Family apologizes after sexual abuse arrest [Lds bishop]

Heber City » Minutes after a judge ordered 68-year-old Village of Hope co-founder Lon Harvey Kennard held without bail on charges that he sexually abused two of his adopted daughters Wednesday, his family issued a public apology.

Verl Kennard, one of Kennard's six biological children, provided a prepared statement outside the courtroom and said the family was badly shaken but holding together.

"We want him to pay for what he's done," Verl Kennard said of his father. "And we want him to get help."

The statement reads: "The recent arrest of Lon Harvey Kennard, Sr., who in the past has been a respected citizen, is devastating. Mr. Kennard's family is supporting the investigation and stands united together through this extremely difficult time. The family apologizes to all the good people, friends, and associates, who along with the family have had their trust betrayed by Lon Senior's alleged deviant actions and secret life. They request that the media allow them the privacy they need to put their lives back together."

Deputy Wasatch County Attorney Tricia Lake told 4th District Judge Derek Pullan that Kennard, who has a home in Ethiopia, should remain in the Wasatch County Jail.

"Because of the pervasiveness, length of time and multiple victims, the defendant should remain confined until trial," she said.

Pullan ruled the 30-year Heber City resident, who with his wife created an Ethiopian orphanage and adopted six Ethiopian children, was a flight risk and also posed a risk to his alleged victims.

Kennard is charged with 25 counts of first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child, 21 counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of witness tampering. According to court documents, the abuse was ongoing between 1995 and 2002. During that time frame, Kennard served as a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bishop.

Kennard on Wednesday told the court he had not retained an attorney because it was too expensive. But Pullan said Kennard did not qualify for a state-appointed counsel, citing his ownership of a house valued at $500,000.

Pullan ordered Kennard to hire an attorney, but appointed public defender Dana Facemyer to represent him during Wednesday's hearing.

In the early 1990s, Kennard and his wife, DeAnna, adopted six Ethiopian children. They already had six biological children. All 12 are now adults. Following the adoptions, the Kennards launched Village of Hope Ethiopia in a small area called Kersa Illala, 200 miles south of Addis Ababa.

Village of Hope brought fresh water and health care to the area and established an orphanage. In April 2009, The Salt Lake Tribune wrote a story featuring the endeavor.

But on March 6 one of Kennard's adoptive daughters called authorities to report that she and a sister were victims of sexual abuse "many times over many years," according to a probable cause statement from the Wasatch County Sheriff's Office.

An adoptive son found nude pictures and videos on Kennard's computer and made copies, the statement said. On March 7, according to the statement, authorities were provided with 31 photographs and videos that investigators allege constitute child pornography involving one of the daughters beginning at age 14 and another 14-year-old girl.

Other family members told investigators they, too, had been abused by Kennard, according to the probable cause statement. No charges have been filed in connection with those allegations.

Pullan ruled the 30-year Heber City resident, who with his wife created an Ethiopian orphanage and adopted six Ethiopian children, was a flight risk and also posed a risk to his alleged victims.

When Mormon 'Prophet' and second President of the Church, Brigham Young, spoke in 1863 the following was also said:

"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God is death on the spot. This will always be so."
(Journal of Discourses, Vo. 10, p. 110)

(I wonder if anyone pines for the Good Ole Days?)

August 27, 1954 in an address at Brigham Young University (BYU), Mormon Elder, Mark E. Peterson, in speaking to a convention of teachers of religion at the college level, said:

"...if the negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory." "The discussion on civil rights, especially over the last 20 years, has drawn some very sharp lines. It has blinded the thinking of some of our own people, I believe. They have allowed their political affiliations to color their thinking to some extent.I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after."
"He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn't just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn't that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people. From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage."
"That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, 'First we pity, then endure, then embrace'...."

Sometime before the 'revelation' came to chief 'Prophet' Spencer Kimball in June 1978, General Authority, Bruce R. McConkie had said:

"The Blacks are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty.
The Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow there from, but this inequality is not of man's origin, it is the Lord's doings."
(Mormon Doctrine, pp. 526-527).

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