On March 19, 2018, MormonLeaks released an audio recording and written transcript of a Dec. 2, 2017 conversation between an unnamed woman (Survivor) and Joseph Bishop, in which the woman confronts Bishop for trying to rape her in 1984 while he was the MTC president and she was a sister missionary in training. Since then, the LDS Church responded and more details have become available. The following is my attempt to produce a timeline, so readers can get clearer picture of the 34-year scandal:

Prior to 1972

Joseph Bishop, while in an LDS bishopric, is involved with sexually abusive activity of which he admitted in the Dec. 2, 2017 recording:

Survivor: How many other women are there? Joseph Bishop: It’s not that there’s so many other women, it’s just the two that were there [at the MTC], I remember one when I was in the Bishopric. - Dec 2017 recording of interview between Survivor and Bishop

1972

Joseph Bishop is appointed President of Weber State College. During his tenure, Assistant Dean Jan Tyler files a lawsuit regarding equal pay. The lawsuit is settled out of court.

I felt that he was a person without a sense of morality, of what was right and wrong. He was almost amoral. - Jan L. Tyler, Assistant Dean at Weber State College from 1971–1974

1979–1982

Joseph Bishop is called as a mission president to the Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission. While a mission president, he confesses his past sexual transgressions, including the incident while he was in a bishopric, to Church General Authority, Robert E. Wells.

Survivor: You were never called into a church council, church court, even after you confessed to Elder Wells, there was never a fellowship, nothing? Joseph Bishop: No I hadn’t confessed all those things before Elder Wells, but wanted to redo it. I struggled to make sure that everything was taken care of. - Dec 2017 recording of interview between Survivor and Bishop

1983

Bishop is called as the Missionary Training Center (MTC) President from 1983–1986.

1984

Unnamed survivor, while a sister missionary (age around 21) at the Missionary Training Center is sexually abused by President Bishop, in a private room in the basement of the MTC.

Survivor: I need an apology, and I need an admission, and I need to know what was ever done if anything, because I have carried this and it has destroyed my life. So do you remember the room in the basement? Joseph Bishop: I do Survivor: […] Do you remember tearing my blouse, pulling up my skirt, ripping

the back of my skirt and trying to rape me? But you didn’t, because you didn’t

have a full erection. You don’t remember that? - Dec 2017 recording of interview between Survivor and Bishop

1987

After returning from her mission, the Survivor reports the sexual abuse incident to her Young Single Adult Ward Bishop, alleged to be Ron Leavitt. Leavitt, in March 2018, recalled that the woman “came to him and said [Joseph] Bishop abused her, taking her and another woman to a small basement room at the MTC and showed them pornography.” He says that he didn’t believe the Survivor and says that he didn’t report the abuse to higher church authorities or law enforcement.

Ron Leavitt in an interview with 2KUTV

I wasn’t going to risk sullying the reputation of [Joseph Bishop]

- Former YSA Bishop of Survivor

However, according to the survivor, her bishop “arranged for her to speak with Asay, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy.” Asay told her that he would talk to Joseph Bishop.

Survivor: I have struggled for 33 years with what you did to me. And I am only interested in an apology. I reported what you did to me to Elder Asay. Do you remember him? Joseph Bishop: Oh yeah. Survivor: Quorum of the Seventy. Did he ever talk to you? Joseph Bishop: No. - Dec 2017 recording of interview between Survivor and Bishop

1998 and onward

Survivor “made multiple reports of the incident to the LDS Church.”

1999

Survivor “claimed she was pistol-whipped and locked in the trunk of a car by two men outside a restaurant where she had worked. Detectives learned she had been fired shortly before the incident and had made inquiries about the restaurant’s security liability. They concluded she was dishonest and her report ‘unfounded.’”

2010

Another woman (Survivor 2), reports to local church leaders about being sexually abused by Joseph Bishop, also while he was MTC president. In an updated statement, March 23, 2018, the Church stated that in 2010, she was provided “emotional support as well as professional counseling services. Mr. Bishop’s local ecclesiastical leaders were contacted and they confronted him with her claims, which he denied, and local leaders did not feel they could pursue church discipline for Mr. Bishop.”

