Another Lawsuit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints UPDATEDnow Bittersweet Justice

“The Mormon Church has been hit with another lawsuit saying that it did nothing to protect children in a church-run foster program from sexual abuse.

Two Navajo siblings sued The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Navajo Nation court earlier this year. A second lawsuit made public Tuesday outlines similar allegations.

A Navajo woman identified as B.N. says she was sexually molested and raped multiple times while in foster care and by health care providers in Utah, from 1965 to 1972. She was among thousands of American Indians who participated in the church’s Indian Student Placement Program.

Attorneys representing the three plaintiffs say church leaders did not report the abuse to law enforcement and failed to protect the children who, as adults, suffer from emotional and physical distress.

They have scheduled a news conference Wednesday in Gallup, New Mexico, to discuss the cases that seek changes to church policy, written apologies and unspecified damages.

“Religious organizations and programs should be places where children are safe from harm, not places that protect sexual predators,” said one of the attorneys, Patrick Noaker.

A spokeswoman for the Mormon Church, Kristen Howey, did not immediately respond to messages left Tuesday evening. The church has said it doesn’t tolerate abuse of any kind and now tracks church members who have harmed children to keep them away from other kids.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs say the Navajo Nation is the proper jurisdiction for the lawsuits because decisions about where to place children were made on the reservation. Participation in the placement program that lasted from the late 1940s to around 2000 was voluntary.

The Mormon Church says the tribal court is not the proper venue because none of the alleged conduct took place on the reservation. Attorneys for the church asked a federal court judge Tuesday not to allow the tribal court to hear the siblings’ case, saying it is an unfair burden to require the church to litigate in a venue that doesn’t have criminal jurisdiction over non-tribal members.

“They can file their suit in Utah courts, the proper forum, and seek relief there,” attorney David Williams wrote.”

Mormon Church accused of turning blind eye to child abuse in foster care program [FOX news 6/21/16 by AP]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: Now there are FOUR lawsuits!

“Seeking to end his suffering, the Navajo boy turned to a Scoutmaster, an LDS social worker, even his birth mother, hoping to escape the beatings and sexual assaults he said he was enduring in a Mormon church-sponsored foster home.

None came to his rescue.

“I had nobody,” he recalled Tuesday of the attacks that occurred nearly four decades ago.

This week, that boy, now an adult and identified only as LK, became the fourth Navajo to sue the LDS Church, alleging he was abused while enrolled in the faith’s former foster program for American Indian children.

The lawsuit asserts that LK, who was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1976, was taken from his Navajo Nation home in 1978 and placed with a family in Roy, where he was molested and whipped by his foster father.

Court papers filed Monday in the Window Rock, Ariz., Navajo Nation District Court say the abuse began when LK was in seventh grade and continued for at least year.

Named as defendants are the Corporation of the President of the Utah-based faith and LDS Family Services, the church’s social-services arm.

In a statement, LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said the denomination has “zero tolerance” for abuse of any kind and works to prevent it.

“We have not yet seen the lawsuit and therefore cannot comment on any specifics,” he said. “The church will examine the allegations and respond appropriately.”

LK’s foster dad, who is identified in court papers as “R-Foster father,” is not named as a defendant because he is deceased.

The lawsuit is the third filed since March on behalf of Navajos who participated in the Indian Placement Program —  also known as the Lamanite Placement Program — which saw thousands of children placed in Mormon foster homes in Utah, Idaho and New Mexico.

According to the lawsuit, the aim of the church program to “convert Native American or ‘Lamanite’ children and assimilate them into their culture reflects teachings in the Book of Mormon, a book of canonized scripture unique to the Mormon religion.”

The voluntary program began in 1947 and ended in about 2000.

Each of the lawsuits alleges the church failed to take actions to protect victims from abuse.

