counts on September 6, 2018. During the sentencing, statements were made by the parents of two of the victims, both of Alyk’s parents, and Alyk himself.

The court found that “continuation in the home would be contrary to the welfare of the child and the community” and committed Alyk to secure confinement in the Utah Juvenile Justice System until his 21st birthday, the maximum sentence allowed by juvenile court. However, the sentence came 12 weeks before his 21st birthday and he was promptly released on November 28, 2018.

At the time of this article, Alyk’s entry on Utah’s Sex Offender Registry indicates that he still lives with his parents in the home where the crimes took place.

On April 2, 2019, Sterling Van Wagenen, noted film director and producer, was indicted in Utah on a single count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. An arrest warrant  was issued on April 4 and Van Wagenen posted bail of $75,000 on April 8. The charge is a first degree felony which, according to the charging document, carries a 15 year minimum sentence and up to life imprisonment if he is convicted.

Van Wagenen has had a long and successful career in film, starting with the co-founding of the Sundance Film Festival with Robert Redford in 1978. In more recent years, Van Wagenen worked on many high profile projects for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church.

In February, Truth & Transparency published an audio recording in which Van Wagenen admits to sexually molesting a 13 year old boy in 1993. In the audio, Van Wagenen states that he has never engaged in sexual activity with any other minor. The news of this admision led to Van Wagenen resigning from his current position as a film professor at the University of Utah.

Earlier this month, the Truth & Transparency reported that Van Wagenen was under investigation for an instance of sexual abuse. At the time, few details were known. With this new charge, we now know that he was being investigated for sexually abusing a child under 14.

According to the probable cause statement contained in the charging document, Van Wagenen “rubbed” the genital area of a female between the ages of 7 and 9 on two occasions between 2013 and 2015.

Subsequent to the two instances of abuse, Van Wagenen was alone with the child and asked her if the touching made her feel uncomfortable. According to the victim, during this conversation he told her that this was same way he touched his wife. The victim expressed that the touching made her uncomfortable and he told her that he would stop.

According to the court docket, which has been viewed by Truth & Transparency, Van Wagenen made his initial appearance after the warrant was issued on April 8, the day he posted the $75,000 bail. The next scheduled court date is May 2, 2019.

David (not his real name), the young man Van Wagenen molested in 1993 informed Truth & Transparency that he was surprised by the charge. When he met with Van Wagenen last year and discussed his own molestation with him, David left that conversation convinced that Van Wagenen was being honest and sincere in his declaration that he had never had sexual contact with any other minor.

David goes on to say, “More than anything, my heart breaks for the victim in this case and I sincerely hope there are no other victims out there.”

Requests for comment have been sent to Van Wagenen, his attorney, Steven Shapiro, and the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office. Shapiro declined to comment.

If you are a survivor a abuse, below are a list of resources that can be utilized in the United  States. If you are not a resident of the US, we encourage you to search  for resources near you.

National Sexual Assault Hotline

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

A document received through an open records request by Truth & Transparency from the Sandy Police Department has revealed that Van Wagenen is currently under investigation for a sex offense.

In February, Truth & Transparency released a recording in which Sterling Van Wagenen, a noted executive producer and director of various film projects financed by the Mormon Church, admitted to molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1993.

At the time of the abuse, Van Wagenen confessed his actions to his local ecclesiastical leaders and received a formal disfellowshipment of 2 years. Additionally, Van Wagenen went to the local police and confessed his crime; no charges were filed.

In the recording, Van Wagenen claims this was the only instance of non-consensual sexual contact with another person. New information shows this may not be true.

The document, dated February 21, 2019, does not contain Van Wagenen’s name and the location of the incident is redacted. However, the request yielding the document asked for any recent “initial contact reports” involving Van Wagenen.

Initial contact reports differ from police reports and are always deemed public under Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA). The amount of data found in them vary from agency to agency. In this particular report, the Sandy PD offers very limited information, only indicating the date, offense, location, priority, and officer assigned to the case.

Further, two other GRAMA requests were submitted by Truth & Transparency requesting all other police reports and investigative files involving the perpetrator. The investigative files were denied by Sandy City’s Chief Administrative Officer, Matthew Huish, saying the investigation is ongoing and the “release of the investigative files can reasonably be expected to interfere with an investigation and enforcement proceedings, and would be irresponsible and contrary to generally accepted practices.”

