A Cochise County judge has ordered that the personnel file of a former U.S. Border Patrol agent must be disclosed to attorneys representing several children of another USBP agent who killed himself in 2017 while awaiting trial on sexual molestation and child pornography charges.
Judge Laura Cardinal made the ruling on Oct. 12 at the end of a contentious hearing involving a lawsuit filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), two former bishops for the Bisbee Ward, and Shaunice Warr, whose role with the LDS Relief Society in Bisbee required her to have frequent contact with Leizza Adams, the wife of fellow USBP agent Paul Adams.
It is undisputed that years before his suicide, Paul Adams admitted to the two bishops -John Herrod and Kim Mauzy- that he was routinely engaging in and recording the sexual abuse of children. Three of Adams’ children filed the lawsuit in November 2020, alleging that church officials should have notified law enforcement about the ongoing sexual abuse.
At issue is a state law which the Church interprets as prohibiting such reporting because information of the abuse was received as “a confidential communication or a confession” which could not be violated without the permission of Paul Adams or his wife.
The children’s attorneys requested that Warr share her USBP employment records to show what she knew about the abuse and what she may have told USBP officials. Cardinal rejected an argument from Warr’s attorney that the records were unrelated to the lawsuit, and ordered that she turn over the materials.
Cardinal also ruled during the Oct. 12 hearing that the children’s attorneys had alleged sufficient information to amend the lawsuit to add a count of civil conspiracy against the Church. The judge noted the threshold was low for making an amendment and that the conspiracy count may not survive a motion to dismiss challenge in the future.
In addition, Cardinal ordered Church attorneys to provide the children’s attorneys a list of all LDS officials and church-related healthcare or mental health professionals who spoke to Herrod and Mauzy when the bishops called for advice in handling Adams’ admissions of abuse.
The lawsuit also includes two medical negligence counts related to the fact Herrod was a longtime physician in Sierra Vista and he may have treated one or more of the children. An attorney representing Herrod and his wife contends the plaintiffs o provided insufficient evidence for gaining access to the medical office’s records, even though the only way the children could prove treatment was provided is via records controlled by the physician.
Cardinal will hear arguments on Dec. 1 on that issue. She will also rule then on whether the Church’s attorneys can block the children’s attorneys from taking a sworn deposition of the federal lead investigator. And Cardinal will rule on whether Church officials must turn over all files related to Paul Adams’ LDS membership and his subsequent excommunication.
It was disclosed during the Oct. 12 hearing that the federal agent who served as the main investigator into Paul Adams has audio recording of his interviews with the two bishops. Whether a jury ever hears those tapes is something Cardinal will likely not rule on for several months.
Last week’s hearing was the first that Cardinal presided over in the case. She became the assigned judge in July after the defendants pushed for Judge Jason Lindstrom’s recusal after it was revealed Lindstrom and his wife were previously registered as LDS Church members in Sierra Vista. Lindstrom’s mother-in-law had also been a Church member in Bisbee when Herrod and Mauzy were bishops there.
But before recusing himself from the case, Lindstrom ruled Warr must turn over thousands of text messages between herself and Leizza Adams. The number of messages is in excess of 14,000, according to court records.
Attorneys for the Church defendants, including Warr, also recently filed a legal notice asserting there could be parties not being sued who were at fault “for causing or contributing to” the abuse suffered by Adams’ children. The filing puts the court on notice that Leizza Adams, Paul Adams, and an elderly church member could also be found liable for the abuse even though they are not named in the lawsuit.
When arrested in February 2017, Paul Adams described his conduct, including graphic details of his sexual acts with an infant daughter born after the LDS bishops knew abuse was occurring in the household. He was found hanging in a federal pretrial detention facility in December 2017 and died at a hospital.
Leizza Adams served 2.5 years in state prison for her role in failing to protect her children from the abuse. She no longer has parental rights to any of her six children.
The Arizona law does not address whether the mandatory reporting “confessional” exemption applies only to admissions of past abuse, or whether reporting is required when a clergy member has reason to believe a child is being subjected to ongoing criminal sexual abuse.
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