The wife of an Oregon man serving a 15-year prison sentence for sexually abusing the couple’s daughter has filed a $9.5 million lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saying a clergy member violated a promise of confidentiality by reporting her husband to authorities.

The husband told a local church panel about the molestation in 2016 to “repent for his sins” under the eyes of God and to seek spiritual healing “to bring peace within his life and family,” the lawsuit says. Instead, he was arrested and charged in 2017 and convicted in 2018 of four counts of second-degree sexual abuse.

The couple were part of a ward in the Marion County town of Stayton, home to about 8,100 residents 15 miles southeast of Salem.

In addition to herself, the woman also listed four of her children as plaintiffs, saying they all have been deprived of her husband’s “companionship, society, love, affection” and financial support. Not listed is the couple’s fifth child, who was molested by her father over four years when she was a pre-teen and teenager, according to criminal case records.

The lawsuit seeks $9.5 million for the family’s emotional distress and lost income and $40,000 for the money spent on a criminal defense lawyer to represent the husband on the child molestation charges.

The Oregonian/OregonLive isn’t naming the woman who filed the lawsuit or her husband because that would identify their daughter, who is a victim of sexual abuse.

A spokesman for the Utah-based Mormon church, which is listed as the sole defendant, said in a statement that one of its top priorities is “protecting victims and ensuring proper reporting."

“The Church teaches that leaders and members should fulfill all legal obligations to report abuse to civil authorities,” said spokesman Eric Hawkins, in the statement. "In some circumstances, those obligations may be governed by their professional duty and in others by their role as clergy. The Church has a 24-hour abuse help line to help leaders understand and meet both their professional and ecclesiastical obligations to report abuse. We are grateful for the efforts of law enforcement and prosecutors to investigate and pursue justice for those who were abused.”

This Google Maps photos shows the congregation in Stayton, which is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Google Maps)

It’s unclear how Oregon’s mandatory reporter law will affect the lawsuit, filed last Friday in Marion County Circuit Court.

The law requires a list of “private or public” officials to report suspected child abuse to the Oregon Department of Human Services or local police. The list includes doctors, firefighters, teachers, social workers and clergy.

But the law carves out some exceptions, including that clergy members aren’t required to report child abuse if they learn of it through a “privileged” communication.

Further complicating matters, the lay clergy member who reported the abuse outlined in this lawsuit, Brian Saari, is a pharmacist, according to the plaintiff’s lawyer. Pharmacists also are listed as mandatory reporters of child abuse in Oregon -- whether they’re on the job or not when they learn about alleged abuse, according to state officials.

But Bill Brandt, the Salem attorney representing the woman and her four children, said the lawsuit isn’t basing its claims on the mandatory reporting law. Rather, it faults the church for a breach of confidentiality, he said.

Brandt said the church teaches members that they must confess their transgressions “to get back in good favor with the church.” After they do, the church will offer counseling and set requirements that must be met to address the transgressions, Brandt said. That all is supposed to happen within the confines of the church, which assured the family that the confession would remain private, he said.

“That was a promise,” Brandt said.

Brandt said church leaders had an obligation to warn the husband: ‘Look, before you come in here and say this, we need to tell you ...we’re going to report you.’”

Brandt said the family has struggled financially since the husband was sent to prison. Now 47, he resides at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton.

The lawsuit drew outrage in Oregon and elsewhere from nonprofit organizations that support child abuse victims. Officials said failing to report pedophiles can enable them to operate unfettered and victimize more children.

The clergy member who tipped off investigators should be thanked for doing the right thing, said David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which supports victims from all religious organizations.

“It’s not just a parent’s job to protect their kids from predators, it’s the job of every single adult,” Clohessy said. “So adults who do put the safety of kids first should be applauded not penalized.”

Clohessy said he believes the woman in this lawsuit has misplaced her blame. “She should be grateful to the church officials, rather than bitter,” he said.

Legal observers noted the juxtaposition of this lawsuit with thousands of others that have followed sex abuse scandals in many faiths, claiming clergy remained silent, hid abuse or did nothing to prevent it. Most notably, the Catholic Church in the U.S. has paid out more than $3 billion in settlements, according to BishopAccountability.org.

Legal experts said the Oregon lawsuit is rare because it faults a clergy member for doing the opposite -- speaking up about a crime.

Christine Bartholomew, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law, said while it might be surprising, many clergy do want to testify about supposedly privileged communications, especially if the information they have to share is about violent crimes that have been committed.

Bartholomew has reviewed every accessible claim filed in U.S. courts alleging communications were made in confidence to clergy from 1811 to 2017. That’s more than 700 cases, including divorces, civil disputes and criminal prosecutions in which clergy members were called as witnesses.

In a small number of those cases, church officials or religious institutions as a whole were sued for alerting authorities to a crime, such as child sexual abuse or murder. Most often, Bartholomew said, plaintiffs lost those lawsuits based on their inability to make a case under the laws of their states.

Bartholomew said the lawsuit against the Mormon church could discourage clergy members from reporting child abuse out of concern that they’ll be sued.

“If successful, this litigation would push courts and these religious organizations toward less transparency than more,” Bartholomew said. “And you have to wonder if that would create the environment where abuse can really fester.”

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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