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Jeff Breinholt is an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School, where he teaches a course on prosecuting terrorists. The views in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of his full-time employer, the Department of Justice.

Several years ago, I tried my hand at Mormon blogging as an outlet for some intense legal research I had been doing on modern American religions. I eventually wrote a total of 16 posts for Mormon Matters, which reviewed LDS legal history on several topics, with occasional comparative perspectives from the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists. In late 2009, I wrote a piece entitled “Mormon Law 2009 Year in Review.” Now, a decade on, I decided to come out of blogger retirement and revive this practice with the 2018 Mormon Law Year in Review. This article offers some comparisons to a decade ago, and focuses on my survey of this year’s judicial opinions containing “Mormon” and its variants.

Sex Abuse Lawsuits

In 2009, I posted “The Growing Mormon Sex Abuse Scandal” where I argued that the LDS Church has something to worry about in the years to come. My conclusion was based on the combination of (1) the growing instances in which the LDS Church is sued for sex abuse inaction and (2) the increased criminal sex abuse prosecutions that involve the Mormon Church. Both of these two types of cases, which are on the upswing, were present in 2018.

My research has not uncovered much in the way of legal or journalistic commentary on Mormon sex scandals over the past nine years, as these cases continued to emerge and be litigated. It may be that most people who would be logically interested in these issues – Mormons and people who live in Mormon enclaves – are discouraged from engaging in the subject, since most Mormons do not want to talk openly about these sex cases, and are undoubtedly encouraged by the Church to look the other way when they are raised. I do not have any trouble getting interested in these developments, especially after hearing about McKenna Denson.

Denson claims she was sexually abused by Joseph Bishop, the president of the Mission Training Center while she was training to be a sister missionary in the 1980s. In 2018, the Church failed to get the fraud count in the case dismissed.

The LDS Church continues to fight other sex abuse lawsuits, which are based on the theory that the Church had a legal obligation to prevent child sex abuse from happening through its involvement in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and other programs. The opinions this year, largely in Idaho, involved the admissibility of expert testimony.

In a separate Washington case, the LDS Church was sued for sex abuse that occurred under the auspices of the Church’s Indian Child Placement Program. The Church earlier this year managed to get the case thrown out based on the statute of limitations, meaning that the plaintiffs waited too long before filing their complaint.

Lori Stevens, a former BYU-Idaho student, filed a lawsuit that alleges that a former professor there initiated an unwanted relationship with her while she was a student, which became sexually and emotionally abusive. In coming forward, Stevens was worried about losing her Temple recommend.

On the criminal side, there have been a number of LDS-related sex crimes prosecuted in 2018. In one, the victim testified to how she was molested by “Brother Millsaps.”

An LDS Family in Washington took in an orphan, who soon began a sexual relationship with the wife of the couple and abused her physically. The boy was eventually charged with the assaults and convicted.

LDS-Related Criminal Prosecutions

Nine years ago, I wrote a piece for Mormon Matters entitled “Mormons Doing Nasty Things,” which recounted the history of courts mentioning a criminal defendant’s Mormon membership in opinions. These opinions made for fascinating reading if you are the type who likes going through your co-religionists’ dirty laundry. Mormons are people, and as people they commit crimes like rape and murder. Many of these LDS defendants however, seem to inject that fact that they are religious, and thus “good” people, into their criminal proceedings. My decade-ago conclusions were based on my review of pre-2007 data, going back to time immemorial (or as far back as Westlaw goes).

Several Mormon criminals have been prosecuted this past year. These prosecutions resulted in published opinions I thoroughly enjoyed reading. From one of these, we know from 2018 that Mormon criminals are continuing to push LDS-related issues in court proceedings.

Excommunicated Mormon Howard Wayne Hood argued that his excommunication should not have been admitted against him in his sexual assault prosecution. The court described the nature of LDS Disciplinary councils, and ultimately granted Hood a new trial because the evidence was prejudicial. Mormons often inject their religion as evidence of strong moral character into their defenses. I find it interesting that here one tried to remove references to his religion because an excommunication impugned his character.

Harold Otto Bryson was convicted of felony stalking in Utah for activity after his ex-girlfriend obtained a restraining order against him. He sent her a threatening package which contained a letter with Book of Mormon quotations.

