According to court documents, a former bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was arrested on Tuesday, on charges that he sexually abused his daughter while going with her on a school trip when she was a child.
This accusation was the subject of an Associated Press investigation into how the church defends itself against allegations of sexual abuse.
After a grand jury in Williamsburg determined on January 17 that there was probable cause to believe John Goodrich had committed four felonies—rape by force, intimidation or threat, forced sodomy, and two counts of felony aggravated sexual battery by a parent of a child—police and federal authorities had been looking for him.
Investigation that exposed a former Mormon bishop
These charges were brought weeks after an AP investigation exposed how a member of the church, commonly referred to as the Mormon church, used a risk management playbook to help it conceal cases of child sexual abuse after reports that Goodrich had abused his now-30-year-old daughter Chelsea at their Idaho home and during a school field trip to the Washington, D.C., area two decades prior surfaced.
However, Chelsea Goodrich, a victim of childhood sexual abuse, has expressed hope for justice in Virginia’s case against John Goodrich. The AP reported that Goodrich’s arrest in Virginia comes nearly eight years after his arrest in Idaho on similar charges. Goodrich and her mother reported abuse allegations in 2016 in Idaho, and the Commonwealth of Virginia is taking the case more seriously than years of repeated assaults in Idaho.
The key witness in a case involving a Mormon bishop, a key witness to John Goodrich’s spiritual confession, refused to testify. The case was dropped after Rytting, a Utah attorney and head of the church’s Risk Management Division, cited a “clergy-penitent privilege” loophole in Idaho’s mandatory reporting law. Rytting expressed concern for John’s “significant sexual transgression” but argued that the bishop, akin to a Catholic priest, could not testify due to his position in the church. The details of the confession remain unpublicized.
Another starking incident: Roman Polanski, the director, charged with sexual assault
Director Roman Polanski is being sued by a woman who claims she was sexually assaulted in 1973 while she was a juvenile at his house. During a press conference on Tuesday, the lady revealed the accusations—which 90-year-old Polanski has refuted—alongside Gloria Allred, her lawyer.
However, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, a defense attorney, has filed a civil lawsuit against Polanski, a former Los Angeles criminal sexual assault suspect, for allegedly giving her tequila shots at his home and restaurant. The woman who filed the lawsuit claims that Polanski, who was under 18, had a relationship with her in 1973. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court under a California law that allowed claims of childhood sexual abuse after the statute of limitations had expired. Polanski denies the allegations and believes the proper place to try the case is in the courts. The lawsuit seeks damages to be determined at trial.
