Paul Adams — Bisbee, Arizona (charged; died before trial; never convicted)
A Latter-day Saint member who confessed abuse to his bishop in 2010/2011, was not reported, and abused for some seven more years. Federal agents arrested him in 2017; he died by suicide in jail before trial and was never convicted.
Latter-day Saints Charged — died before trial
- Person
- Paul Adams
- Role
- Member
- Institution
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — Bisbee, Arizona
- Location
- Bisbee, Arizona
- Status
- Arrested and charged (2017); died by suicide in custody before trial — NEVER convicted
- Note
- No conviction exists in this case; the civil privilege litigation continued into 2026
Case in brief
Tier 2 · Attributed allegations — with a documented procedural record
Paul Adams was never convicted. He died before trial, and this file does not describe him as a convicted offender. What is documented — by the Associated Press's review of sealed court records and by the civil litigation record — is the sequence: a confession to a bishop, a help-line call, no report to authorities, years of continued abuse, and an arrest that came from an overseas tip, not from the church.
In 2010/2011, Adams confessed to his bishop, John Herrod, that he was sexually abusing his young daughter. Herrod called the church’s help line; AP’s review of sealed court records reported he was advised he could not report the confession, on Arizona clergy-penitent privilege grounds. Adams was excommunicated in 2013 but not reported to authorities; the abuse continued for roughly seven more years and extended to a second daughter, with videos posted online. Federal agents arrested him in 2017 after a tip traced from New Zealand — not via a church report — and he died by suicide in jail before trial. His wife, Leizza Adams, was sentenced to 2½ years for failing to report.
The institution
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its help-line system, which AP reported routes bishops’ calls to risk-management staff and the church’s outside law firm, Kirton McConkie (see The Pattern). The children’s civil suit against the church and bishops was dismissed on clergy-privilege grounds at trial level, revived in part by an appeals court in 2025 on a waiver question, and Arizona appellate litigation over the privilege continued into 2026. No ruling in that litigation should be read as a final finding that the church broke Arizona law, and this file does not present one.
The record
Tier 1 · Court-proven — procedural record only
| Item | Record |
|---|---|
| Confession to bishop | 2010/2011; help line called; per AP’s review of sealed records, bishop advised he could not report |
| Excommunication | 2013 — with no report to authorities |
| Arrest | 2017, by federal agents, on a tip traced from New Zealand |
| Death | Suicide in jail before trial; never convicted |
| Related sentence | Leizza Adams — 2½ years for failing to report |
| Civil litigation | Privilege-based dismissal at trial level; partial revival on appeal (2025); litigation continuing into 2026 |
Status
Criminal case closed by the defendant’s death (2017), without conviction. Civil privilege litigation ongoing as of last reporting.
Records requested & responses
This archive has not filed records requests in this case. The file rests on the published sources below and will be updated if court or institutional records are obtained, or if that changes.
Video coverage
Verified coverage of this case, embedded from the publishers’ own channels — this archive does not download or re-upload other outlets’ video. Each segment below was verified through the YouTube Data API on October 25, 2026; the channel and date in each caption are the API’s own records.
- The Legal Examiner (confession; help-line advice; continued abuse; privilege litigation): legalexaminer.com
- Associated Press investigation (August 2022), summarized: red-string.ai — secondary synthesis; primary weight rests on the AP reporting it cites.
Filed October 18, 2026, from the published sources below. Minor victims are never named or identified in this file.