Arizona Priest Sexual Abuse Lawsuit: Diocese Settlements and LDS Case

Lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests and clergy in Arizona have produced diocesan bankruptcies, criminal indictments, and settlements worth tens of millions of dollars, and a 2019 state law briefly reopened the courthouse doors to survivors whose claims had expired. An Arizona priest sexual abuse lawsuit today may be filed against a Catholic diocese, a religious order, or another faith organization such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a case now before the Arizona Supreme Court will decide how far the state’s clergy-penitent privilege can go in shielding those institutions from liability.

How Long Arizona Survivors Have to Sue

In May 2019, Governor Doug Ducey signed House Bill 2466, the Child Victims Act, which took effect immediately.¹ The law extended the civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse from two years after the victim turned 18 to twelve years, meaning survivors can now file suit until they reach age 30.²

The 2019 law also opened a one-time lookback window that revived previously time-barred claims and let survivors file them through December 31, 2020. That window has closed. Claims filed under it face a higher evidentiary bar than ordinary civil suits: plaintiffs must prove their case by “clear and convincing evidence,” and punitive damages are not available.¹ A survivor suing a diocese, school, or other non-perpetrator institution must also show that the institution had actual notice or knowledge of the risk of abuse.³

A wave of new suits followed. In November 2020, Annette Slade sued the Diocese of Phoenix alleging abuse by a music teacher at St. Thomas the Apostle School around 1970, and a plaintiff identified as John RJ Doe sued the same diocese over alleged abuse by a Eucharistic minister at St. William’s Parish in Cashion between 1984 and 1986.⁴ Days later, a plaintiff identified as Jane CE Doe sued over alleged abuse by Father Jorge Washington Cordova, a fugitive Phoenix priest who had recruited young women and children into a group called “Las Consecradas” in the 1990s. According to the complaint, the plaintiff’s mother reported the abuse to a diocesan chancellor around 1993 and was told she would get a “reputation” if she pursued it. Cordova fled to Ecuador before he could be arrested, a 2007 attempt to extradite him from Spain failed because Spanish authorities deemed the allegations “too old,” and he died in 2018.⁵

The Tucson Diocese Bankruptcy and $22.2 Million Settlement

The Diocese of Tucson became one of the first Catholic dioceses in the United States to file for bankruptcy protection over clergy sexual abuse. It filed Chapter 11 on September 20, 2004, facing more than 50 abuse claims and mounting civil lawsuits. The bankruptcy plan was confirmed on August 1, 2005 and produced a $22.2 million settlement. Individual survivors or their families received between $15,000 and $600,000 depending on the severity of the abuse, with 14 of the most severely affected survivors each receiving at least $200,000.⁶

The bankruptcy came after the diocese had already paid substantial civil settlements. In January 2002, it settled out of court with 10 men for $14 million over allegations of sexual abuse by local priests during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.⁷ The diocese’s published list of credibly accused personnel includes more than 40 names, spanning diocesan priests, deacons, members of religious orders such as the Franciscan Friars and Paulist Fathers, and at least one lay employee.⁸

The best-known figure in the Tucson scandal was Monsignor Robert C. Trupia, whom diocesan officials themselves described as a “notorious and serial sexual predator” said to have abused at least 30 boys across assignments in Yuma, Tucson, and a California seminary.⁹ He held high-ranking diocesan positions, including Vice Chancellor and Judicial Vicar, while internal complaints were repeatedly dismissed. Trupia was arrested in Yuma in January 2001 on seven felony counts of child molestation, but the charges were dropped the following day because the criminal statute of limitations had expired.⁷ The Vatican stripped him of his priesthood in 2004, and evidence later revealed that the diocese had continued sending him monthly payments even while he was evading investigators.

The Diocese of Phoenix: Indictments and a Bishop’s Immunity Deal

A yearlong Maricopa County grand jury investigation led to the indictment of six Phoenix-area priests for child sexual abuse in 2003.¹⁰ Three were arrested, two were believed to be fugitives in Ireland and Mexico, and one was deceased.¹¹

The investigation also reached Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien, who on May 3, 2003 signed an immunity agreement with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to avoid criminal prosecution. O’Brien publicly admitted that he knew of sexual abuse accusations against priests but transferred them to new assignments without notifying their new supervisors or parishioners. The deal required O’Brien to appoint an independent advocate to handle sex-abuse complaints and a moderator to run the diocese’s day-to-day operations, and it obligated the diocese to pay for victim counseling. Interference would allow the county attorney to void the agreement and prosecute him.¹¹

