Wolves Among the Sheep > 2x2's Minister aquitted of CSA in B.C.; Deceased Mormon leader accused of CSA

 

Former fundamentalist minister in B.C. found not guilty of historical sexual abuse

Lee-Ann McChesney acquitted on charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation dating back to 1989

Karin Larsen · CBC News · Posted: Apr 20, 2026 6:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

Lee-Ann McChesney, a former 2x2s minister, has been acquitted in B.C. Supreme Court of historical sexual abuse. (David Horemans/CBC)

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A former minister in the 2x2s Christian fundamentalist sect was found not guilty of historical sexual assault and sexual exploitation dating back to 1989.

In acquitting Lee-Ann McChesney, Justice Michael Stephens said Crown had not proven the charges beyond reasonable doubt. Stephens described the case as “difficult” due to the subject matter.

Only one witness, complainant Lyndell Montgomery, was called to give evidence during the trial in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, about incidents alleged to have taken place in Terrace, Delta and Surrey when she was 14 and 15 years old.

The court heard Montgomery was adopted as an infant into a devout 2x2s family, and had been sent to live under the care of McChesney, a minister in the church, during the time of the allegations.

Montgomery requested her name not be under a publication ban. Publication bans are common in cases involving the alleged sexual abuse of a child or youth. 

• Historical sexual abuse charges filed against B.C. minister belonging to church with no name

McChesney declined comment outside of court and no 2x2s leader was present. 

Montgomery was supported at trial by over a dozen people in the gallery. In a statement sent to CBC News after the trial, she said she wasn’t sorry for choosing to engage the court.

“Telling [my story] was for my own healing, sure, but it was also for everyone who can’t — whether they’re silenced by a statute of limitations, by death of their perp or by fear. This was my story, but now it’s a part of others as well," she wrote.  

FBI 2 years into 2x2s investigation

The case in New Westminster is one of a handful in Canada where 2x2s complainants have gone to police seeking criminal charges against church members, although hundreds of allegations of child sexual abuse and abuse have been recorded by independent researchers.

Two years ago, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation opened an investigation into the 2x2s and issued an public appeal for help in identifying victims or individuals with knowledge of abuse and/or criminal behaviour within the sect.

In an email to CBC News, the FBI said the investigation remains open, but no details could be shared in order to preserve the integrity and capabilities of the investigation. 

The email said 2x2s victims of abuse from outside the U.S. are encouraged to contact the FBI. 

“In coordination with our Legal Attaché Offices around the world, we routinely share information and intelligence with our international law enforcement partners in an effort to identify and mitigate threats,” said an FBI spokesperson.

• Jury dismissed in sexual abuse, assault trial of former 2x2 church minister

The 2x2s operate globally. The faith teaches that it is the only true way to salvation. Former members who have spoken to CBC News described the church as high-control, insular and secretive.

Although commonly referred to as 2x2s, the organization is officially nameless. It doesn’t keep official records or publish a leadership structure, and own no places of worship, according to multiple sources.

Ministry is conducted in the homes of the faithful, known as “friends,” or in rented spaces. Ministers, known as “workers” have no formal training and live in the homes of friends who are expected to provide financial and material support. Senior workers called “overseers” control a geographical region and are exclusively male. 

The FBI investigation was sparked by an outpouring of abuse allegations that emerged after an overseer named Dean Bruer was found dead in an Oregon motel room in 2022, according to multiple sources CBC News spoke to. 

Following his death, a letter written by an overseer named Doyle Smith described Bruer’s double life, calling him as a “sexual predator” whose “actions include raped and abuse of underage victims.” The letter has been posted publicly, including by the organization Wings for Truth, which documents activity within the 2x2s organization.

Lyndell Montgomery poses with supporters outside of B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. From left to right: Cynthia Liles, Lyndell Montgomery, Judy Scheller and Jen Barth. (Karin Larsen/CBC)

After the revelations about Bruer, Cynthia Liles, a former 2x2s member and private investigator in Oregon, launched a non-profit called 2x2s Church Accountability. It runs an independent reporting hotline to document allegations of abuse within the 2x2s that Liles says has received reports of over 1200 alleged perpetrators.

Liles believes from the information collected that leaders in the 2x2s church have been ignoring allegations of child sexual abuse within the sect and protecting perpetrators for years. 

