After a two-year legal battle with the BYU Police Department, Radio Free Mormon has finally succeeded in obtaining copies of audio recordings related to their investigation of former MTC President Joseph Bishop for allegedly raping a sister missionary in 1984. These recordings will be released in three parts. In Part 2, we release the recording of the interview conducted by BYU Police Department of Joseph Bishop at his home in Arizona in early December, 2017.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
This is sick. He is admitting he has several “issues” in his life. He would not share them until he knew what his punishment would be.
I am sickened that he went after very vulnerable, velnerable women. He hates the “femenist” side of her. Sounds like she really trusted him with some personal details and he took advantage of that. So typical of predators.
I think you have hit the nail on the head, Xena. When you actually get to hear Joseph Bishop in his own words, it is clear he is a manipulative person with a sex fixation and looks for any and every way he can to satisfy it. And yes, he preys on those he identifies as weak and helpless. Honestly, I have been thinking about this for the past several days, and I can’t imagine how Joseph Bishop could do this; these young women are there under his care and supervision; and what about their families who have put those young women there under his care and supervision? But none of those people, their feelings and their trust, seem to have mattered to Joseph Bishop. As long as he got what he wanted. It really is beyond words.
A few observations that are not backed by evidence, but just trying to be subjective:
1. Mckenna Denson is probably right about a lot of what happened in this particular incident, regardless of the lies she’s told since.
2. Joseph Bishop claiming he didn’t have sex or “rape” however you want to define that, is the same as someone watching porn telling their spouse or partner who catches them that they’ve only done it “once” or they didn’t actually do it, they just almost did it. It’s very hard to believe physiologically. There’s more there and the fact he told ecclesiastical leaders and not his spouse is exhibit A.
3. If he (jobish) didnt rape or assault these girls, and his sex life was probably a D- at home – im guessing he wasnt watching porn in 1981 on his iphone (humor). Im guessing he found it through other means.
4. This is not to excuse Joseph Bishops acts, but this is a classic example of how bad the LDS church and any suffocating religion for that matter can be at teaching sex. It’s possible his wife just didnt physically enjoy sex, regardless of faith, but it is also possible she was taught or had such a bad taste about sex that she had her own issues due to teachings of the church and due to this perfect storm, a sexually troubled man such as JB, was triggered and others were affected.
At the end of the day, these dudes are no different than the heathens we all are, regardless of their merits.
So many levels of church leaders involved and no action taken. The Second Anointing and Yale’s Skull and Bones Society have many of the same perks.
Hey, did you Robert D Hales was a bonesman? Through their sister society at the U of U. Secret combinations
This self admitted serial sexual offender should spend the rest of what he has remaining paying for what he did! what a bizarre expose of the way the mormon mentality has inappropriately enmeshed itself with law enforcement protocols and the Mormon church hierarchy! Just the fact that you had such an unusually difficult time getting these interviews made public, speaks to the ‘wagons circling’ in order to control any damaging information that could be used against them.
And Joseph Bishop’s unbelievable story and his self serving vagueness about what he recalls was just not credible at all. And pardon me while I throw up in reaction to his carefully worded and feigned humility and regret. And his wonder at how he, such a spiritual man, favoured of God, could have had these things happen….such passive , detached , unaccountable , victim language!
It’s a difficult legal situation , because i found his accuser’s interview with the police problematic in many ways as well. Many red flags went up for me in the telling of her version of events.
In any case, if you just take what they both agree on, isn’t there enough to do something in the name of justice??? the truth is that the perpetrators and victims of these crimes are inescapably damaged persons, so it’s messy.
it’s a difficult
You make a lot of good points here, Angie. The one I especially resonate with is why it should take so long to have a standard public disclosure request granted. The answer is because this request is not standard. It would be standard in any other case. But because the request is for information that could implicate the LDS Church, suddenly it is not standard at all and two-years of fighting with lawyers has to go by before we can get what would under other circumstances have been handed over within a month of the original request. Something is rotten in the State of Deseret!
I’m listening to this and thinking these “law enforcement” folks are also church employees. There is no reason a church owned police department should be the investigators on this. On top of that, this interview was in December 2017. When the story broke in early 2018, the church issued a press release that hung Denson out to dry as a disaffected former member so nothing to see here. And yet they knew about this interview, that there where other victims, and something was definitely rotten with Joe Bishop. The church victimized Denson again; their deceit in this episode was a watershed event for me.
I share your disgruntlement over this entire episode, Dave. For me, the story was not so much the sexual assault allegations. The story was always the cover-up by the church. I believe the evidence suggests the church was involved in the Procrustean redactions made by BYUPD in their police reports when responding to public disclosure requests, a subject I have treated elsewhere.
Am I missing something? When did he admit to sexual assault? I’m not justifying this guy, but after all we know about Densen (which, by the way, was extremely disappointing and gained me some mockery from my TBM friends), I can’t help but listening to her as a conniving person who is desperate for attention. She talks about how her story is going to be in the national news, and stuff like that, which makes you think that THAT’s what she was after all along. And the guy, just sounds like an old cook, which makes him endearing, and it kind of made me glad when he put his foot down in the last call and said “no, I didn’t do that.”
This whole thing is a mess, but, again, I never heard him admit to anything.
I did not hear Joseph Bishop admit to sexual assault on McKenna Denson, though he does admit to what I would consider sexual assault on a second unnamed sister missionary (giving her a back rub that extended to her buttocks). As to McKenna Denson, Joseph Bishop did not admit to sexual assault, but only sexual misconduct. I attempted to be careful in making that distinction in my podcast.