The Mormon church recently settled a lawsuit by paying $3 million to a Kirkland man who was molested repeatedly by a church elder when he was 9 and 10.
Jeremiah Scott, now 22, still has nightmares and attends counseling sessions to help him deal with the trauma he suffered as a child, said his mother, Sandra Scott.
``When he was younger, my son had periods when he seemed lethargic and withdrawn,'' Scott said recently. ``I asked him what was wrong, but he'd never say.''
In fact, it wasn't until 1995, when Jeremiah was 16, that he told his mother what a frail, elderly Sunday school teacher did to him.
While living in Oregon in 1990, the Scotts took in Franklin Richard Curtis, then in his mid-80s, so he could live with a family rather than in a nursing home.
Five years later, Curtis, a Mormon high priest, was convicted of sexual abuse charges. He died the same year.
For Sandra Scott, the criminal conviction might have sufficed had she not learned that her church knew that Curtis had a history of molesting children.
He had been excommunicated from a Pennsylvania ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for sex abuse in 1983, and before that he had spent some 40 years of his life in prison for crimes ranging from forgery to attempted murder and armed robbery. He converted to Mormonism in the early 1970s.
Soon after the 1983 incident, church records state, Curtis was rebaptized and offered a second chance. He joined the Rocky Butte Ward in Portland, Ore., where he sexually abused at least five children, according to the lawsuit.
Parents complained
When confronted by a bishop, Curtis admitted to the molestations. The bishop kept it quiet until parents started to complain. Then he reported it to his church superiors in Salt Lake City, but not to police, the suit states.
Curtis then entered the Brentwood Ward, also in Oregon, where he confessed his abusive past to then-Bishop Gregory Lee Foster. Foster said nothing because Curtis had repented, according to the complaint.
Foster knew Curtis also had abused his own stepchildren, but he still invited the man to teach Sunday school, the lawsuit states.
Tim Kosnoff, the Scotts' Bellevue attorney, said the church intentionally hid the man's history and allowed him to work with children for years.
Steve English, an attorney for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the church has taken steps to alert ward leaders when one of their members has a history of abuse. But the attorney didn't know if the church has begun doing background checks on its teachers who work with children.
English said Curtis' history was kept confidential because church leaders learned about it through his confession.
``If a church gets information by confession, they're required by law not to reveal it,'' he said.
English denied the Scotts' allegation that Curtis taught 8- to 10-year-olds in Sunday school. And he said the man's title of ``high priest'' vested him with no authority. The title is given to every church member of 40, he said.
Curtis was 87, in declining health and living in a nursing home when he befriended the Scotts slightly more than a decade ago, Sandra Scott said. At the time, the family lived in Portland, Ore., and Sandra Scott, like her ex-husband, was a devout Mormon. She's since left the church.
Advice ignored
Scott said Curtis quickly became close to the family. His weekly visits to their house soon became daily. That's when he asked them to take him in so he could spend his final years with a loving family.
When Scott and her husband consulted with Bishop Foster about the idea, Foster discouraged them, but only because of Curtis' health. He said the man would become a burden to the family.
The Scotts ignored the advice, and Curtis moved into their basement, where he lived for about seven months. But one day, with no warning, he left. The Scotts didn't hear from him for several months, until he called around Christmas time and asked to return.
By then, the family had dismantled the bed Curtis had slept in, so Sandra Scott invited him to sleep beside her son in his queen-size water bed. That arrangement continued for half a year.
``I didn't at the time see any harm in them sleeping together,'' the woman said. ``I literally kicked myself for doing that.''
Curtis abused the boy almost daily for about six months, according to the complaint.
Jeremiah Scott later came forward after his family moved to Kirkland in the mid-1990s. Curtis was arrested and convicted of first-degree sex abuse and given probation.
Sandra Scott said her son didn't want to comment on the civil lawsuit or the abuse. Currently, Jeremiah is attending a film school in Santa Barbara, Calif., and trying to put the traumatic experience behind him, his mother said.
The settlement was disclosed earlier this month by Mormon officials, who also revealed the $3 million figure.
The family refused to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of the settlement, she said, because they want the world to know what the church did.
``I'd really like to see the police get involved with checking out people who work with children,'' Scott said. ``They have no security checks, and you don't speak out, or if you do you're considered to be with Satan.''