The Truth and Transparency foundation is out with a report exposing high level pedophilia:
While at a sleepover with a friend in 1993, David woke up in the middle of the night to something that would haunt him for the rest of his life. His friend’s dad had his hand down his pants and was rubbing his penis. He jumped up and ran to the bathroom. He was scared and did not know what to do. He spent the rest of the night locked in the bathroom and the next 26 years traumatized by the events of that evening.
The perpetrator was Sterling Van Wagenen, a Mormon film producer and co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and, while he made a full confession of the crime to both his religious leader and the police, he never completely faced justice. More importantly, David was never given the resources to properly cope with the trauma and heal.
In an audio recording obtained by the Truth & Transparency Foundation (TTF), Van Wagenen describes a double life he lived for decades. When asked if he is a pedophile, Van Wagenen denies that label, but admits to multiple extramarital affairs with both men and women. He also admits to one single instance of sex abuse perpetrated on a minor. That minor was David.
Local CBS affiliate KUTV 2News report on the claim:
(UPDATE 2/4/19 3:23 p.m.) -- 2News reached out to the Sundance Institute, which issued this statement from a spokesperson:
"Sundance Institute always stands in solidarity with those whose brave truth-telling shines light on abusive behavior. Recent reports in the press have made us aware of an admission of sexual abuse by Sterling Van Wagenen, who played a role in founding both the Festival and the Institute. He has no current connection to either entity, and hasn't since he left our Utah Advisory Board in 1993. We categorically denounce his behavior as described in recent reports."
(UPDATE 2/4/19 1:38 p.m.) -- 2News reached out to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for a comment.
The Church replied saying they would not comment on this story.
(KUTV) -- A story published Monday by The Truth & Transparency Foundation, a website founded by two ex-Mormons who also founded Mormon Leaks, claims a co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and director of two video used in the secretive LDS temple endowment ceremony, admits to molesting a child in the early 1990s.
The abuse allegations are against Sterling Van Wagenen a BYU grad, co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival with Robert Redford, director of the Academy Award winning film "The Trip to Bountiful" and the man who was hired by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to direct new videos for the LDS temple endowment ceremony in 2013.
Van Wagenen is currently a professor and lecturer at The University of Utah.
The website posted an audio recording, allegedly of Sterling Van Wagenen, admitting to the abuse.
I archived all the pages of this guy's University of Utah bio before it gets scrubbed, in case anyone wants to investigate his associations. You can find them here.
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WalnutSauceGoat ago
Thanks for posting. Btw, Robert Redford is related by marriage to Sterling Van Wagenen.
Vindicator ago
Really? That is interesting. Before I posted this, I did a SearchVoat and thought it odd we'd never had any mention of Van Wagenen in any previous post.
WalnutSauceGoat ago
I, too, found it odd. I also searched my own (extensive) archives, and the only(!) hit I got was a quote in a book on my hard drive called The Solaris Effect, by Steven Dillon. The quote is on page 53:
*Involved in the festival, almost from the beginning, was local resident Robert Redford, who had purchased land in the Wasatch Mountains as far back as 1969. Redford, related by marriage to Sterling Van Wagenen, the festival’s first director, was chairman of the board of directors and the key figure in eventually having his cultural-minded, multidisciplinary arts organization, the Sundance Institute, take on the festival in 1985, and eventually change the name in 1991. *
But that's all I know.
EricKaliberhall ago
Hey @WalnutSauceGoat,
Have you seen ESOTERICshade? He is sporting a new fabulous blood-red shade... What color would you prefer?
WalnutSauceGoat ago
Jeez, man... what’s wrong with you?
EricKaliberhall ago
I wil brand you. For being an active alt used by ES... I'll let you choose the color all by youself... I am a gentleman. Not some savage.
WalnutSauceGoat ago
Why are you downvoating legit posts, then? I’m not even wasting a downvoate on you, James Alefantis.
EricKaliberhall ago
Are you accusing me, EricKaliberhall of being James Alefantis? Blame your enemy for what you yourself Is guilty of... Now is as good a time as any; WalnutSauceGoat are you in fact James Alefantis?