Settlement Ends Civil Jury Trial in Mormon Church Sexual-abuse Case

By Matthew Umstead
Herald Mail
March 30, 2018

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/tri_state/west_virginia/settlement-ends-civil-jury-trial-in-mormon-church-sexual-abuse/article_6749d3ba-3466-11e8-8497-7f8424416b56.html

A 2013 lawsuit that claimed Mormon church leaders covered up the sexual abuse of several children by a church member who has been excommunicated and imprisoned has been settled, according to Berkeley County Circuit Court officials.

The settlement ended a trial that began on Jan. 18.

Terms of the settlement were not available Friday, when the six-member jury seated for the trial was released from service after 27 days in court.

Inclement weather and illness delayed the trial, which 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes initially estimated would last six to eight weeks.

At the start of the trial, a plaintiff's attorney told jurors that the case was about how far a powerful institution would go to protect and defend itself. But an attorney for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told the jury that the church was not responsible for the crimes of Christopher Michael Jensen, and asserted that the alleged abuse didn't occur on church property.

Jensen, 26, is serving a 35- to 75-year prison sentence in a West Virginia prison for his February 2013 conviction in circuit court on two counts of sexual abuse and one count of sexual assault.

Jensen was convicted of sexually abusing two boys while babysitting them in 2007. The children didn't report what occurred until 2012, attorneys have said.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of several minors and their parents alleged that the church was repeatedly put on notice or had knowledge of Jensen's predatory acts, but actively covered up the abuse and assisted him in committing further "unspeakable acts" by enabling him to babysit for and live with other church families with young children, court records said.

The church disavowed assertions that members of the Mormon church are discouraged from reporting abuse to the police, saying that the church has long condemned child abuse, which is not tolerated in any form.