“I thought when [church leadership] became aware of the amount of abuse we were hearing about that they would be shocked and do something about it. But they already knew about it and they had no intention of changing,” she said. 

Liles travelled to New Westminster to support Montgomery during the trial. So did Jen Barth, a former 2x2s member who was drawn into an earlier criminal trial involving former 2x2s minister Aaron Farough, who pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child pornography in 2023.

Farough was living in the Barth family home in Courtenay, B.C., during a portion of the time he committed the crimes.

“Originally, I, Jen Barth, was under investigation because the [internet service provider] for our household is in my name,” she said.

Barth says the 2x2s organization has shown little accountability. 

“They are avoiding, they are minimizing, they are concealing. They are denying these allegations. And we all know, these things need to be taken seriously.”

Mystery shrouds ex-Mormon figure's death in northern Illinois plane crash amid child sexual abuse lawsuit

Richard McClung died in February when the small plane he was piloting crashed in a community between McHenry County and Rockford. A pending lawsuit accuses McClung, a convicted sex offender, of molesting a young girl while he was a leader and member of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation in the early 2000s. The suit says church leaders knew he was a potential danger and still let him be around kids.

Richard McClung died in a plane crash Feb. 14 when the small aircraft he was piloting plummeted into a residential neighborhood between McHenry County and Rockford, narrowly missing homes, severing a gas line and horrifying locals.

McClung’s online death notice described the 83-year-old Rockford resident as having “a love for his family” who “tried his best in all the ways he knew how.”

A darker reality has since emerged: McClung was a former Mormon church figure in Illinois and registered sex offender who’s been repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children.

At the time of his death, McClung was a defendant in a federal lawsuit in Chicago accusing him of molesting a young congregant while he was a member and leader of a Mormon church in Rockford in the early 2000s.

The death notice said the crash was “a result of having a mechanical failure.”

A nonprofit general aviation safety organization says McClung likely plunged his airplane into the ground because of mounting pressure from recent court filings.

Lawyers involved in the suit wouldn’t comment.

This much is known: A formal cause of death hasn’t yet been determined by the Boone County coroner, and the National Transportation Safety Board also hasn’t concluded its investigation. An arm of the federal government, the NTSB is generally the final word on how and why a fatal plane crash happened.

Please continue reading on the Chicago Sun-Times at:

Filed in 2025, the lawsuit 

Wolves Among the Sheep > Pseudo-Christian Churches Couldn't Care less about Children

..

Pseudo-Christian churches defend clergy loophole

in child sex abuse reporting

By JASON DEAREN and MICHAEL REZENDES

today

The angel Moroni statue atop the Salt Lake Temple is silhouetted against a cloud-covered sky, at Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Feb. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

It was a frigid Sunday evening at the Catholic Newman Center in Salt Lake City when the priest warned parishioners who had gathered after Mass that their right to private confessions was in jeopardy.

A new law would break that sacred bond, the priest said, and directed the parishioners to sign a one-page form letter on their way out. “I/We Oppose HB90,” began the letter, stacked next to pre-addressed envelopes. “HB90 is an improper interference of the government into the practice of religion in Utah.”

In the following days of February 2020, Utah’s Catholic diocese, which oversees dozens of churches, says it collected some 9,000 signed letters from parishioners and sent them to state Rep. Angela Romero, a Democrat who had been working on the bill as part of her campaign against child sexual abuse. HB90 targeted Utah’s “clergy-penitent privilege,” a law similar to those in many states that exempts clergy of all denominations from the requirement to report child abuse if they learn about the crime in a confessional setting.

Utah’s Catholic leaders had mobilized against HB90 arguing that it threatened the sacred privacy of confessions. More importantly, it met with disapproval from some members in the powerful Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormon church, whose followers comprise the vast majority of the state Legislature. HB90 was dead on arrival.

In 33 states, clergy are exempt from any laws requiring professionals such as teachers, physicians and psychotherapists to report information about alleged child sexual abuse to police or child welfare officials if the church deems the information privileged.

This loophole has resulted in an unknown number of predators being allowed to continue abusing children for years despite having confessed the behavior to religious officials. In many of these cases, the privilege has been invoked to shield religious groups from civil and criminal liability after the abuse became known to civil authorities.

