In 2013 a mission president was removed for misconduct

[JulieM]

1 minute ago, Jeanne said:

Does anyone know why there were no pressed charges?

If the police were contacted and a crime was committed, can’t they prosecute on their own without the victims pressing charges (the state bring charges)?

[ALarson]

12 minutes ago, JulieM said:

They were sleeping at the mission home alone without a companion?  

Did their parents know about this?  

Well it was written about very clearly in the blogs.  I can't imagine why a parent wouldn't wonder what was going on.

I haven't ever heard of any good reason for a sister missionary to move in to the mission home without a companion and have their own room and bathroom.  I'm not that experienced on that though (only had 2 sons serve missions and they were never invited to stay overnight at the mission home alone).

Edited May 7, 2018 by ALarson

[Calm]

https://apps.rainn.org/policy/policy-state-laws.cfm?state=Puerto Rico&group=6

Not sure would apply to "pastors/ministers" but wouldn't be surprised:

"Any victim of a crime, whether or not a party to the action, has the privilege to refuse to disclose or to prevent another from disclosing a confidential communication between the victim and the counselor, if any one of them reasonably believed such communication to be necessary for the treatment and help required.  P.R. Laws Ann. ***. 32 Ap. IV, Rule 26-A (B).

The privilege may be claimed not only by the holder thereof, but also by a person authorized by the victim, a legal counsel or by the counselor who received the communication. P.R. Laws Ann. ***. 32 Ap. IV, Rule 26-A (B)."

[Calm]

Posting again because some seem to expect that Puerto Rico operates like the mainland US or that the mainland US somehow had jurisdiction:

https://www.aclu.org/other/failure-police-crimes-domestic-violence-and-sexual-assault-puerto-rico

Problems copying stuff so if interested, you need to look at it yourself.  Summary:  really bad reputation 

managed this, if stats are this bad for rape and domestic violence, bet they are worse for sexual abuse/assault by rich white guys who are from outside Puerto Rico...just a guess though.

Quote

The Puerto Rico Police Department systematically fails to protect victims of domestic violence and to investigate reported crimes of domestic violence and sexual assault. The PRPD is failing to protect women and girls from abusive intimate partners and ex-partners, and the PRPD is not policing those crimes when they are committed

 

Quote

The PRPD is not adequately responding to or investigating rape crimes, and it is significantly underreporting these crimes.  Only about 1% of rapes are being properly reported by the PRPD.  In most U.S. jurisdictions the number of reported rapes is four times the number of homicides, but the PRPD reported only 39 rapes and over 1,000 homicides in 2010.Based on data from police departments around the U.S., we would expect the rape statistics to be 100 times the figure reported by the PRPD. 

The remarkable data spread between reported forcible rape and murder is the result of the PRPD’s failure to follow protocols to respond to, record, or investigate crimes of rape.  Official sources estimate that, in the case of sexual violence, only about 16 percent of rapes are reported.  In their latest study, issued in 2007, the Puerto Rico Department of Health’s Center for Assistance to Rape Victims estimated that 18,000 people in Puerto Rico, mostly women and girls, are victims of sexual violence each year.

 

Edited May 7, 2018 by Calm

[JulieM]

25 minutes ago, ALarson said:

Well it was written about very clearly in the blogs.  I can't imagine why a parent wouldn't wonder what was going on.

I haven't ever heard of any good reason for a sister missionary to move in to the mission home without a companion and have their own room and bathroom.  I'm not that experienced on that though (only had 2 sons serve missions and they were never invited to stay overnight at the mission home alone).

This is so weird.

Why would parents think that was ok?  Or is that something that happens now with missionaries?  I thought they were always supposed to be with a companion?

[bluebell]

57 minutes ago, JulieM said:

If the police were contacted and a crime was committed, can’t they prosecute on their own without the victims pressing charges (the state bring charges)?

Most prosecutors would not want to treat a sexual assault victim as a hostile witness.  And without victim testimony, how could the state bring charges of sexual assault?  What evidence (besides hearsay) would they have to support bringing charges?

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, Jeanne said:

Does anyone know why there were no pressed charges?

