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LDS Church Settles Suit, Paying $3M

Child-molestation case was allegedly covered up

Wednesday, September 5, 2001

BY ELIZABETH NEFF
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

In the first disclosure of its kind, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday it will pay $3 million to settle an Oregon lawsuit that had accused its leaders of failing to protect members from pedophiles within the church.

The lawsuit had sought more than $1.5 billion in damages for Jeremiah Scott, a 22-year-old California man who was sexually abused as a child by a church member in Portland in 1991.

Scott's allegations echoed claims made by more than 40
plaintiffs in past lawsuits against the LDS Church: that church
leaders knew children were being molested or ignored warning
signs that a member was a pedophile and did not warn the
victims' families or alert authorities.

The church's past settlements in such cases
have been confidential; Tuesday's announcement
marked the first time the church had agreed to
reveal a dollar amount. Scott's attorneys said they
settled the case on the condition they could discuss the amount
paid to Scott and the evidence they would have presented at
trial.

"The church has learned, or at least it feels in this case, that
this is a case that is going to get into the public arena one way
or the other," church attorney Von Keetch said. "It has something
to say about this case."

The church denies Scott's allegations. It points to measures it
has since taken to safeguard children, including an internal
system that flags church membership records if a follower is
convicted of or confesses to child sexual abuse.

Scott's attorneys settled "because it was in Jeremiah's best
interests -- a chance for him to close this chapter and move on
with his life," lawyer Jeffrey Anderson said. "Hopefully, this
payment will get their attention and change the way they do
business."

Scott's attorneys and his mother, Sandra Scott, will hold a
previously scheduled news conference in Salt Lake City today.
The church's announcement Tuesday caught them by surprise.
The church said it decided to settle the case after weighing a
series of adverse rulings by a Multnomah County judge and the
potential cost of a long court battle.

The legal setbacks for the church included an order to give
Scott's attorneys copies of church disciplinary records for child
molesters in the Portland area between 1980 and 1995.
The judge had also allowed Scott to sue the church for
punitive damages, but had not yet ruled on the church's request
to keep its financial records, including tithing revenue and
property values, confidential.

Keetch called Judge Ellen Rosenblum's rulings a "travesty of
justice . . . things went wrong in this case that should not have
gone wrong."

Forcing the church to disclose its finances, which have been
kept secret since 1959, would have violated its First Amendment
right to operate free from government entanglement, church
attorneys had argued. They said they could afford to pay punitive
damages of $162 million, or twice the amount of the largest
punitive damages award in Oregon history, and argued no further
information was necessary.

Scott filed suit in 1998, four years after the late Franklin
Richard Curtis was convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing him.
The suit alleged that then-LDS Bishop Gregory Lee Foster knew
Curtis had a history of sexually abusing children dating back to
the 1970s, but didn't warn the Scotts before they took him into
their home.

Sandra Scott consulted with Foster after the 87-year-old
Curtis told her he wanted to live his final days in a home setting,
rather than his retirement home, the lawsuit said.

Church records show Curtis was excommunicated in 1983 for
sexually abusing children, but was rebaptized one year later.
Scott's attorneys claimed they had discovered more than 200
cases involving the church's alleged mishandling of child sexual
abuse reports. They hired a licensed clinical psychologist as an
expert witness, and he would have testified he saw a pattern of
the church failing to report, warn members about, and prevent
the sexual abuse of children.
Attorneys who have sued the church in similar cases have
argued its lay male clergy is insufficiently trained in preventing
child sexual abuse.
But the church denies Foster ever knew about Curtis' history
as a pedophile. "The church still strongly believes it is right,"
Keetch said. "It is paying a great deal of money. It is paying too
much money." A church handbook for clergy says those whose
memberships have been flagged should not be placed in positions
involving children. The church began offering training to clergy in
the late 1980s, and in 1999, produced a training video dealing
with child abuse reporting issues and methods for ecclesiastical
leaders to help victims.
The church has also established a hot line for clergy if they
have information that abuse has occurred. Keetch said LDS family
service counselors, lawyers and other specialists answer
questions and determine what steps should be taken to comply
with child abuse reporting laws and to help victims.
"As far as a cover-up goes, that's ridiculous," Keetch said.
"These are the future leaders of the church. These children are
our future."
South Carolina attorney Michael Sullivan, who launched a
high-profile lawsuit against the LDS Church in West Virginia in
1996, argues the church's past secret settlements have been a
deliberate strategy to avoid the publicity of a trial and the legal
precedent it might provide. Efforts by attorneys to show a
pattern of alleged misconduct in subsequent cases are thwarted
by the confidential settlements, he said.
Sullivan's lawsuit demanded $750 million for a girl molested by
her father, who had allegedly confessed years earlier to his stake
president that he was abusing his children. The case settled for
an undisclosed amount last year. The church denied wrong-
doing.
Texas attorney Clay Dugas, who has sued the church on
behalf of nearly a dozen child sexual abuse victims, said he
believes the litigation is making the church "much more proactive
when they learn of suspected child abuse."
In one of the rare cases to go to trial, Dugas persuaded a
Texas jury to award more than $4 million to a boy who alleged
LDS Church leaders ignored complaints about his molester, a
popular baby sitter in the ward. However, the case settled for a
confidential amount after the 1998 trial.
"The LDS Church is very interested in the bottom line," Dugas
said. "You can't convince me they would continue to do the same
thing without change."