Over the past two decades state lawmakers like Romero have proposed more than 130 bills seeking to create or amend child sex abuse reporting laws, an Associated Press review found. All either targeted the loophole and failed to close it, or amended the mandatory reporting statute without touching the clergy privilege amid intense opposition from religious groups. The AP found that the Roman Catholic Church has used its well-funded lobbying infrastructure and deep influence among lawmakers in some states to protect the privilege, and that influential members of the Mormon church and Jehovah’s Witnesses have also worked in statehouses and courts to preserve in areas where their membership is high.

I wonder what a Mormon or JW Bishop would do if a man came to them and confessed that he had been raping their daughter?  Would he put a stop to it one way or another, or would he protect the church's reputation at the continued expense of his daughter? The point is, he should treat his neighbour's daughter as he would treat his own, otherwise, it is outright hypocrisy.

In Maryland a successful campaign to defeat a proposal that would have closed the clergy-penitent loophole was led by a Catholic cardinal who would later be defrocked for sexually abusing children and adult seminarians.

In other states, such as California, Missouri and New Mexico, vociferous public and backroom opposition to bills aimed at closing the loophole from the Catholic and Mormon churches successfully derailed legislative reform efforts.

“They believe they’re on a divine mission that justifies keeping the name and the reputation of their institution pristine,” said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, speaking of several religious groups. “So the leadership has a strong disincentive to involve the authorities, police or child protection people.”

LOOPHOLE PROTECTS CHURCHES FROM SURVIVORS AND PROSECUTORS

Last month, an AP investigation found that a Mormon bishop in Arizona, at the direction of church leaders, failed to report a church member who had confessed that he sexually abused his 5-year-old daughter. The AP found that Rep. Merrill Nelson, a church lawyer and Utah Republican lawmaker, had advised the bishop not to report the abuse to civil authorities because of Arizona’s clergy privilege law, according to documents revealed in a lawsuit. That failure to report allowed the church member, the late Paul Adams, to repeatedly rape his two daughters and allegedly abuse one of his four sons for many years.

There is much more on this story at AP

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A Priest, A Petting Zoo Guy, A Mormon, 3 New Yorkers on Today's P&P List

Priest who demanded homosexuals have a ‘celibate life’ suspended after being accused of molesting 15-year-old boy in the Bronx

Father Anthony Giuliano in September 2004

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA
GRAHAM RAYMAN
THOMAS TRACY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A priest who once said homosexuals had to live a “celibate life” to be good Catholics has been accused of molesting a 15-year-old boy at a Bronx church about 30 years ago.

But without a change to the statute of limitations on child sex abuse in New York, the alleged crimes committed by the man of the cloth will forever go unpunished.

Father Anthony Giuliano was running two parishes in Dutchess County — about 85 miles from Manhattan — on Aug. 16 when a 43-year-old man told police the priest had molested him in the late 1980s.

The Archdiocese of New York immediately removed him from the two parishes as the NYPD launched an investigation.

“The allegation has been found to be credible,” Reverend Gerald Walsh, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, to parishioners at St. John the Evangelist and St. Charles Borromeo churches, located in Pawling and Dover Plains.

The accuser told Bronx Special Victims Squad detectives that he was working in the rectory of Holy Rosary Church in Baychester between 1987 and 1988 when Giuliano befriended him. The two used to play wrestle, he told cops.

During one session, Giuliano told the teen that he was going to “take him to the back and give him a frontal,” according to police sources.

The teen thought Giuliano was talking about a wrestling maneuver — until the priest told him to lie down on the ground, pulled the teen's pants and underwear down and molested him, police sources said.

Even if sufficient evidence is found to support the accuser’s claims, New York’s statute of limitations bars authorities from filing charges. Victims of child sex abuse have until age 23 to bring a criminal or civil case.

In June, Albany legislators failed to vote on the Child Victims Act, which would have made it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice against their abusers, as well as the Catholic Church and schools. The long-stalled legislation would have created a one-year window for past victims of abuse to bring charges against their tormentors.

The Catholic League called the legislation “a vindictive bill pushed by lawyers and activists out to rape the Catholic Church.”

An odd choice of words - 'rape the church'. If the church had been as proactive in stopping the rape of children by pedophile priests as they are in stopping those children from getting justice, this world would be a much better place.

Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine if other, more recent victims of Giuliano can be found, police sources said.

“This is a shock,” the priest told the Daily News last month when the allegations surfaced. “It never happened.” When reached Tuesday, he refused to comment. The accuser also declined comment.