Because of the denial, the status of and the facts surrounding the incident are unknown. A response concerning the release of the requested police reports is yet to be issued by Sandy City.

Van Wagenen did not respond to a request for comment before the publication of this story.

If you are a survivor a abuse, below are a list of resources that can be utilized in the United  States. If you are not a resident of the US, we encourage you to search  for resources near you.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

National Sexual Assault Hotline

In 2003, Alonzo Gaskill joined the faculty of the Department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University’s (BYU) College of Religious Education. Gaskill had just completed eight years working at the Mormon Church’s Institute of Religion, part of the Church Educational System (CES), in Palo Alto, CA teaching Mormon doctrine to college-aged adults.

He originally applied to teach in the Department of Ancient Scripture, but his application was denied. He subsequently applied to his current department where many professors with backgrounds in CES roles hold positions.

He was accepted for the position despite having earned his Ph.D. from Trinity Theological Seminary in 2000, an institution lacking regional or national accreditation. Presently, he is the only faculty member of the department without an accredited doctorate degree. According to his vitae, he earned a Master’s of Arts in Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 1996.

The February prior to joining BYU, Deseret Book, the Mormon Church’s publishing arm, released a book penned by Gaskill titled, The Lost Language of Symbolism: An Essential Guide for Recognizing and Interpreting Symbols of the Gospel. In this book, Gaskill “explains the origins and meanings of the rich symbolism found in the scriptures . . .”

Upon investigation, it was found that many ideas and phrases in this book were directly copied from InterVarsity Press’s Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. While Gaskill cited the book several times in footnotes, verbatim words and phrases were not correctly attributed. For example, this assertion appears on page 28 of The Lost Language of Symbolism without quotation and can be found on page 43 of Dictionary of Biblical Imagery:

“Depending on the context, the image of an arm in scripture can represent power in good or evil circumstances…The outstretched arm is always a symbol of God’s power being exercised, whether in creation . . . , judgment . . . , or deliverance of his people . . .”

The University was made aware of this plagiarism on February 21, 2019 when the College of Religious Education and the Academic Vice President’s office received a document, written by a third-party, outlining the concerns. In an analysis “[constituting] only a few weekends”, the author of the document found Gaskill plagiarising from Dictionary of Biblical Imagery 11 times.

Additionally the document claims numerous cases of self-plagiarism in which Gaskill republished or reused ideas, phrases, and entire excerpts from his previous works without proper indication. The author suspects that many more instances of both plagiarism or self-plagiarism would be found in Gaskill’s work “if an exhaustive study was completed”.

Truth & Transparency was able to confirm the infringements described in the document.

Standards Broken

The BYU Honor Code, the standards that all students and employees agree to uphold while working or attending the institution, says the following about plagiarism:

“Intentional plagiarism is a form of intellectual theft that violates recognized principles of academic integrity as well as the Honor Code. Such plagiarism may subject the student to appropriate disciplinary action administered through the university Honor Code Office, in addition to academic sanctions that may be applied by an instructor.”

Gaskill addressed this standard in at least one of his course syllabi saying, “It is a violation of the Honor Code for a student to represent someone else’s work as his/her own.”

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the accrediting body to which BYU belongs, addresses plagiarism under their standards of academic freedom stating:

“Individuals with teaching responsibilities present scholarship fairly, accurately, and objectively. Derivative scholarship acknowledges the source of intellectual property, and personal views, beliefs, and opinions are identified as such.”

Past and Current Investigations

This is not the first time that BYU has dealt with plagiarism from this particular department. In 1998, Bruce Van Orden came under fire for copying the work of multiple authors in his book, Building Zion: The Latter-day Saints in Europe.

According to Deseret News, Van Orden stated the plagiarism was not a result of “malicious intent”, apologized to all the authors whose work he copied, and was permitted to continue teaching at BYU.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation claimed that both the present investigation into Gaskill and the 1998 investigation into Van Orden were delegated to Alex Baugh, the current Chair of the Church History and Doctrine department. They alleged that Baugh has neglected the current investigation and that an investigation is essentially non-existent.

