Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Abuse at Mormon Youth Camp

Molested Mormon Children Seek Justice as Adults Under New Law;Utah Boys Allegedly Victimized at Maui Land and Pineapple Camp in the 1980s

The Roman Catholic Church has deservedly received a great deal of negative media coverage concerning the worldwide sex abuse scandal.  The Church, however, doesn't have a monopoly of clergy and staff molesting children and youths.  The Southern Baptist Convention ("SBC") has a huge problem yet disclaims responsibility since it has a lest centralized, feudal hierarchy.   Bob Felton at Civil Commotion frequently provides coverage of the rot within the SBC.  Now, a lawsuit filed in Hawaii suggests that the Mormon Church has problems of its own, suggesting again that the more sexually repressive a religious tradition is, the more sexual abuse there seems to be.  Here are excerpts from Hawaii News Now:

WAILUKU, MAUI – Honolulu attorneys Charles McKay and Randall Rosenberg of Rosenberg & McKay filed a complaint in Second Circuit Court on Maui yesterday afternoon against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (ML&P), Youth Development Enterprises, Inc. (YDE) and Brian R. Pickett, who currently resides in Idaho Falls, Idaho.  The Plaintiffs are two Utah men, Kyle Spray (42) and Jake Huggard (41), who now live in the Salt Lake City, Utah area.  Also consulting on the case are Idaho and Seattle Attorneys Craig Vernon and Leander James of James, Vernon and Weeks, P.A., and Mark Leemon of Leemon + Royer.

The lawsuit alleges the LDS (Mormon) Church and ML&P recruited boys in the 1970s and 80s from Mormon communities in Utah and Southeastern Idaho to pick pineapples at camps in Maui, where the Plaintiffs were sexually molested.  The camps closed in the early 1990s.

"There were hundreds of boys over more than a decade cycled through these camps," explained attorney Randall Rosenberg, Esq., of Rosenberg & McKay.  "Hundreds were exposed to the alleged sexual predator in our case.  We do not know how many others may have been molested, but our experience is that child sexual predators with access to kids have multiple victims."

According to the suit, Defendant Brian R. Pickett, a Camp Coordinator, molested the Plaintiffs as boys while overseeing up to 200 boys at one camp from 1986 to 1988.  ML&P promoted Picket in 1988 to Vice President of Operations over both camps, exposing him to more than 400 boys employed at the camps. The alleged sexual abuse took place at the ML&P barracks while Picket was Camp Coordinator. Abuse of one boy allegedly continued at Pickett’s Maui upcountry home.  In addition to being the boys’ boss, Pickett was their spiritual leader.   Pickett was the Branch President, similar to a Mormon Bishop, who presided over the boys' religious training.  According to the suit, Pickett baptized one 15-year-old victim who had been recruited as a non-Mormon, then sexually molested the boy.

“We believe Brian R. Pickett used his position over our clients as their supervisor and religious leader to gain access to the boys and manipulate them," said attorney Craig Vernon, Esq., of James, Vernon and Weeks.  "The [Mormon] Church marketed this as a safe, wholesome and exciting adventure; fly to Hawai'i and pick pineapples.  That was extremely attractive to Mormon boys in Utah and Idaho in the 70s and 80s."

"We ask the LDS Church to take concrete steps to prevent future abuse and for the healing of victims."  The relief sought demands the Church:

• Change its corporate policies regarding reporting of suspected child sexual abuse. According to the suit, current policies instruct members and leaders to contact the Church instead of police or child protective services when they suspect child sexual abuse.
• Reject current policies that state Church leaders should avoid testifying in civil or criminal cases involving abuse (Handbook 1, State Presidents and Bishops 2010, Section 17.3.2.) 
• Institute regulations that:
  • All alleged sex abusers will be immediately removed from exposure to children.
  • Members and leaders must report suspected abuse to the police and child protective services.
  • Leaders and members shall cooperate with civil and criminal authorities in cases involving sexual abuse, including testifying.
• Publicly list abusers names on the LDS homepage of all its web sites to alert people of danger, including on the list Brian R. Pickett as a credibly accused pedophile with his last known address.
• Identify all leaders and members who have been credibly accused of sexual molestation of a child in Hawaii.
• Never support any laws that would shield child sexual abusers.
• Establish age appropriate sex abuse training and educations for children ages 3 – 18 years old. This will include a “safe haven” for children to report abuse to any of three people in each Ward (a collection of individual churches).
• Adopt a whistleblower policy so those reporting abuse will not have any retaliatory action taken against them.
• Publish through its President an annual written statement that there exists no undisclosed knowledge that any leader has sexually abused any person in Hawaii.
• Send a letter of apology to Plaintiffs.