Post by Logan on Jun 7, 2016 20:17:41 GMT -6
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A fourth Navajo is suing the LDS Church, alleging religious leaders didn't do enough to protect him from sexual abuse he endured by his foster father in a now-defunct church program that placed thousands of American Indian children with Latter-day Saint families.
The man says in a complaint filed this week in Navajo Nation court that he reported the abuse that occurred in the late 1970s in Northern Utah to workers in the church program, but he was told to remain at the home.
The man, who is identified as L.K. in the lawsuit, said he felt relief to discover that he wasn't alone when he read an article in March about two Navajo siblings who filed the first lawsuit making similar allegations. He has spent most his adult life trying to avoid facing the abuse, struggling with feelings of inferiority, he said Tuesday after a news conference held by his attorney and sexual abuse prevention advocates.
"It's horrible. You relive it. You see the person who did this. You see their silhouette," he said about abuse that occurred when he was a seventh-grader. "It broke me. When a Native American is broken, he has to fix himself."
Read more: news.hjnews.com/ap/state/lds-church-sued-by-th-navajo-alleging-sexual-abuse/article_3c34e702-8711-5cb0-ba60-66260aec44e4.html
The man says in a complaint filed this week in Navajo Nation court that he reported the abuse that occurred in the late 1970s in Northern Utah to workers in the church program, but he was told to remain at the home.
The man, who is identified as L.K. in the lawsuit, said he felt relief to discover that he wasn't alone when he read an article in March about two Navajo siblings who filed the first lawsuit making similar allegations. He has spent most his adult life trying to avoid facing the abuse, struggling with feelings of inferiority, he said Tuesday after a news conference held by his attorney and sexual abuse prevention advocates.
"It's horrible. You relive it. You see the person who did this. You see their silhouette," he said about abuse that occurred when he was a seventh-grader. "It broke me. When a Native American is broken, he has to fix himself."
Read more: news.hjnews.com/ap/state/lds-church-sued-by-th-navajo-alleging-sexual-abuse/article_3c34e702-8711-5cb0-ba60-66260aec44e4.html