An Associated Press investigation by Michael Rezendes, published August 2022 and built from nearly 12,000 pages of sealed court records from a related Arizona civil lawsuit. It documents a Bisbee, Arizona family in which a father confessed to his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bishop in 2011 that he was abusing his five year old daughter; the bishop contacted the church's help line, and the AP reports that church attorneys on the line instructed him not to report the abuse to police, citing clergy-penitent privilege. The abuse continued for roughly seven more years and extended to a second daughter. The church excommunicated the father in 2013, still without a report to law enforcement by church leadership at that point. He was arrested by the FBI in 2017 after Interpol discovered child sexual abuse material linked to him, and died by suicide in jail before any trial on the underlying abuse allegations. Rezendes previously shared in the Boston Globe Spotlight team's 2003 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Catholic clergy abuse, already carried in this atlas.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Tier 1: major-outlet investigative journalism built directly from sealed court records, the same standing this atlas already gives the Boston Globe Spotlight investigation and the Pennsylvania grand jury reporting chain; cited at an AP member station's carriage of the wire story, cross-checked against four independent outlets' (Salt Lake Tribune, Axios, KUTV, Deseret News) contemporaneous coverage of the same investigation, all agreeing on its core findings. NotesThis atlas deliberately does not name the father, the mother, or the bishop in any fact or article text: the father was never convicted of the abuse itself (he died in custody before trial, arrested only on separate child-exploitation-material charges), and naming any family member risks identifying minor victims of an ongoing, still-litigated case in a way naming an institution's policy response does not. This departs from the atlas's usual living-person naming standard only in being more restrictive, not less.
Citation
AuthorMichael Rezendes
PublisherThe Associated Press
Publication Year2022
URLhttps://www.azfamily.com/2022/08/04/seven-years-sex-abuse-bisbee-how-mormon-officials-let-it-happen/
Source Typenews feature
Connections
Associated With
This source names Arizona directly: "of sealed court records from a related Arizona civil lawsuit."
Source Seven Years of Sex Abuse: How Mormon Officials Let It HappenMichael Rezendes
Boston, Cities This source names Boston directly: "Rezendes previously shared in the Boston Globe Spotlight team's 2003 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Catholic clergy abuse, already carried in this atlas."
Source Seven Years of Sex Abuse: How Mormon Officials Let It HappenMichael Rezendes
Claims Backed By This Source (28 claims)
This source backs 28 claims across the atlas. As facts: 21 well-attested. As cited relationships: 3 holds, 2 connected. Plus 2 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Abuse Inquiries and Response Policies, 12 claims: 10 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 10 claims: 8 well-attested, 2 holds.
- Articles, 5 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 connected, 1 general references.
- Denominations, 1 claims: 1 connected.
Well-attested
21Abuse Inquiries and Response Policies
Holds
3Abuse Inquiries and Response Policies
General References
2Abuse Inquiries and Response Policies
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