A former bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was featured in an Associated Press investigation into how the church protects itself from sexual abuse allegations, was charged with sexual abuse by police in Virginia this week. arrested. His daughter accompanied him on school trips as a child, according to court filings.
On Jan. 17, a grand jury in Williamsburg found John Goodrich likely guilty of four felonies, including two counts of aggravated rape by force, intimidation or intimidation, forcible sodomy, and aggravated sexual assault. Police and federal authorities began searching for John Goodrich. child’s parent.
Utah bill protects clergy when reporting child abuse to police
These accusations come after Goodrich was accused of abusing his daughter Chelsea, a risk management strategy that helped representatives of the church, widely known as the Mormon Church, keep the child sex abuse case secret. The filing comes weeks after an Associated Press investigation revealed how the agency had employed the company. She spent her 30s at her home in Idaho and on a school field trip to the Washington, D.C., area 20 years ago.
Exterior view of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hailey, Idaho, September 19, 2023. John Goodrich, a former bishop of Idaho in the Mormon Church, was arrested by police on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. In Virginia, he was charged with sexually abusing his daughter, who accompanied him on a school trip when she was a child. Recordings obtained by The Associated Press reveal that the Mormon church used legal strategies to protect itself from sexual abuse allegations instead of helping prosecutors.
“I hope this lawsuit will finally bring justice for my childhood sexual abuse,” Chelsea Goodrich told The Associated Press in a statement. “I’m glad that Virginia seems to be taking a child sexual assault case more seriously than a series of assaults in Idaho over the years.”
When John Goodrich’s cell phone received a call Wednesday, it immediately went to voicemail. Thomas Norment, John Goodrich’s Williamsburg attorney, declined to comment, saying he was still reviewing the case. The Williamsburg Police Department also did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Goodrich’s case.
Goodrich’s arrest in Virginia comes nearly eight years after he was arrested on similar charges in Idaho. Chelsea and her mother, Lorraine, went to the Idaho State Police in 2016 to report extensive allegations of abuse during their childhood.
These charges were eventually dropped because a key witness in the case, another Mormon bishop to whom John made spiritual confessions about himself and his daughter, refused to testify. The details of his confession have not been made public, but the church excommunicated Goodrich.
An Associated Press investigation revealed a 2017 interview with Utah attorney Paul Leiting, who was the head of the church’s risk management department, which works to protect the church from sexual abuse lawsuits and other costly claims. It was based in part on an audio recording of a several-hour meeting with the City of Chelsea.
Chelsea went to Ritting for help in getting the bishop to testify about John’s spiritual confessions. During the taped meeting, Ritting expressed concern about John’s “gross sexual violations,” but said the bishop, who is close to a Catholic priest in the church, could not testify. He cited the “clerics’ penitent privilege” loophole in Idaho’s mandatory reporting law that exempts clergy from the requirement to divulge information about child sexual abuse gleaned from spiritual confessions.
Without that testimony, prosecutors in Idaho dropped the earlier case.
Invoking clerical privilege was only one aspect of the risk management strategy employed by Ritting in the Goodrich case. Ritting offered Chelsea and his mother $300,000 in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement and a pledge to destroy records of meetings made with his attorney’s advice and Ritting’s knowledge. The Associated Press obtained a similar recording made by a church member at the time who attended the meeting in Chelsea’s defense.
The church also used a so-called sexual abuse helpline that Bishop John Goodrich called after the confession. As the Associated Press revealed in 2022, the helpline is a telephone number set up by the church for bishops to report cases of child sexual abuse. But instead of connecting church victims to counseling or other services, helplines often report serious allegations of abuse to the church’s law firm.
In a statement to The Associated Press in response to the recent investigation, the church said that “abuse of children and other individuals is unacceptable” and that John Goodrich, after being excommunicated, “will not be allowed to re-enter the Church as a member.” It’s not recognized.”
News reports about the Idaho incident revealed another alleged victim. When the 53-year-old single mother learned of Chelsea’s allegations, she was arrested without her consent after John Goodrich gave her the controlled drug Halcion, which he often used to sedate patients during dental procedures. He accused Chelsea of having sex with him. She alleged that Mr. Goodrich drugged her in July of the year before she ended her sexual relationship with Mr. Goodrich.
In the end, John Goodrich agreed to a plea deal in the case and was cleared of sex crime charges.
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Chelsea Goodrich told The Associated Press she approached her story because her father is free and continues to work as a dentist in Idaho, where he has access to his children.
After a two-week search by authorities, Goodrich turned herself in to Williamsburg police on Tuesday and posted bail, court officials told Chelsea Goodrich. Court officials said he will be allowed to leave Virginia during the legal process.
