Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Charged Christian institutions & contexts Latter-day Saint movements Livermore, California, USA · 2026

United States: former LDS bishop and boys' youth-group leader charged with abusing four boys over a decade

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Charged

Authority role

bishop, Livermore LDS ward, leader, church-affiliated boys' youth group

Organization

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Livermore ward)

Archive classification

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

Prosecutors allege Morris used his combined authority as bishop and as the boys' youth-group leader — dual roles giving him both congregational standing over the families and direct unsupervised custody of the boys during group activities — to select and isolate the four alleged victims.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2026-05-21 · charged, arraigned, pending trial

    Alameda County Superior Court, California, USA. Michael Morris, 76, was charged on 21 May 2026 with 18 counts of child sexual abuse against four alleged victims, arising from conduct alleged to have occurred between approximately 1991 and 2001 while he served as an LDS bishop in Livermore and supervised a church-affiliated boys' youth group. He was arrested 15 May 2026, posted roughly $1 million bail, and was arraigned; a further court date for entry of plea was set for 10 June 2026. No trial verdict exists as of this record.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • combined bishopric authority and direct supervisory control of a church youth group of boys, alleged to have been used to select and isolate victims

Cited record

Sources

regional broadcaster court reporting charging report KTVU FOX 2, 'Ex-Mormon bishop in Livermore charged with sexually assaulting boys over decade.'

Bay Area broadcaster's report on the charges, arrest, and arraignment, citing the Alameda County District Attorney's announcement.

regional broadcaster court reporting charging report CBS News San Francisco, 'Former Livermore LDS bishop charged with sexually abusing minors decades ago.'

Corroborating regional-broadcaster report on the same charges.

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.ktvu.com/news/former-livermore-lds-bishop-charged-sexually-assaulting-boys-over-decade Corpus classification: regional-broadcaster-court-reporting; evidentiary role: charging-report. SHA-256 95a7257b50d6a4a287c32db53d16e8de64c197c587b143e19cc735ae37d8057d
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/livermore-latter-day-saints-lds-bishop-child-sexual-assault-charges/ Corpus classification: regional-broadcaster-court-reporting; evidentiary role: charging-report. SHA-256 fbadfb5302b415599b91d73f63445a209dc909a7f9fc5d29196aec68f56d72f2
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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