Herrod continued to counsel MJ’s father, Paul Douglas Adams, for another year, and brought in Adams’ wife, Leizza Adams, in hopes she would do something to protect the children. “They said, ‘You absolutely can do nothing,’” Herrod said in a recorded interview with law enforcement. In the case of Paul Adams, who repeatedly raped his two daughters, a bishop called the help line and was told to keep the abuse secret, because Adams admitted to the abuse during confession. But help line calls are often referred to a law firm that represents the church and is responsible for alerting the church to potentially costly sexual abuse lawsuits. In 1995, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established a “help line” for bishops and other church leaders seeking guidance on reporting allegations of child sexual abuse. Two disconnected pay phones stand near the post office in Bisbee, Ariz., Oct. Lawyers for the church, widely known as the Mormon church, who staff the help line around the clock told Bishop John Herrod not to call police or child welfare officials.

The bishop, who was also a family physician, followed church policy and called what church officials have dubbed the “help line” for guidance.īut the call offered little help for MJ. The father, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an admitted pornography addict, was in counseling with his bishop when he revealed the abuse. (AP) - MJ was a tiny, black-haired girl, just 5 years old, when her father admitted to his bishop that he was sexually abusing her.

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