Conroe,
Texas Mormon Child Sexual Abuse Cases
Houston Chronicle reporter Paul McKay covered the crimes committed by Charles
Blome, a Mormon child abuser, and the LDS church, which helped keep his crimes
secret.
Mormon church faces another suit in child sex abuse case
The Mormon church, recently held accountable by a Montgomery County jury for the
offenses of a pedophile in Magnolia, is targeted in a new lawsuit filed Friday
on behalf of two other victims. A Montgomery County woman maintains that her two
sons were sexually abused in 1993, when they were 9 and 7, by convicted
pedophile Charles John "Chuck" Blomes, and are entitled to an
undetermined amount of damages in the personal-injury lawsuit filed by Clay
Dugas, a lawyer from Orange.
Molested boy wins more than sought against church /$4 million
awarded after Mormons found negligent
A 13-year-old boy who was molested five years ago by a Mormon church youth
leader in Magnolia was awarded more than his own lawyers sought Thursday in a
hotly contested lawsuit. A Montgomery County jury awarded the youth $4 million
in damages - $1 million more than lawyers were seeking for him - in a unanimous
verdict in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was found
negligent for not protecting the boy from a pedophile who actively worked with
children and won them over by routinely giving them candy after Sunday services.
Jury considers making church pay $3 million over boy's abuse
Attorneys urged a jury Wednesday to make the Mormon church pay for the sins of a
pedophile who abused his status as a youth leader to victimize an 8-year-old
boy. Lawyers for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints countered in
the Montgomery County lawsuit that the church, and four former Magnolia ward
bishops named individually as defendants, were completely fooled by Charles John
"Chuck" Blome.
Former bishop denies he knew molester's past
The former bishop of a Mormon congregation in Magnolia testified Tuesday that he
was stunned when he learned that a church youth leader was suspected of
molesting an 8-year-old boy. Jerry Torgeson, the leader of the Magnolia
congregation when Charles John "Chuck" Blome was arrested in February
1994 and charged with molesting the boy, denied knowing that Blome was a
pedophile before the youth's mother told him that she had reported the abuse to
Montgomery County sheriff's investigators.
All news items above were written by Paul McKay of the Houston
Chronicle
