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.
view the rest of the comments →
notdivided ago
The temple videos are incredibly important to the mormon church and it's membership. As an executive producer to the mormon church Van Wagenen's "status" is outstandingly important compared to regional leadership (called Seventies) that are considered "high ranking." The endowment ceremony is a secret ritual that all adult mormons in good standing in the church participate in, part of the ceremony is viewing this video. Van Wagenen produced multple temple vidoes that are shown in all of the 100 plus temples around the world. He also served on panels for the national endowment for the humanities and national endowment for the arts. He also continued to work at BYU after the church was aware of his pedophilia.
http://archive.is/Ax2aY
Van Wagenen's son has been head of another church media arm- Excel Entertainment part of Deseret Books. Their family influence on mormon media is extensive. They are considered authorities in the subject as you can see in this mormon matters podcast where they outline and discuss the mormon film entities: http://archive.is/Pli4v
more archived bio with people he knows/worked with: http://archive.is/hSQi1
Yes this church has extensive history covering up abuse: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/search?q=sex%20abuse&restrict_sr=1
There is a ton to be gleaned from r/exmormon posts about this leak: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/search?q=van%20wagenen&restrict_sr=1
taped confession audio: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/an2l5v/mormonleaks_releases_audio_of_sterling_van/
I'm not sure what all has been posted in the past about mormon sex abuse coverups. If you feel like going down the rabbit hole Joseph Bishop was also caught on tape confessing to raping female missionaries while he was the president of the missionary training center. The church also covered up these allegations and despite a public uproar he is still a member in good standing as far as I have seen.
It's important to understand in mormon ritual called the second anointing that makes you essentially untouchable on earth, forgiven of all your prior and future sins. Its a tongue in cheek joke that this position might encourage leaders to become rapists, but it might not be far off base. I haven't heard rumors of this on Van Wagenen yet but I also wouldn't be surprised considering his station.
7th generation mormon here.