Baugh was contacted in effort corroborate these claims, but did not return the request for comment. However, Carri Jenkins, spokeswoman for BYU, stated “We take these matters very seriously and are conducting a thorough review.”

It is unknown how much time is needed to conduct and conclude such an investigation. Each opinion given to Truth & Transparency varied. Ms. Jenkins was asked when the review could be expected to conclude and action taken. This article will be updated should she respond.

When contacted, Gaskill directed comment to the University.

Defense of a Forgery

In addition to this plagiarism, in 2014 Gaskill published The Lost Teachings of Jesus on the Sacred Place of Women, a book heavily based on Nicolas Notovitch’s 1894 book, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ. Notovitch’s book is known among scholars as a forgery, but Gaskill fails to explicitly recognize this claim.

After public criticism, Gaskill addressed the concern, in which he blamed the oversight on the “reviewers” of his original manuscript who encouraged him to remove his original “[discussion of the] controversy surrounding the text.” Despite criticism, the claims were never retracted and the book remains in publication.

At the time, Gaskill held the position of Associate Professor, but has since been promoted in Full Professor. Nearly all the junior faculty members do not come from backgrounds in CES, whereas nine of the 11 senior professors do.

Update March 21, 2019 11:30 am: This article originally claimed that “many of the current Assistant Professors in the Department of Church History and Doctrine who have applied for promotions as tenured professors have been promptly denied.” This is not true. Truth & Transparency retracts the statement and regrets the oversight.

Days after molesting David, Van Wagenen’s son's friend, Sterling Van Wagenen turned himself into police at  the Salt Lake County Sheriff's office. In a transcript obtained by Truth & Transparency, Van Wagenen implies he was encouraged to turn himself in by his therapist in Provo, Utah. The name of the therapist is either redacted or was not mentioned, but it is suspected to be David Hamblin who was mentioned in a police report previously released by Truth & Transparency.

This contradicts Van Wagenen’s statement made to David in a recording released by Truth & Transparency earlier this month, in which he said his Mormon Stake President and then the Commissioner of LDS Social Services, Harold Brown, directed Van Wagenen to contact the police. It is entirely possible that both cases are true.

In the interview with police, Van Wagenen struggled to describe the incident. He said he touched David's penis over the clothing. The detective then suggested the word “pat” as the motion used and Van Wagenen agreed. The survivor, David, denies this and claimed it was a stroking motion under the clothing.

In the transcript, Van Wagenen also states he reported the incident to Bill Alder at Child Protective Services.

California State Senator, Jerry Hill has proposed California Senate Bill 360 removing a sweeping clergy exemption from the State’s mandatory reporting laws of child abuse and neglect.

The proposal comes after discussions between the Senator’s staff and the Truth & Transparency Foundation (TTF) in November and December 2018. As part of the TTF’s mission to raise awareness of abuse within religious contexts, the TTF made many California legislators aware of the gaping hole in the law. Senator Hill took the lead in spearheading a fix by proposing the change.

Currently, California Penal Code § 11166(d)(1) states the following:

“A clergy member who acquires knowledge or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication is not [required to make a report].”

The code goes on to define “penitential communication” and effectively creates an exemption in which all California clergy are excused from reporting child abuse and neglect, a duty otherwise lawfully required of them by California Penal Code § 11165.7(a)(32)-(33).

SB 360 proposes § 11166(d)(1) be entirely removed, requiring all clergy in the State of California to report all instances of child abuse or neglect made known to them to the appropriate authorities.

The bill has support from many organizations and people, including clergy themselves. Rev. Dr. Jaime Romo, President of the Child-Friendly Faith Project and clergyman in San Diego said the following:

“For too long, religious  authorities have been protected from reporting these cases, leaving  children vulnerable and unsafe. Like teachers, physicians, and other  mandatory reporters, members of the clergy often spend much time with  families, and so they are in an ideal position to notice or learn if a  child is being, or has been, harmed.”