Survivor 2 was referenced in the December recording:

Survivor 1: Do you remember the other girl with me? The other one you were grooming? Her name was [redacted] Joseph Bishop: [redacted][redacted] Survivor 1: Yes, that’s her last name Joseph Bishop: I remember [redacted] Survivor 1: Did you molest her? Joseph Bishop: Yes - Dec 2017 recording of interview between Survivor and Bishop

2010 continued

Survivor 1 also “contacted LDS Church headquarters in an attempt to find out the results of her reports and if Bishop had been disciplined. When they told her she couldn’t get that information, she made a threat over the phone about killing Bishop.”

Subsequently, the LDS Church contacted the Pleasant Grove Police department. The March 20, 2018 LDS church statement says that the Church contacted police about the sexual assault but says nothing about the death threat.

April 2010

Pleasant Grove police contacted the survivor and reported that the “alleged sexual assault was not investigated because any incident would’ve taken place outside their jurisdiction and because the threat, and not the alleged assault, was the reason the Church contacted them.”

“Pleasant Grove police officers interviewed her; no charges were filed, reports state.”

2012

Joseph Bishop authors Peace be unto thy Soul. The book includes an endorsement by Church General Authority, Robert E. Wells, the same leader to whom Bishop had confessed his sexual abuse while a mission president.

Peace be unto thy Soul by Joseph Bishop

2016

The March 20, 2018 church statement reports that in 2016 the survivor “contacted a stake president in Pueblo, Colorado” about the incident.

November 28, 2017

Survivor contacts Brigham Young University Police about the sexual abuse incident from 1984, according to the police report.

December 2, 2017

Survivor visits “Bishop in Arizona, posing as a writer who was interviewing former mission presidents. During their nearly three-hour conversation […] which she secretly recorded, the Colorado woman urged him to admit what he did to her and others.”

The survivor provides a copy of this recording to the Brigham Young Police, according to their report.

December 5, 2017

Joseph Bishop admits to some sexual abuse in an interview with Brigham Young University Police. “Joseph told detectives that he went with the woman to a small ‘preparation room’ in the cafeteria area of the MTC” and asked her to show him her breasts.

[Bishop] asked her to show him her breasts, which she did. - BYU Police Report

“Police also contacted the victim’s MTC instructor who said she remembered the sister missionary in question and recalls her being called out of class at some point, but didn’t recall who she went with.”

December 23, 2017

The BYU case is closed, after police determine they cannot pursue criminal charges against Bishop because of statute of limitations.

I have no reason to doubt the victim’s disclosure, and would have likely prosecuted Mr. Bishop, but for the expiration of the statute of limitations. The alleged rape occurred in 1984. At that time, the statute of limitations was four years. The statute remained the same for over a decade, and I am now convinced that nothing occurred to toll it. - Deputy Utah County Attorney David Sturgill’s report

January 2018

The “Church was contacted by a lawyer representing [the survivor]. He provided a copy of a recording that she had made of a conversation between her and 85-year-old Joseph Bishop”

February 2018

Survivor is “arrested in New Mexico on suspicion of identity theft. According to a police report, she used an ex-boyfriend’s name and Social Security number to obtain utility services and to lease an apartment.”

February 5, 2018

Bill HB330 is introduced to the Utah State Legislature with support from the LDS church. The proposed law “would make it a crime to record a conversation with someone without their consent.”

Church representatives have spoken with legislators to express support for (HB330), which is intended to protect the confidentiality of sensitive private conversations, including those between ecclesiastical leaders and their members - LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins

March 19, 2018

Without the consent of the survivor, MormonLeaks releases the audio recording and transcript of the Dec 2, 2017 conversation between the survivor and Joseph Bishop.

Deseret Book removes all works authored by Joseph Bishop from its website.

30 Ways to Love your Mission by Joseph L. Bishop, published in 2014

Survivor’s daughter says “that within 12 hours of the story breaking, church officials and lawyers had contacted her and her siblings to interview them on the character of their mother,” according to Lindsey Hansen Park.

[Survivor] warned me that a massive smear campaign was beginning. - Mormon Blogger and Sunstone President Lindsey Hansen Park

March 20, 2018

LDS Church releases a statement. The Church states that the survivor is a “former Church member, who served briefly as a missionary in 1984,” and that “the stories, timelines and recollections of those involved are dramatically different.” It adds that the Church “does not have the investigative tools available to law enforcement agencies.”