SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Associated Press
June 13, 2018
By Brady McCombs
A woman who says a former Mormon missionary leader raped her in the 1980s accused church officials in a new court filing this week of knowing about the man’s prior sexual misconduct before he was appointed to the powerful position.
McKenna Denson’s attorneys allege in a court document filed Tuesday that Joseph L. Bishop disclosed to church leaders his “acts of sexual predation” while he was a mission president in Argentina in the late 1970s.
“Instead of informing McKenna of the truth about this self-proclaimed, lifelong sexual predator, defendants represented to McKenna, the public, and members of the church that defendant Bishop was a safe, honorable, and trustworthy leader,” Denson’s attorneys wrote.
Bishop, now 85, has denied raping Denson but acknowledged to police that he asked her to expose herself when he was president of the faith’s Missionary Training Center in Provo, according to police documents. The role he held from 1983 to 1986 gave him authority over hundreds of young Mormons preparing to go on church missions.
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