POMONA : Mormon Church Found Liable in Molestation
The Mormon Church has been found liable for the molestation of a 13-year-old girl by a church elder.
A Pomona Superior Court jury Wednesday said leaders in the Azusa third ward of the church acted with “conscious disregard” for the girl’s rights and safety.
“I thank God for this,” said the girl’s mother, Patsy Miller.
“Now it won’t happen to other kids,” said her daughter, now 15.
The girl was molested in a van during a church-sponsored camping trip in August, 1992. Christian Bearnson, a 29-year-old church elder, pleaded guilty to lewd conduct.
The girl’s family filed a civil suit accusing Bearnson of committing the molestation with malice and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of negligence.
The girl’s attorney said church leaders knew Bearnson had allegedly molested two other girls in 1990.
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