In an interview by a SUNY New Paltz student posted online in 2014, Giuliano said that homosexuals should be celibate if they want to be part of the Catholic Church. “It must be a celibate life like with the priesthood,” he said. “We are celibate for a greater purpose.”

He also questioned Pope Francis’ push to open the Catholic Church to same-sex couples. “We can’t say this for 2,000 years and then all of a sudden say, ‘Oh, we made a mistake for 2,000 years,’” Giuliano said.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of Bishop Accountability, said the Archdiocese of New York notoriously hides information, preventing a more complete picture of the extent of abuse among priests in the state.

“We know of very few accused priests in New York State,” Doyle said. “We know about more accused priests in the diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire than we do in the Archdiocese of New York.” 

    Baychester, NY

Former petting zoo employee indicted for

child sexual abuse

By Tom Smith Senior Staff Writer, Times Daily

FLORENCE – A man working with the pony ride of a traveling petting zoo has been indicted on multiple counts of child sexual abuse.

Daryl Victor Raymond Jr., 48, of School Street, Stockholm, Maine, has been indicted on six counts of unlawful sexual abuse of a child under 12.

According to the indictments, the children were are all girls between the ages of 3 and 6.

The indictments were issued during the recently concluded August grand jury session. In the indictments, Raymond is accused of subjecting a child under 12 to “sexual contact.”

Police said Raymond was arrested April 30 after an investigation into the allegations that he inappropriately touched the girls, who were riding the pony ride where he was working.

Raymond is in the Lauderdale County Detention Center on bail totaling $300,000. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Sept. 21 by Lauderdale County Circuit Judge Gil Self.

    Stockholm, Maine

New York man accused of child sex abuse

By WKTV

CANASTOTA N.Y. – A Canastota man has been arrested on several charges following a three-week investigation, according to the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.

Charles W. Pentland, 44, allegedly subjected a child younger than 11 years of age to sexual contact, the Sheriff’s Office said. He has been charged with felony criminal sexual act, felony sexual abuse, misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, misdemeanor sexual misconduct and misdemeanor forcible touching.

Pentland was arrested under an arrest warrant and was arraigned before the Village of Canastota Court. He was remanded to the Madison County Jail on $15,000 cash bail or $25,000 secured bond, and he is scheduled to answer the charges at a later date.

Members of the Madison County Child Protective Services and the Madison County Child Advocacy Center assisted sheriff’s investigators.

    Canastota, NY

Utah man accused of child sex abuse tells judge

how he found God

Timothy Morgan Butler, of Layton, appeared in Judge Glen Dawson's Second Distrtict courtroom with his standby council Julie George and Mark Arrington in Farmington on Tuesday, September 6, 2016. He turned to the public in the courtroom to say that we are all brothers and sisters. In July Butler pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
Image by: BRIANA SCROGGINS/Standard-Examiner

LORETTA PARK, Standard-Examiner Staff

FARMINGTON, Utah — A 56-year-old Layton man told a judge he found God when serving jail time 20 years ago when he read the Book of Mormon. 

I don't think he found my God

Timothy Morgan Butler spoke at a scheduled sentencing hearing before Judge Glen Dawson on Tuesday, Sept. 6, in 2nd District Court.

Butler, who is representing himself, asked if he could speak in court for a few minutes. Dawson had rescheduled the sentencing hearing for Sept. 20 because they had received the victim’s impact statement on Tuesday. Mark Arrington and Julie George have been appointed as stand-by council to help Butler with his case.

Butler accepted a plea deal on July 26. He entered guilty pleas to three counts of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, first-degree felonies, in 2nd District Court, according to online court records. Each felony Butler pleaded guilty to carries a possible sentence of three years to life in Utah State Prison. Butler said in court Tuesday that he was ordered to serve a year sentence in the Davis County Jail 20 years ago for a drug possession charge. At that time he said he didn’t believe in God. 

Three months into the sentence, Butler said he received work release and his fiancee would pick him up from the jail and drive him to his job in Salt Lake County because his driver’s license had been suspended. The woman broke off their engagement, Butler said, so he decided to drive himself to work.

“I made a stupid mistake,” Butler said.

That’s when he called his mother, but she refused to talk to him. Butler said his father spoke with him on the phone and told him to read the Book of Mormon.

Butler said he didn’t believe in God but decided to read the book, and he couldn’t put it down. He said he talked to his cellmate and he was "filled with the Holy Spirit of God."

“I knew there was a God,” Butler said.

