An Arizona judge overseeing a high-profile lawsuit accusing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of conspiring to cover up child sex abuse has ruled that the church may not refuse to answer questions.
Clergy in Arizona are required to report information about child sexual abuse or neglect to authorities. The privilege allows members of the clergy to keep the information from the public.
Judge Laura Cardinal ruled on August 8 that the late Paul Adams waives his right to keep his secret when he posted videos of himself sexually abusing his two daughters on the internet, bragged of the abuse on social media, and confessed to federal law enforcement agents.
The Cardinal said that Adams had a lack of repentance and a profound disregard for the principles of the church. He can only be characterized as a Waiver of the Clergy-penitent Privilege.
The lawsuit accuses two Arizona bishops and church leaders in Salt Lake City of negligently not reporting the abuse and allowing Adams to abuse his older daughter for as many as seven years.
The church is expected to appeal after Cardinal issued her order after attorneys for three victims objected to the church's refusal to give them Adams' records. Attorneys for the victims objected when a church official refused to answer questions during pre- trial testimony.
The church's secret records and what happened at the secret ex-communication hearing are covered by the judge's order.
The church official who took notes during the excommunication hearing will have to answer questions from the attorneys for the Adams children. The church will have to give the records of the meeting.
The church wants Cardinal to delay implementing her order until it contests her findings with the court. The information that the church considers confidential under the clergy-penitent privilege would be released if the delay was not stopped.
It would be impossible to un-ring the bell because the privileged information had been disclosed.
The church didn't return calls from the AP asking for more information on the ruling.
In a motion filed earlier this year asking Cardinal to dismiss the case, the church said its defense was dependent on whether Adams was required to report his confidential confessions to civil authorities or not.
Three of the six children of Paul and Leizza Adams filed a lawsuit against their parents. The AP found that a church abuse help line used by Herrod and Mauzy to contact church attorneys is part of a system that can easily be used by church leaders to divert abuse accusations away from law enforcement and instead to church attorneys who may bury the problem and leave victims in harm's
The church's risk management department houses the "help line", where church officials work to protect the church from financial losses and lawsuits that could mar the church's reputation.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement that the AP story has flaws and leads to incorrect conclusions.
The help-line has nothing to do with cover-up, according to the statement.
The most detailed and comprehensive look yet at the help line, which has been criticized by Mormon abuse victims and their attorneys for being inadequate to quickly, was provided by the sealed documents from the West Virginia child sex abuse lawsuit against the church.
All records of calls to the help line are destroyed at the end of the day. The Mormon church considers all calls made to attorneys with the firm to be confidential under the attorney-client privilege.
During an interview last month, William Maledon, an Arizona lawyer who represents the church in the lawsuit, said that the fact that Adams bragged about abusing his daughters on social media wouldn't affect the case.
Maledon said that the bishops didn't know anything about it.
Brian McIntyre, the Cochise County Attorney, told the AP months ago that he believed Adams had violated the clergy-penitent privilege by posting his abuse on the internet.
McIntyre said that Adams disclosed his crime to a lot of people on the internet.
That's right.
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