The Survivor’s Network of those Abuse by Priests (SNAP) also aligns their organization with this new legislation, stating:

“In the past, clerical exemptions to mandatory reporting laws have allowed clergy not to report when they heard allegations of child abuse during confession or witnessed a child being abused by another cleric or church staffer. Any law that can help remove this secrecy and promote the protection of children and prevention of abuse is one that we support, and we hope that the California Senate will take up Senator Hill’s bill immediately.”

The TTF unequivocally supports California SB 360. It both protects survivors of abuse and holds religious institutions accountable while respecting the constitutional right to religious freedom. Religious repentance should always include restitution, and, in all criminal situations like that of abuse, restitution can only be made when justice is served by the laws of the land.

The TTF made a similar push in Utah, sending an email with a proposal to every Utah State lawmaker in November of 2018. No responses were received from any legislators.

If you are a resident of California, please consider contacting your legislators and telling them you support SB 360. You can also let your voice be heard by signing this petition.

On February 4, 2019, rumors of the release of a new Elders manual, meant only for the eyes of the top leaders in each congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW), began to surface on ex-JW forums across the Internet. Less than 24 hours later, the manual was leaked and seemingly non-stop analysis and comparison to previous versions began.

The secretive manual is only distributed to those who hold the position of Elder. Showing the manual to anyone else is strictly forbidden.. Each congregation is lead by a group of men known as the Body of Elders, all of whom hold the honored title. The manual instructs them in administering to their congregation and how the Elders above them can assist in their duties. Topics also include pornography, child abuse, and “medical matters”.

According to Jason Wynne, founder of AvoidJW.org, previous versions of this manual left much “open to interpretation by bodies of elders,” but “the language has been significantly simplified to be clear, concise and direct” in this latest edition.

Child Sex Abuse

One notable and significant change lies in the chapter addressing child abuse. The manual clearly states “the victim, her parents, or anyone else who reports such an allegation to the elders should be clearly informed that they have the right to report the matter to the secular authorities.”

This is undoubtedly a welcome change among abuse survivor advocates. While the family is not necessarily encouraged to go to the authorities, the mere recognition of their right is an improvement in JW policy. There are countless stories in which survivors of sexual abuse and their families chose not  — in some cases even actively discouraged — to report the incident to authorities because of JW beliefs that all organizations, outside the religion itself, are corrupt.

In January 2018, Truth & Transparency released letters thoroughly documenting one such instance.

Branch Manual

In addition to the already released Elders manual, today the Truth & Transparency also releases another internal manual, often informally referred to as the “branch manual”. The January 2015 edition of the same manual was used as an exhibit in an investigation conducted by the Australian government into child sex abuse, but chapters four and five were nearly entirely redacted. Today the largely revised August 2018 edition is published without redactions.

This manual is only distributed to the highest leaders within Watch Tower (WT), the governing JW organization. A group of eight men comprise the Governing Body, the most senior leaders of the organization. Below them are six Branch Committees, each responsible for administering a specific area of the worldwide religion. The branch manual is for members of the Governing Body and the Branch Committees only.

Jennifer Torres, an ex-JW, says that she would have benefited greatly as an active JW from seeing this manual, especially as a woman. “If you were to ask a JW woman, they would have no idea how the Branch Committees affect them,” she says.

When Torres’ family experienced inappropriate interactions with leaders in her congregation, they reported the problem, but it did not improve. Assuming the problem was isolated to only their congregation they moved to a different one. The problem persisted and little did she realize that it was systemic, something that publicly publishing the branch manual would have empowered her to know and make suggestions to correct it.

Data Privacy

In addition to the light shed on the systemic workings and problems of Watch Tower (WT), Torres is interested to see if WT has changed their approach to the destruction of records. The 2003 branch manual, leaked in 2011, shows that they do not destroy records even if a JW voluntarily disassociates with the Church.

Such policies have changed, undoubtedly in response to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The manual now states in Chapter 3 paragraph 103(d):

“If a data subject requests access to, correction of, or deletion of personal data or sensitive personal data about himself, the organization will fairly consider granting the request by balancing the interests of the individual in gaining access or correcting or deleting data against the legitimate religious interests of the organization, including whether granting the request would endanger the organization’s right to religious freedom and practice.”

In April 2018, Truth & Transparency released documents in various European languages that Jehovah’s Witnesses in the EU were asked to sign. By doing so, they agree that they “consent to the use of my personal data so that I may participate in some religious activities in connection with my worship. . .”

