Mormon abuse cases

Denson may have reported the abuse to her subsequent Washington, D.C., mission-field leader in 1984 or 1985.[16] In 1987, she reported it to her local congregation's bishop (or lay pastor), Brigham Young University microbiology professor Ron Leavitt.[17] (Leavitt told the Salt Lake Tribune in 2018, "I felt the allegations were groundless" because, among other factors, his assumption potential MTC presidents receive extensive vettings.[18]) Per some reports what Leavitt was told was that Denson and another missionary were taken by the MTC president to the basement of the MTC and shown pornography.[19] Denson says that in 1988 she told at least one LDS Church general authority, Carlos Asay. Asay has since passed away and the LDS Church states it has no record of Denson's meeting with Asay.

In 2010, Denson told her local Pleasant Grove, Utah, ecclesiastical leaders, who referred the matter to local police. Pleasant Grove police made a routine call to the Denson's home verifying she did not need emergency assistance and did not open an investigation of her accusations[20][21][22] because they had occurred outside of Pleasant Grove's jurisdiction.[23]

Within the recording, Joseph Bishop says he does not remember his interactions with Denson transpiring in the manner she describes. Bishop says that while president over the MTC he engaged in inappropriate behaviors of which he regrets, involving more than one young woman missionaries-in-training, including having given a back rub that became "too frisky" to a young-woman once-missionary trainee who served as his and his wife's assistant at his family's home.[24] (This then-assistant to Bishop's family eventually reported her 1985 abuse by him to her local lay pastor in 2010.[23])

Bishop said that some young women missionary trainees at the MTC would have flashbacks to previous experiences of sexual trauma and would counsel with MTC leaders (in worthiness interviews) for spiritual guidance; he said he was "the last person who should have been" providing pastoral counseling to these young women.[25] He describes himself as a sex addict.

Joseph Bishop's son and attorney, Greg Bishop of Park City, Utah,[26] told reporters that at the time of the interview, his father and client was on medications and recovering from surgery, and lacked mental acuity, and that many of his statements in the recording reflect this confusion.

Furthermore, Greg Bishop said that sometime after Denson returned to Provo, Utah, from Washington D.C., she showed her breasts to Joseph Bishop without solicitation.[23][27][28] Denson has denied this, stating that the last time she met with Bishop was at the time of the assault: "I did not speak to that man again until Dec. 2, 2017."[29] Brigham Young University police say that, during their 2017 investigation, Bishop told them that at the MTC, he asked Denson to show him her breasts.[30] (Bishop's son and attorney says his father and client does not remember making that statement to police.[16]) The Utah County attorney's office said that it likely would have prosecuted Bishop if Utah's statute of limitations for rape (which up until the 1990s had been four years) had not expired. The case was closed December 23, 2017.[31]

Joseph Bishop's son and attorney, Greg Bishop, distributed to the news media excerpts from a dossier compiled by attorney David Jordan of Stoel Rives, who had been hired by the LDS Church, which contained Denson's LDS Church membership record, and which detailed the history of investigations of Denson's accusations within various jurisdictions, as well as for alleged crimes such as criminal fraud. Denson had reported over a half-dozen times that she was assaulted by numerous men on numerous separate occasions. Jordan's dossier says that Denson later retracted her initial accusations on certain occasions as having been false. None of these accusations have been prosecuted.[32][33][34][35]

The accuser's own legal counsel, Craig Vernon, made the LDS Church aware of the recording in January 2018.[36] Settlement negotiations between Denson and church where in progress when the recording was publicly released in March 2018 by MormonLeaks, which she had not initially authorized.[30][37] but came to do so, after the fact.[38] After the recording became public, the negotiations stalled. On April 4, 2018, Denson filed civil suit in the U.S. District Court for Utah against the church and Joseph Bishop for redress with respect to her mental, physical, and economic hardships caused by the alleged sexual assault and battery, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, fraudulent nondisclosure and fraudulent concealment.[39][40][13][21][41]

On May 15, 2018, attorneys representing both Joseph Bishop and the LDS church filed motions to dismiss Denson's suit, arguing that the statute of limitations for Denson to file these claims had expired long before.[42] On August 13, 2018, U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball dismissed most of the lawsuit, except for its fraud allegations against the LDS Church.[43]

The LDS Church has not concluded its investigation into Joseph Bishop. The church hired an outside law firm to interview him, his accusers, and others. The church had been made aware of a second accuser in 2010. No action was taken at the time because of Bishop's adamant denial of the accusations.[44] Ron Leavitt stated that in the 1980s, while he was serving as Denson's bishop, she told him that Joseph Bishop had taken her and her missionary companion to the basement of the MTC, and showed them pornography. Leavitt stated that he did not share this information with anyone at the time. "I didn't think it had much credence. I wasn't going to risk sullying the reputation of someone based on that kind of a report," Leavitt told the news media in 2018.[19]

In March 2018, the LDS Church publicized its abuse resource hotline for use by local church leaders, and released a resource document that says, in part, "Church leaders should never disregard a report of abuse or counsel a member not to report criminal activity to law enforcement personnel."[45][46]