CALIFORNIA
The Desert Sun
[with video]
Reza Gostar, The Desert Sun
PALM SPRINGS – A lawsuit filed Friday against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a church bishop and a missionary, claims a woman was repeatedly sexually abused when she was a teenager in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, and it was covered up.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Riverside County Superior Court in Palm Springs, contends that from July to November 1985, Jacqueline Tyler, then 13, was repeatedly abused by a missionary and that after a church bishop learned of the alleged abuse, her family was told to stay quiet and the bishop “made advance payment or partial payment of damages as an accommodation to plaintiff.”
It adds that as a result of the alleged abuse, Tyler gave birth to a son on June 30, 1986.
Tyler contends she was sexually abused at least once a week. And that after she became pregnant, the lawsuit claims that the missionary paid for her to go to New York, where he attempted to cause her to miscarry “by physically abusing her body.”
the lawsuit claims that the missionary paid for her to go to New York, where he attempted to cause her to miscarry “by physically abusing her body.”
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