Watch Tower did not respond to request for comment before this story was published.

View the August 2018 branch manual here.

View the January 2018 branch manual here.

View the January 2019 elders manual here.

While at a sleepover with a friend in 1993, David woke up in the middle of the night to something that would haunt him for the rest of his life. His friend’s dad had his hand down his pants and was rubbing his penis. He jumped up and ran to the bathroom. He was scared and did not know what to do. He spent the rest of the night locked in the bathroom and the next 26 years traumatized by the events of that evening.

The perpetrator was Sterling Van Wagenen, a Mormon film producer and co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and, while he made a full confession of the crime to both his religious leader and the police, he never completely faced justice. More importantly, David was never given the resources to properly cope with the trauma and heal.

The Abuse

In an audio recording  obtained by Truth & Transparency, Van Wagenen describes a double life he lived for decades. When asked if he is a pedophile, Van Wagenen denies that label, but admits to multiple extramarital affairs with both men and women. He also admits to one single instance of sex abuse perpetrated on a minor. That minor was David.

David, whose name has been changed at his request, sought closure and reached out to his perpetrator through Van Wagenen’s children in an attempt to broker a one-on-one meeting. Van Wagenen agreed to meet with him in September 2018. David, not knowing what to expect, decided to record the conversation. What ensued was a candid conversation in which Van Wagenen was open about the incident and what he thinks may have led to it.

Van Wagenen admits to having “acted out sexually” on many occasions. He cites being abused as a child by his mother as a contributing factor to this behavior. On the night of the abusive act, he and his wife were arguing. He went downstairs, where the kids were sleeping, and “acted out” by molesting David.

Van Wagenen’s recollection of the details are fuzzy, but David fills them in during the conversation. David says he woke up to Van Wagenen’s touch and, as he realized what was happening, quickly ran to the bathroom, locking himself inside and spending the rest of the night there. David recalls Van Wagenen came to the bathroom door multiple times and urged him to exit. He was unsuccessful and eventually went back upstairs.

David mustered up the courage to tell his parents about the abuse. They went to a mutual friend of Van Wagenen who they knew through their Mormon congregation. This mutual friend informed Van Wagenen that he was going to tell the Stake President, Harold Brown, about the abuse. According to David, the friend, who was a Bishop of a nearby, different congregation at the time, encouraged his parents to let the church handle the situation.

Confession

In the recording Van Wagenen says that he was called into see Brown a few days after the abuse. Brown, was not only David's and Van Wagenen’s ecclesiastical leader, but also the commissioner of LDS Social Services, known today as LDS Family Services, a Mormon-owned non-profit providing members with professional counseling.

Because of this, David seemingly hit the jackpot regarding his chances of finding care and understanding after the traumatic experience. However, that was not the case.

Van Wagenen claims he fully confessed to what he did and that a disciplinary council ensued. The result was a two year disfellowshipment from the Church.

Disfellowshipment is described by the Mormon Church as:

“...the council may take is to disfellowship the member. Disfellowshipment is usually temporary, though not necessarily brief. Disfellowshipped persons retain membership in the Church. They are encouraged to attend public Church meetings, but are not entitled to offer public prayers or to give talks. They may not hold a Church position, take the sacrament, vote in the sustaining of Church officers, hold a temple recommend, or exercise the priesthood. They may, however, pay tithes and offerings and continue to wear temple garments if endowed.”

Brown apparently encouraged Van Wagenen to turn himself in to the police. Van Wagenen told David he confessed to a detective and never heard from the police again. He did not recall being told why he was never charged with a crime, but that he always assumed it was because David's parents declined to press charges.

Police Reports

Truth & Transparency was able to corroborate Van Wagenen’s claim of reporting the incident to police. Via open records requests, two police reports were obtained documenting that Van Wagenen did speak with a detective, claiming to have touched both David's abdomen and penis “over his clothing” and describing the penile contact as a “pat”.

In the report, Detective Steve Jentzsch of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office reported contacting David's father who stated he did not “want to talk about what happened” and that he was “supportive of Mr. Vanwagenen in working out this problem.” Jentzsch concluded that “the victim refused to pursue [the] complaint.” The case was subsequently closed and Van Wagenen was never charged.

