Last year, my colleague Mike Rezendes and I wrote a series of stories revealing the legal playbook used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to keep child sex abuse secret, a system that sometimes keeps predators free and children in harm's way.
In the aftermath of those stories, sources approached us with hours of secret recordings alleging that the head of the church’s Risk Management Division, Paul Rytting, was personally involved in a series of meetings with a woman alleging abuse that resulted in the cover-up of yet another case. If true, it was an important story.
The recordings showed that church’s actions helped derail the prosecution of a former bishop, John Goodrich and culminated in a $300,000 payment to the daughter he was accused of abusing in exchange for a promise that they would not sue the church. Today, the father remains a free man.
We collaborated with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting for a public radio show and podcast that first aired on Dec. 9, 2023.
READ the AP Investigation here (w/links to previous coverage).