Dale Fushek and Life Teen

Dale Fushek, founder of the international youth ministry Life Teen and former vicar general of the Diocese of Phoenix, had his priestly faculties suspended in late 2004 after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a minor in 1985, and he resigned as pastor of St. Timothy Parish in Mesa in June 2005.¹² In November 2005, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office filed 10 charges including assault, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and indecent exposure. In April 2010, Fushek pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of assault and was sentenced to 364 days of probation and a $250 fine. The plea let him avoid sex-offender registration. A separate $45,000 settlement had been paid in 1996 to another accuser.¹³ Pope Benedict XVI ordered Fushek’s laicization in 2010 for the sexual abuse of minors.

Father Jack Spaulding

Father John “Jack” Spaulding was removed from ministry in 2011 after the Diocese of Phoenix found allegations from multiple accusers credible.¹⁴ A Church tribunal found him guilty in 2014.¹⁵ In 2012, the father of accuser David Michael Pain Jr., who died at 39 in 2010 after what the lawsuit called a “downward spiral” following the abuse, sued the diocese, former Bishop O’Brien, and Spaulding. In January 2020, a Maricopa County grand jury indicted Spaulding, then 74, on six counts of sexual misconduct with a minor and one count of child molestation, all Class 2 felonies, based on allegations he abused two boys under 15 at St. Gabriel’s in Phoenix and St. Tim’s in Mesa between 2003 and 2007.¹⁶ He died on February 25, 2020, before the case reached trial.¹⁷

Joseph Henn

Joseph John Henn, a former Salvatorian priest who served at St. Mark Parish in Phoenix from 1978 to 1982, was indicted in 2003 on 13 counts of child sexual molestation involving at least three boys under 15.¹⁸ He fled to Italy, was apprehended in Rome in 2005, and then vanished again from house arrest at a Salvatorian residence. He was arrested a second time in Rome on May 28, 2019 and formally arraigned in Maricopa County Superior Court on June 14, 2019 on the original 13 charges.¹⁹

The Gallup Diocese Bankruptcy Reached Arizona Parishes

The Diocese of Gallup, which serves roughly 60,000 parishioners across parts of New Mexico and Arizona, including several Native American reservations, filed Chapter 11 in November 2013 after confirming 31 cases of abuser priests active in its region between 1939 and 2005.²⁰²¹

A reorganization plan approved in June 2016 provided approximately $22 million in compensation for 57 claimants, funded by insurance carriers, the diocese, parishes, property sales including the chancery building, and contributions from religious orders and other dioceses (including $300,000 from the Diocese of Phoenix).²⁰ Legal fees for the two-and-a-half-year bankruptcy were estimated at about $3.5 million.²²

The settlement carried non-monetary terms rarely seen in earlier diocesan resolutions. Gallup agreed to publicly list credibly accused priests on its website for at least 10 years, to refer to claimants as “survivors” rather than “alleged” victims, and to prohibit confidentiality clauses in future settlements unless a survivor requested one. The bishop was required to personally sign apology letters to every claimant and to visit parishes where abuse occurred to meet with survivors.²⁰

The LDS Adams Case and the Fight Over Clergy-Penitent Privilege

Arizona’s most consequential pending clergy abuse case does not involve the Catholic Church. In 2011, Paul Douglas Adams, a U.S. Border Patrol employee in Bisbee, confessed to his bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that he was sexually abusing his five-year-old daughter, identified in court as MJ.²³ Bishop John Herrod called the church’s internal help line, routed to the law firm Kirton McConkie, and was told he could not report the abuse. Herrod later told investigators, “They said, ‘You absolutely can do nothing.'”²⁴

Herrod arranged a meeting where Adams repeated the confession to his wife, Leizza. A successor bishop, Robert “Kim” Mauzy, learned of the abuse in 2012 and also did not report it. Adams was excommunicated in 2013 after admitting the abuse at a church disciplinary hearing attended by clergy and non-clergy members.²⁵ The abuse continued. In 2015, Leizza Adams gave birth to a second daughter, and according to reporting by the Associated Press, Paul Adams began assaulting that infant six weeks later.²³ Adams was arrested in February 2017 after New Zealand authorities discovered videos he had posted online and died by suicide in custody. Leizza Adams pleaded no contest, served two and a half years, and was released in October 2020.²⁴

Three of Adams’ children sued the LDS Church and former bishops Herrod and Mauzy in 2020, alleging the church bore responsibility for allowing the abuse to continue for years. A Cochise County judge dismissed the case in 2023, ruling that the bishops’ knowledge was protected by Arizona’s clergy-penitent privilege.²⁶