The report indicates that the interview between Jentzsch and Van Wagenen was recorded. Truth & Transparency was denied access to this recording by the Unified Police Department (UPD) claiming that because Van Wagenen was never charged, the recording is classified as private under Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) Section 302(d). Truth & Transparency has appealed the denial.

David denies that the contact was only over his clothing and reports it as a stroking motion, rather than a pat. He also states that he was not aware that police ever contacted his parents. Additionally, in the recording, he repeatedly said he was ten years old when the abuse happened, but dates on the police reports show that he was actually 13.

Truth & Transparency also submitted records requests to multiple police departments across the country in areas where Van Wagenen has lived. The only other offenses returned were minor traffic violations. A request of his personnel file from the University of Central Florida, where he taught from 1999 to 2005, yielded nothing but employment agreements and no evidence of any complaints from students or colleagues.

Who is Sterling Van Wagenen?

Van Wagenen has been involved in the film industry as a producer and director since the 1970s. In 1985, Geraldine Page was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Van Wegenen’s film, The Trip to Bountiful. He worked for BYU from 1993 to 1999 as an Adjunct Professor of Film and then again from 2007 to 2011 as the Director of Content for BYU Broadcasting. According to a profile published by the Deseret News, he was working in 2011 as an Executive Producer for the Mormon Church. He currently works for the University of Utah and, according to his online employee profile, is overseeing an internship class for the current Spring 2019 semester.

But his roots in cinema are much deeper.

Founding Sundance

In 1976 Van Wagenen and a friend decided to organize a film festival in Salt Lake City, Utah to commemorate the bicentennial celebration of the United States. The idea was to put on wide display an overview of American cinema. To his surprise, it was successful and they decided to host the festival  again two years later. Robert Redford caught wind of the plans and contacted Van Wagenen to get involved. The rest, as they say, is history. The two went on to found the Sundance Institute and Van Wagenen served as the first Executive Director.

Mormon Temple Videos

Mormon temples are shrouded in, what many would call, secrecy. The ceremonies that take place are rarely, if ever, talked about outside the temple. The principal ceremony is called the Endowment Ceremony. The Endowment, in part, serves as an instructional session to teach attendees about the foundations of the Earth’s creation and other core doctrines of the Church. This instruction is delivered by a movie played throughout the ceremony. Up until 2013, two videos rotated in these sessions, one was produced in 1988, the other in 1990.

In 2013 those two videos were replaced with three brand new films, all directed by Sterling Van Wagenen. Multiple sources involved in the production of these films told Truth & Transparency that Van Wagenen was brought in by the Mormon Church to direct these movies in an effort to produce a high quality product. These sources tell Truth & Transparency that, of the pool of possible directors, Van Wagenen was likely the best candidate to bring a high production value to the films due to his extensive experience in the film industry. Given the sacredness of these ceremonies, the selection of Van Wagenen implies good standing with the Church.

In January of 2019, due to doctrinal changes in the ceremony, the Mormon Church discontinued the use of the new videos in the Endowment Ceremony in favor of an audiovisual presentation that uses still images from the three movies directed by Van Wagenen.

In addition to directing the temple videos, Van Wagenen has directed or produced a number of films through Excel Entertainment, a for-profit subsidiary of the Mormon Church, including their most recent film, Jane and Emma.

Life After Abuse

David tells Truth & Transparency that he was never contacted by Harold Brown or anyone else from the Mormon Church to check on his well being. No therapy or other assistance was ever offered to him. As he described in the recording, this trauma has greatly affected his life and he has never fully recovered from what happened.

According to an undated press release from the Mormon Church, counselling is offered to victims of abuse and often paid for by the Church. Somehow, that policy was not put into action in David's case, even when his Stake President was an integral part of the Church’s social services.

When asked why he decided to make this recording public, David told Truth & Transparency that there are several motivating factors. He is surprised that Van Wagenen has not faced any real consequences for his actions and went on to enjoy church employment that many would consider prestigious and privileged. He wonders if there are other victims who may feel encouraged to come forward and seek much needed healing. Finally, he feels that sharing his story could provide hope to many who have suffered similar abuse and feel silenced for one reason or another.

