Seattle - A local attorney said former leaders at Kent's Second Ward, which is part of the Mormon Church, knew that a Boy Scout leader and church member was raping boys in the mid-1970s but did not report it to authorities.
In King County court this week, a civil lawsuit was filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on behalf of a victim identified only by the initials R.D.B.
R.D.B. is now 46. He said he when he was a teenager he was sexually abused by Mormon Church member and scout leader Jack Loholt.
According to the lawsuit, Loholt is a twice-convicted compulsive sexual predator of children who has since fled to a remote area of Canada.
Attorney Timothy Kosnoff specializes in child abuse cases.
Kosnoff said for six years Mormon Church leaders knew of complaints of Loholt's inappropriate contact with boys but did not report it to authorities and did not remove Loholt from the scouting program.
"It wasn't that they hid him. In this case it appears as if they served up victims readily to him (Loholt)," said Kosnoff.