In addition to LK, the alleged victims in the civil lawsuits involve RJ and MM, male and female siblings from Arizona, who assert they were abused in the late 1970s and early ’80s, and a Navajo woman, BN, who says she was repeatedly molested and raped between 1965 and 1972 while in foster care and by health care providers in Utah.

LK, who is using a pseudonym to protect his identity and his family, said Tuesday he sought out the New Mexico attorneys representing the other alleged victims after hearing about their lawsuits.

“That’s when I said, ‘I’m not alone,’ ” LK said after a news conference held by his lawyers in Salt Lake City. “I had to get my voice heard.”

LK said the abuse changed his life, particularly after the adults he confided in failed to help him.”

Utah man is fourth Navajo to sue Mormon church, alleges sexual abuse in foster program[The Salt Lake Tribune 6/11/16 by Jennifer Dobner]

Update 2:“Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was issued a subpoena for deposition in sexual abuse lawsuits.

The subpoena orders Monson to appear in court on Aug. 4.

It was filed by lawyers of four people — two men and two women — from Navajo Nation, who claimed they had suffered from sexual abuse during a placement program sponsored by the Mormon church that ran in the 1960s and 1970s.

Under the program, called the “Indian Student Placement Program,” Navajo youths were put in the care of LDS foster families after being baptized as Mormon. They stayed with their forster families for the school year and returned home in the summer.

According to the lawsuit, the four plaintiffs suffered from sexual abuse while they were in their foster families. Some of them said they reported it to church officials, who allegedly did not take appropriate action.

One of the plaintiffs said the program was part of the church’s goal to convert Navajo children to the Mormon faith.

Craig Vernon, an attorney for one of the victims, believed Monson could provide “unique information” that could help the case, thus it it necessary for him to testify in court.

“What President Monson knew or didn’t know about this and child sexual abuse within this program in general, is relevant,” wrote Vernon, according to Fox 13. “If President Monson claims no knowledge, that too is relevant to what the Church knew or should have known about Lee and his ability to lead this program within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation and protect Indian Placement Program’s children from sexual harm.”

Vernon was referring to George Lee, former church general authority of LDS who was excommunicated in 1989 on grounds of sexual abuse.

On July 21, lawyers from the LDS church filed a motion to quash the subpoena, saying requiring Monson to testify in court is “improper.”

The motion stated that Monson’s only connection to the case was that he was a senior church leader when the alleged abuse took place.

“[The attorneys’] subpoena should be seen for what it is — a tactical maneuver calculated to burden the apex leader of the LDS Church in a misguided attempt to create leverage in the litigation,” the motion said, as reported by Deseret News.”

Mormon church president Thomas S. Monson issues deposition subpoena for sexual abuse lawsuits [Christian Times 7/27/16 by Suzette Gutierrez Cachila]

Update 3:“Four Native Americans who claimed they were sexually abused while enrolled in a now-defunct church foster care program decades ago filed paperwork to dismiss their cases after reaching financial settlements, a lawyer said.

Allegations have been made against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by more than a dozen tribal members from the Navajo Nation and Crow Tribe of Montana.

Four cases recently were settled, three were settled last year and others reached agreements out of court. One case remains in Washington state.

The terms of the latest agreements are confidential and include no admission of wrongdoing, said Craig Vernon, an attorney who represented the tribal members.

The cases were filed in Window Rock District Court on the Navajo Nation.

Eric Hawkins, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, declined comment. He said the settlement agreement prohibits any discussion about the terms.
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The first of the lawsuits was filed by two Navajo siblings in 2016 in tribal court.

The lawsuits alleged tribal members were sexually abused between the 1960s and early 1980s in the Indian Student Placement Program, which put thousands of Native American children in foster homes of church members in Utah, Idaho and New Mexico.

The voluntary program, aimed at giving children educational opportunities they didn’t have on the reservation, started in the late 1940s and ended around 2000.

The people accused of abuse were associated with host families, not church leaders.”
Settlements reached in Native American foster care abuse cases against church
[Deseret News 9/22/18 by AP]