A Mormon named David C. Chesser was court martialed for assault and convicted after an act of domestic violence. In Oregon, Daniel Whitaker Bluestein was convicted of sexually assaulting a Mormon woman.

In all likelihood, many more Mormons committed crimes, but these were the instances in 2018 where their religion was mentioned.

Employment Discrimination

In my 2007 Mormon Matters piece, “The Surprising Truth About Mormon Employment Discrimination,” I described how – unlike the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Seventh Days Adventists – most Mormon-related employment discrimination cases in history have involved a Mormon boss or employer allegedly discriminating against a non-Mormon employee. This past year followed this trend.

Zachary Rusk sued a brokerage house for discrimination. He claimed the deciding officials for his promotion are both Mormon and “I have reason to believe that Mormon applicants are preferred and selected over non-Mormon applicants.” The court denied (though granting in part) the employer’s motion to dismiss.

In Nevada, Laurie Nadeau, Robyn Coffin, and Dagny Magelssen filed a complaint alleging that their employer, a law office software company known as Wealth Course LLC, was going along with their new Mormon boss’s plan to replace the non-Mormon workforce with Mormons. Their complaints were with a new Mormon boss names Brett Pineger. They claimed he was forcing them into difficult professional decisions as a way to get them to leave so they could be replaced by Mormons. The case apparently remains pending.

Thomas Finn sued after he was fired as police chief of Boulder City, Nevada. His lawsuit claimed that he was fired for not going along with the town leader’s attempts to give special favors to Mormon townspeople, one of whom led a motorcycle gang. The court ultimately granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.

A financial employee was disciplined for showing favoritism to Mormons.

A male worker sued his employer for what he said were unwanted sexual advances by a female colleague. One of this allegations was that the colleague asked “if he was Mormon and if he wore garments.”

On the other side is David Alan Fuqua, sued the City of Altus, Oklahoma after he was terminated as city manager. He claimed that he was fired because he was LDS and the city board was concerned that he was hiring too many Mormons. In April 2018, the court refused to dismiss the lawsuit.

It should be noted that some of these 2018 cases do not involve religious discrimination, even though the defendant is the LDS Church. Kristina Zemaitiene sued Deseret Industries after she claimed they refused to accommodate her disability. A court this year dismissed her lawsuit, though she is permitted to re-file. There is a similar situation involving a former BYU employee named Joseph Castellano.

Mormon-Related Mental Illness in Court

Perhaps my most controversial article back in 2009 was “Bringing Out the Delusional,” It involved the question of whether judicial opinions indicate that the LDS Church played a role in people becoming mentally unbalanced. Many of the litigants I described in that article posted comments, or wrote me emails to complain that I was picking on them.

There were several new “delusional” cases in 2018.

Xiu Jian Sun, identifying as “the spiritual Adam” and as a representative of the LDS Church, filed a pro se action on September 12, 2017. Listed as defendants were “Secret gang organization: OBAMA-BARACK-Dog,” and various federal employees and judges.

A weird lawsuit in San Diego including references to the Brass Rail Bar, O.J. Simpson’s children, the LDS Church, homosexuals, and the homeless.

In Hawaii, Peter R. Tia filed a complaint against several federal, state, and municipal entities and private individuals alleging violations of his federal civil rights. The named defendants included “Unnamed Mormons.”

In Oregon, Stephen S. Edward sued a homeowners association, claiming a conspiracy that “relates directly to the Mormon Way of Life and their unorthodox, bizarre and morally questionable values, customs and practices.”

Michael John Wrobel, charged with drug offenses in Idaho, contested whether there was probable cause to search his car. According to the officer, when he pulled over the car, Wrobel was playing Mormon religious music, which the officer believed could indicate that Wrobel was overcompensating by attempting to affiliate with the local religious community.

Miscellaneous

Yao Wang, a Mormon convert, filed a lawsuit seeking asylum, claiming that the Chinese government would persecute him if sent there.

In a Wisconsin slip and fall case, an LDS juror expressed concerns with whether she could be fair with the plaintiff given the juror’s religious beliefs.

So long 2018. Welcome 2019.

*Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash