Charged Christian institutions & contexts Latter-day Saint movements Salt Lake County, UT, USA · 2025

Former LDS bishop Mark Lehnhof Stevens charged with assaulting a minor during religious counseling

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Record class

Context only

Evidence status

Charged

Authority role

LDS bishop

Organization

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

This record is retained as context. The cited evidence documents religious counseling, claimed divine instruction, and authority over a minor, but does not establish that spiritual doctrine, practice, or authority materially enabled the harm. The relevant recorded role is LDS bishop.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2025-02-03 · criminal charges

Third District Court, Salt Lake County, Utah. One forcible-sodomy count and two forcible-sexual-abuse counts charged; allegations are unproven.

Documented coercion mechanisms

religious counseling
claimed divine instruction
authority over a minor

Cited record

Sources

charging authority charging document Salt Lake County District Attorney, “Religious Leader Charged for Alleged 2006 Sexual Assault” (Feb. 3, 2025).: The charging release alleges that Stevens used his role as bishop and claimed divine instruction while assaulting a minor during a church counseling meeting. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
charging document court filing State of Utah v. Mark Lehnhof Stevens, Information, Salt Lake County District Attorney DAO 25.001307.: The filed information sets out the three charged counts and identifies the case as a pending criminal prosecution. The allegations have not been adjudicated.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.saltlakecounty.gov/district-attorney/press-release-archives/2025/religious-leader-charged-for-alleged-2006-sexual-assault/ Corpus classification: charging-authority; evidentiary role: charging-document. SHA-256 54121c1f1228c9d57ac567fe90063f1a5d4aa4c4db60e3fd3bf0e6402946ea75
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.saltlakecounty.gov/globalassets/1-site-files/district-attorney/documents/charges-filed/stevens-information.pdf Corpus classification: charging-document; evidentiary role: court-filing.
Retrieval: 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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