Mormons banned accused molester from contacting children

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Mormons banned accused molester from contacting children

Michael Kunzelman and Elliot Spagat, Associated Press

Updated 11:45 pm, Thursday, January 28, 2016

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints banned a member of a San Diego congregation from contact with children years before his arrest this week on suspicion of being a former child television host known as "Mr. Wonder," who is accused of sexually abusing children during a camping trip in Louisiana nearly four decades ago.

Frank Szeles, as he was known in the San Diego area, was "removed from all positions related to children" after failing to comply with the church's child protection policies, Eric Hawkins, a church spokesman, said in an email Thursday.

After his removal, a parent expressed "a generalized concern" about the suspect's behavior toward a child and the church urged the parent to report it to authorities, said Hawkins. He said he didn't know if the parent reported it.

The church spokesman said Szeles belongs to a group of Mormon congregations in the San Diego area called the Sweetwater Stake. But Hawkins didn't indicate which positions Szeles held and said he couldn't elaborate on the nature of the alleged incidents.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Mormons-banned-accused-molester-from-contacting-6791821.php

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[dorkzilla]

1. Why is it so many of these molestation stories involve camping trips?

I know a few men who were molested as boys and every one of them were molested on a camping trip.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. You are away from other adults

and totally at the mercy of the one adult you are with.

[Nitram]

9. A close friend who is gay confided to me that he had his first gay experience on a camping trip.

I believe it was with another young man rather than an adult.

[tanyev]

2. They handled it through a church decree rather than the legal system of this country?

Hmm.

[Hoppy]

3. If the parent had specific behaviors, rather than a "generalized concern," the church would have

been responsible to report to authorities.

Reporting based on second hand information would have opened the church to slander or libel charges.

[christx30]

5. Yep.

"I feel creepy around him" is totally different from "I saw him take Billy into his office for 15 minutes".
But I'm glad the church actually was protecting children until something concrete happened.

[Andy823]

6. Other groups do it that way also

Jehovah's Witnesses also handle it within the religion, and in many cases simply send off the abuser to another congregation where they continue to molest children. They don't encourage reporting it to the authorities because it would make the "society" look bad.

[Xithras]

7. One of the Boy Scout troops in my town had a situation like this.

I was an ASM in another troop at the time and didn't know the guy, but we heard about it. Basically, some people thought the guy was "creepy". He was a middle aged man without any kids, who avoided talking to parents and who was accused of being "unusually friendly" with some of the Scouts he was working with. Lots of hugging, back slaps, that sort of thing. A very physical guy. He was also offering things that aren't part of a normal scouting program including help with their homework after school, offering them assistance with their various badges, etc. Nobody ever took him up on it and there was no allegations that he ever did anything inappropriate or illegal, but he creeped the parents out enough that the Scoutmaster asked him to leave the troop. When he tried to join another local troop a short while later (he was denied when that Scoutmaster contacted his old troop to get his background info), our regional council notified all of the local troops that he wasn't to be admitted (without specifying why), and he was added to a blacklist.

He wasn't reported to the police because there was nothing to report. Legally, he'd done nothing wrong. He just fit the profile of a predator and his behavior set off all sorts of alarm bells and worried parents. It's entirely possible that he was actually just a nice guy with boundary issues, but it's also possible that he was looking for potantial victims. The Scout troops erred on the side of protecting the kids BEFORE any abuse could take place.

"Being creepy" isn't a crime.

[Nye Bevan]

8. My kids and their friends know who the "creepy" teachers are.

There are some who I would never, ever agree to send my kids away with on a school trip. But it's not like I can go to the police and report these people for being "creepy".

It's always interesting when a teacher is arrested for child molestation; if you go to ratemyteacher.com and look them up, a lot of times the kids had a perception of the teacher's true character well before the arrest.