Butler then went on to say that later when he was released from jail he read 1 Corinthians Chapter 7 in the Bible and went to a bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with questions concerning virgins. Butler said he was a member of the LDS Church at that time.

Butler claims that verses in that chapter claim when a virgin passes a certain age then a man can do what he wants, and he hasn't sinned.

That's not what the Bible says. The reference is to a man's daughters and whether she should be married or remain a virgin. Doing what you want with her would not allow her to remain a virgin. I'm curious as to what the Mormon bishop told him.

As Butler left the courtroom he said, “God bless you,” to Dawson for allowing him to speak in court.

Officers with the Layton Police Department arrested Butler on March 25, 2014, after a 10-year-old girl accused him of touching her inappropriately, court records say. He told officers he sexually abused another child under the age of 10 around the same time as the first child, according to court records.

During an interview with police, Butler told an officer “the Bible did not set limits on the age between two partners,” a probable cause statement filed with the court says.

The New Testament is not a book of rules. It is about having a relationship with Jesus Christ that is so intimate that one should never do what would be repugnant to Christ, not because it is against a rule, but just because you have surrendered your will to Jesus and you want what He wants. I think he missed that part.

Though Butler’s mental competency was questioned during the case, two psychiatrists found he was competent to stand trial. He has spent time at Utah State Hospital for mental health-related issues in the past.

New York Mills man accused of child sexual abuse

By WKTV


NEW YORK MILLS, N.Y. – A New York Mills man has been charged for allegedly sexually abusing a child after a five-year investigation.

David R. Burr, 37, was indicted by an Oneida County Grand Jury and charged with felony criminal sexual act for allegedly sexually abusing a 10-year-old in Utica, according to Chief Deputy Joseph Lisi.

Rome Police detectives Richard Galluppi and Jason Worth, both formerly assigned to the county Child Advocacy Center, led the investigation. They said that on January 20, 2011, Burr sexually abused the child in Utica.

A five year investigation? Five years? Wow!

The investigation involved numerous members of the Advocacy Center, including Child Protective Services caseworkers, victim advocates and counselors who assisted the victim throughout the investigation.

Burr was arrested on an indictment warrant by members of the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office Warants Division and he is being held in Oneida County Jail without bail.

The victim has been offered additional counseling through the Child Advocacy Center.

Utah Declares Porn a Public Health Hazard

From BBC US & Canada

High Angle View of Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Salt Lake City, Utah. Picture taken January 27, 2012. Reuters

Close to 63% of Utah's population is Mormon

The US state of Utah has become the first to declare pornography a public health risk in a move its governor says is to "protect our families and our young people".

The bill does not ban pornography in the mainly Mormon state.

However, it calls for greater "efforts to prevent pornography exposure and addiction".

One group representing the adult entertainment industry attacked what it called "an old-fashioned morals bill".

Pornography, the bill says, "perpetuates a sexually toxic environment" and "is contributing to the hypersexualisation of teens, and even prepubescent children, in our society".

Access to pornography by pre-pubescent boys is, in my opinion, one of the driving forces in today's 'culture of rape' that permeates our schools and universities.

Further steps must be taken to change "education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level" against what it calls an epidemic, but it does not suggest how changes should be implemented.

The bill was signed by Republican Governor Gary Herbert, who said the volume of pornography in society was "staggering".

One 2009 study by Harvard Business School said that Utah was the state with the highest percentage of online porn subscribers in the US.

Some studies have, however, indicated that porn may not be addictive. 

Gee, I wonder who funded those studies?

'Avoid stigmatism'

The bill was supported by the anti-porn campaign group Fight the New Drug. Reports have pointed out the group's founders are all members of the conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon Church.

Close to 63% of the state's residents are Mormon, but Fight the New Drug's leaders have denied working on behalf of the Mormon Church.

The Free Speech Coalition, a porn industry association, called for more dialogue.

"We should live in a society where sexuality is spoken about openly, and discussed in nuanced and educated ways, and not stigmatised," said Mike Stabile, a spokesman for the group.

That sounds reasonable! But that's not pornography.

"We all should work together to prevent non-adults from accessing adult material."

Indeed we should, but with today's technology, that is probably impossible without the complete elimination of pornography, and the odds of that happening are somewhere between Zero and None. As the world plunges headlong into the cesspool of immorality, it's unlikely that the attitude of Utah's state government will catch-on in other states.