A lawsuit alleging child sex abuse in Salt Lake City has been filed against the daughter of the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The daughter and her husband, Brenda and Richard Miles deny any allegations of publically, however the six plaintiffs in this case wish to remain completely anonymous.
The attorney of the plantiffs released a statement in regards to the plantiffs wishes of anonymity;
Several plantiffs addressed their wishes to remain anonymous during the processes of this case. FOX 13 in Utah spoke with some of the victims whose wishes are that their identity remain classified. “Victims need to be listened and heard and have a voice. I think now there’s a chance some members of the Mormon community will believe us. I’m certain there’s some who will not because of who the defendants are,” said a woman known in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe 2,” who claims she was sexually abused as a child by Brenda and Richard.
Details in the report claim that the Miles family held “touching parties” at their home in which the Defendants and other acquaintances would sometimes attend as children. The lawsuit states that the children were repeatedly sexually abused at these “parties”. The children then divulged this abuse to their mothers and called out by name who exactly abused them which was Richard Mikes, the Second Counselor of the Latter-Day Saints ward and Brenda Miles who was the daughter of the Latter-Day Saints apostle.
The abuse was later reported to police by the children’s mother but the case was not investigated further. She then went directly to the Church leaders who instructed her to “forgive and forget.”
“I assumed the highest leaders in the church would want to help my children heal that the perpetrators would be put in jail. I was very quickly disillusioned about that,” she told reporters.
One of the other plantiffs mother reported the abuse to state authorities in 1995 which led to her stepfather’s suicide when police attempted to put him under arrest for sexual abuse.
The lawsuit continues, calling Brenda and Miles “DOE 1 MALE DEFENDANT & DOE 2 FEMALE DEFENDANT”;
“Since January of 1986, DOE 1 MALE DEFENDANT and DOE 2 FEMALE DEFENDANT have successively utilized their status within the Church, both as leaders in their own right and as the daughter and son-in-law of an Apostle of the Church, to cover up the crimes they committed against JANE DOE 1, JANE DOE 2, and JOHN DOE 1. This included (lockstep with Perpetrator) lying to the police and influencing the criminal investigation; influencing leaders of the Church to ignore Church policy and not convene a Church disciplinary hearing against themselves or Perpetrator; and further actions which encouraged and enabled Defendants and Perpetrator to escape criminal prosecution and not be excommunicated from the Church for the heinous sexual crimes they committed against these children.”
Richard and Brenda Miles’ attorney said they vigorously deny the accusations.
Miles’ attorney suggests that these children were given “false memories” as children by a child psychologist.
“These allegations were investigated in the 1980s by three different law enforcement agencies who found no evidence of any child sex abuse ring in Bountiful and filed no charges against my clients,” their attorney stated.
If you have been sexually abused please call our sexual abuse attorneys at Alonso Krangle LLP at 800-403-6191 or through our website at www.fightforvictims.com. Our attorneys are sensitive to your story and will assist you in recourse and the compensation and justice you deserve. We will fight together against your abuser or any institution that has failed to protect you. Please call us today to review your legal rights.