On July 29, 2025, an Arizona Court of Appeals panel unanimously reversed that dismissal and sent the case back for trial. The three appellate judges ruled that a jury should decide whether Adams’s disclosures qualified as protected confessions, pointing to two facts: Adams had confessed in a meeting that included his wife, and he later admitted the abuse during his excommunication proceeding where non-clergy were present. A jury could reasonably find, the court held, that Adams “voluntarily waived the clergy-penitent privilege.”²⁵ The court also cited the LDS Church’s own handbook, which permits bishops to report information “when disclosure is necessary to prevent life threatening harm or serious injury.”²⁶

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has said it will appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court, which accepted the petition under Case No. CV-25-0213-PR.²⁷ The court’s ruling will shape whether future Arizona lawsuits can hold religious institutions liable for failing to report abuse disclosed to clergy.

What Arizona Law Requires Clergy to Report

Under A.R.S. § 13-3620, members of the clergy are mandatory reporters who must immediately report suspected child abuse to law enforcement, the Department of Child Safety, or a tribal agency. Failure to report a sex-related offense is a Class 6 felony.²⁸

The statute contains an exemption that sits at the center of the Adams litigation. Clergy may withhold reporting a “confidential communication or a confession” if they determine it is “reasonable and necessary within the concepts of the religion.” The exemption covers communications only, not a clergy member’s own observations of a child, and Arizona’s mandatory-reporter training materials note that the presence of a third party during the communication may void the privilege.²⁹

Arizona Senator Victoria Steele, a Democrat from Tucson, introduced legislation beginning in 2020 to eliminate the clergy-penitent exemption. Senate Bill 1008, filed in 2021, would have required clergy of all faiths to report suspected abuse and removed the confessional exception. It was assigned to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and never received a hearing, the same outcome as her identical 2020 proposal.³⁰ As of 2026, the clergy-penitent exemption remains in Arizona law.³¹

1
Arizona Mirror. Legislature Unanimously Approves Sexual Abuse Bill, Breaks Budget Logjam
2
Arizona Legislature. HB 2466
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Arizona Legislature. HB 2466 Senate Engrossed Summary
4
Anderson Advocates. Two Lawsuits Filed Against Diocese of Phoenix Under Arizona Child Victims Act
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Anderson Advocates. Fugitive Phoenix Priest and Leader of Las Consecradas Named in Sexual Abuse Lawsuit
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Reveal. Catholic Dioceses Declare Bankruptcy on Eve of Sexual Abuse Trials
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Tucson.com. Monsignor Robert C. Trupia and the Tucson Diocese Scandal
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Diocese of Tucson. Credibly Accused
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BishopAccountability.org. Trupia, Robert C.
10
New York Times. Bishop of Phoenix Admits Transfers of Accused Priests
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CBS News. Phoenix Bishop Makes a Deal
12
NCR Online. Priest Founder of Life Teen Youth Ministry Laicized
13
East Valley Tribune. The Epic Dale Fushek Sexual Misbehavior Case Is Settled
14
ABC News. Phoenix Catholic Diocese Sued Over Man’s Abuse, Death
15
Diocese of Phoenix. Community Notification Statements and Lists
16
Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Spaulding Indictment
17
Catholic Sun. Diocese of Phoenix Statement on Death of John Jack D. Spaulding
18
The Catholic Spirit. Former Priest Arrested in Italy, Extradited to Arizona, Formally Arraigned
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Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. Joseph John Henn Arraignment
20
Diocese of Gallup. Chapter 11 Settlement
21
Crux. Diocese of Gallup Sells Chancery Building to Fund Abuse Payments
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ABI. Gallup Diocese Clergy Abuse Settlement Approved
23
AP Images Blog. Seven Years of Sex Abuse: How Mormon Officials Let It Happen
24
Floodlit.org. Paul Douglas Adams Case
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Arizona Capitol Times. Appeals Court Overrules LDS Church Position, Jury Needs to Hear Details of Child Abuse
26
Axios. Mormon Sex Abuse Reporting Clergy Privilege Lawsuit Arizona
27
Arizona Courts. Jane Doe I et al. v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
28
Arizona Legislature. A.R.S. § 13-3620
29
Arizona Department of Child Safety. Mandated Reporter Training: Religions Overview
30
Arizona Mirror. Bill Would Eliminate Clergy Privilege, Require Reporting of Child Abuse
31
Arizona Legislature. A.R.S. § 13-3620