CALIFORNIA
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Posted by Renee Schiavone (Editor) , May 03, 2014
Editor’s Note: The original version of this story was published May 02, 2014 at 6:40 p.m., but has been updated with additional details in the case.
PALM SPRINGS, Calif— A woman filed a lawsuit in Palm Springs Friday alleging that a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sexually abused and subsequently fathered a child with her while she was 13 and he was serving in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, and church leaders tried to hide what had happened.
Rancho Cucamonga resident Jacqueline Tyler filed the suit against the unnamed defendant — said to be in his 20s at the time of the alleged abuse in July to November 1985 — the Mormon church and the bishop of the church’s Palm Desert ward.
The complaint alleges that the missionary committed “repeated acts of childhood sexual abuse,” including fondling and sex, at least once a week and “resulted in a child being born” in June 1986.
The defendant then allegedly paid for the pregnant girl to travel to New York, “where he attempted to cause (her) to miscarry by physically abusing her body” and sexually abused her again, according to the complaint.
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