David tells Truth & Transparency that he does not blame the Mormon Church for the abuse he suffered, but hopes that his case is an exception to the rule and that the Church normally ensures that perpetrators are held accountable and proper counseling is offered to survivors. If it is not an exception, he hopes that the Church takes proper steps to address the problem, specifically the issue of providing help for the victim.

Comments

Van Wagenen provided Truth & Transparency with the following comment on the morning of February 4th:

“I went through the Church disciplinary process and was disfellowshipped for about two years. I repented and there were no further incidents. I reported the abuse to the police, as I was instructed to by my Stake  President, and the parents elected not to press charges.”

The Mormon Church has not responded to a request for comment.

David revealed his identity in the New York Times on April 28, 2019.

Update February 4, 2019 7:55 am: Truth & Transparency apologizes for any implication that Van Wagenen’s sexual orientation is tied to this abusive act. That was not the intent and the sentence has been clarified.

You can listen to David's conversation with Van Wagenen here and read the transcript here.

You can view the police reports obtained by Truth & Transparency here and here.

If you are a survivor a abuse, below are a list of resources that can be utilized in the United  States. If you are not a resident of the US, we encourage you to search  for resources near you.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

National Sexual Assault Hotline

On the afternoon of Monday December 31, 2018, Truth & Transparency was issued four separate takedown requests with a total of 63 documents. The request came from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, more commonly known as “Watch Tower”, the governing organization of the religious group known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is Truth & Transparency's third time receiving such a request, this being the first regarding a withdrawal of documents not related to Mormonism.

All the documents included in the requests are currently hosted on the website of Truth & Transparency project FaithLeaks, which serves as a site to host confidential documents from religious institutions. The entirety of the documents were published in late April or early May 2018, eight months before the requests.

Why the takedown request was not issued closer to the documents’ publication is unclear, but the requests were delivered shortly after a profile of Jason Wynne, founder of the website AvoidJW.org, was published in the Norwegian newspaper Fædrelandsvennen. AvoidJW once hosted thousands of documents relating to Jehovah’s Witnesses. In early 2018, they were taken down and are slowly being republished by Truth & Transparency on FaithLeaks. All 63 documents in question were once on AvoidJW.

All but two of the documents are related to the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ annual regional convention. Each year, religious leaders from Watch Tower tour different regions of the world to attend and speak at conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses where members are instructed and educated. These leaders include a group of eight men known as the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the highest leaders of the institution.

Among the documents are the content and outlines of talks given in the 2016 and 2017 tours. Truth & Transparency has also published content of the 2018 convention, but these were not included in the takedown request.

Past requests

In March of 2017, Truth & Transparency, then operating solely under the name MormonLeaks, received a takedown request from the Intellectual Property Department of the Mormon Church. The subject of the request was an internal PowerPoint presentation that contained a slide that was later dubbed by the media as the Mormon Church’s “Enemies List”.

In Truth & Transparency's response, free speech attorney Marc Randazza called the Mormon Church’s actions “attempted censorship and claimed the publication of the document was legal under fair use,: “My client obtained this lawfully and had a right to distribute it in its capacity as a journalistic resource devoted to discussing facts about the LDS Church.” Randazza threatened the Mormon Church with a “vigorous fair use defense” if they chose to pursue legal action.

In July of 2017, MormonLeaks received another request in response to the first publication of The McConkie Papers, 90 unpublished documents written in the hand of an influential Mormon leader, the late Bruce McConkie. This request was not from the Mormon Church, but rather the “heirs” of McConkie. Randazza replied with similar arguments on behalf of MormonLeaks. Both the slidedeck and the McConkie Papers remain on the MormonLeaks site.

Salt Lake City based attorney Lincoln Hobbs penned Truth & Transparency's most recent response to Watch Tower. He claimed the documents are legally published under fair use for for “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . scholarship, or research,” quoting 17 U.S. Code § 107.

After citing two court cases with similar situations, he argued Truth & Transparency's strongest point in its favor is that the documents’ publication was “indisputably noncommercial” and will not likely “interfere with the market for Watch Tower’s materials to its followers.”