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  Susan Brock Sex Scandal: Chandler Police Recommended LDS Bishops Be Charged with Crimes for Failing to Report Abuse

By James King
Phoenix New Times
May 20, 2011

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/05/susan_brock_sex_scandal_chandl.php

A new report released by the Chandler Police Department shows that detectives investigating two bishops in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recommended that the two men be charged with crimes for failing to report the sexual abuse of a teenage boy at the hands of Susan Brock, the wife of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock.

"It's recommended that Troy Hansen and Matthew Meyers be charged with ARS 13-3620, duty to report," Officer Christopher Perez concludes in his report on the investigation into the two bishops.

However, as we noted yesterday, the Pinal County Attorney's Office opted not to charge the bishops with any crimes.

According to the report, on October 9, Meyers first learned that Susan Brock had sexually abused the boy. Meyers never called police. Rather, he waited a week and called Hansen, the "ecclesiastic leader" of the victim's family, on October 16.

In addition to calling Hansen about the abuse, Meyers called the Salt Lake City law firm Kirton & McConkie, which provides legal service for the LDS church.

The police, apparently, were the last ones on Meyers' list of people who probably should have known that a 49-year-old woman was having a sexual relationship with a teenage boy.

Meyers also advised Hansen to call "legal" after learning of the abuse because "um, you know, 'cause it, these things are . . . you know, anything with abuse."

Still, nobody bothered to call police -- not even the LDS' lawyers.

The LDS church issued a statement about the abuse and its role in bringing Susan Brock to justice, noting that "[bishops Meyers and Hansen] were instrumental in getting the matter reported to law enforcement authorities." In reality, Meyers and Hansen did nothing to get the matter reported to law enforcement.

"I have seen no evidence to support that any member of the LDS church either in Arizona or globally has contacted the Chandler Police Department," Officer Perez notes in his report.

The police finally were called when the victim's father got "tired of waiting" for church leaders to do something, and called them himself.

When he contacted police, the father told officers that he was told by Bishop Hansen that "things were being done" in regard to contacting authorities and that "it was going to be dealt with."

The father told Perez he was "waiting for what seemed like forever for someone to knock at their front door" before taking matters into his own hands (as he probably should have done in the first place) and telling authorities that his teenage son was sexually abused by the 49-year-old wife of a Maricopa County supervisor.

 
 

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