Paul Rytting listened as a woman, voice quavering, told him her story.

When she was a child, her father, a former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had routinely slipped into bed with her while he was aroused, she said.

It was March 2017 and Rytting offered his sympathies as 31-year-old Chelsea Goodrich spoke. A Utah attorney and head of the church’s Risk Management Division, Rytting had spent about 15 years protecting the organization, widely known as the Mormon church, from costly claims, including sexual abuse lawsuits.

Audio recordings of the meetings over the next four months, obtained by The Associated Press, show how Rytting, despite expressing concern for what he called John’s “significant sexual transgression,” would employ the risk management playbook that has helped the church keep child sexual abuse cases secret. In particular, the church would discourage Miller from testifying, citing a law that exempts clergy from having to divulge information about child sex abuse that is gleaned in a confession. Without Miller’s testimony, prosecutors dropped the charges, telling Lorraine that her impending divorce and the years that had passed since Chelsea’s alleged abuse might prejudice jurors.

  • The_v@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The Mormon church is not setup into separate regional entities like that catholics have done. Their billions are all vulnerable to lawsuits. Instead they have a pet lawfirm that often recommends illegal and unethical practices to squash lawsuits. If the case looks to be going badly they toss higher and higher settlement numbers to get out of it. They do not want to go through discovery and have to disclose exactly how much money they have (est. several hundred billion)It’s been an extremely effective solution so far.

    For example: At one point they made up more than 50% of the boyscouts. They had less checks and protocols for keeping pedophile’s out. They completely dodged all the large lawsuits because they were much better at hiding the horrendous amount of abuse.

    The Mormon owned universities have rampant sexual assault issues. You rarely see them reported because the victims are punished for coming forward. The university police force is used to suppress these reports as well.

      • The_v@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Well the founder of the religion raped a 14 year old. Subsequent leaders raped 14-15 year olds routinely. They didn’t stop officially until the early 1900’s when the federal government stepped in. Splinter groups continue to rape teens and children today (Warren Jeff’s is in jail for it today.)

        • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          No, dude, but she wasn’t 14, she was a few months shy of her 15th birthday. It’s totally okay, that was normal at the time, c’mon, give Brother Joe a break!