I don’t think anyone knows anything beyond the report that the sister missionaries didn’t want to. 

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, ALarson said:

Do we even know if the police were contacted or involved at all?  

(I haven't read if they were or not...)

I’m not sure. 

[ALarson]

18 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Most prosecutors would not want to treat a sexual assault victim as a hostile witness.  And without victim testimony, how could the state bring charges of sexual assault?  What evidence (besides hearsay) would they have to support bringing charges?

It would depend on other factors as well.  If there were many victims or any witnesses or other evidence, they may still proceed.  If someone is a repeat offender, they may make an arrest and at least attempt to protect other potential victims.  I doubt that this MP was considered dangerous though, so it makes sense they didn't prosecute him without victims pressing charges.

[ALarson]

52 minutes ago, JulieM said:

This is so weird.

Why would parents think that was ok?  Or is that something that happens now with missionaries?  I thought they were always supposed to be with a companion?

They are. 

It seems this MP was doing some type of different program where he called sister missionaries to serve alone and function as "Sister Missionary Trainers".  He'd send them in to help in areas where the sister missionaries needed more hands on training or support (from what I can tell).  They didn't have companions and I don't know how many actually stayed at the mission home (there is mention of there being 5 of them called.)

Edited May 7, 2018 by ALarson

[smac97]

1 hour ago, JulieM said:

Quote

Does anyone know why there were no pressed charges?

If the police were contacted and a crime was committed, can’t they prosecute on their own without the victims pressing charges (the state bring charges)?

Fairly unlikely.  The victims did not want to press charges.  Many (all?) of the victims would almost certainly have completed their missionary service and left the jurisdiction.  Prosecuting a case where the victims are A) unwilling to press charges and B) not in the jurisdiction would seem to be very unlikely.

Moreover, the jurisdiction is Puerto Rico, which doesn't have a very good track record with these things.

Thanks,

-Smac

[JulieM]

26 minutes ago, smac97 said:

Fairly unlikely.  The victims did not want to press charges.  Many (all?) of the victims would almost certainly have completed their missionary service and left the jurisdiction.  Prosecuting a case where the victims are A) unwilling to press charges and B) not in the jurisdiction would seem to be very unlikely.

Moreover, the jurisdiction is Puerto Rico, which doesn't have a very good track record with these things.

Yes, this one is complicated and also very sad.  It’s horrible what happened here (for the sisters and others in this mission and for his poor wife and daughters).

[bluebell]

19 hours ago, ALarson said:

They are. 

It seems this MP was doing some type of different program where he called sister missionaries to serve alone and function as "Sister Missionary Trainers".  He'd send them in to help in areas where the sister missionaries needed more hands on training or support (from what I can tell).  They didn't have companions and I don't know how many actually stayed at the mission home (there is mention of there being 5 of them called.)

I’ve heard of other missions doing something similar (but without the crimes and immorality obviously). 

Edited May 8, 2018 by bluebell

[ALarson]

2 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I’ve heard of other missions doing something similar (but without the crimes and immortality obviously). 

Ok...interesting.  Did they also not have a companion and sometimes stayed at the mission home?

I'd just never heard of that before and thought a missionary was always assigned a companion.  I know there are exceptions and then usually a threesome is formed until another missionary is available.

[Danzo]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

I don’t think anyone knows anything beyond the report that the sister missionaries didn’t want to. 

When has that ever stopped people from judging?

[Tacenda]

3 hours ago, Calm said:

Compassion for anyone, but the Church, Tac?

It was snarky I admit.

[Jeanne]

1 hour ago, Tacenda said:

It was snarky I admit.

Quote

😍You must be like me...in a mood..!

 

[JulieM]

13 hours ago, ALarson said:

Ok...interesting.  Did they also not have a companion and sometimes stayed at the mission home?

I'd just never heard of that before and thought a missionary was always assigned a companion.  I know there are exceptions and then usually a threesome is formed until another missionary is available.

I doubt other missions have a system in place where any of their missionaries are serving without a companion being with them at all times.  That’s a safeguard put in place for good reason.  I imagine bluebell meant missionaries (a pair) called as trainers to help other missionaries who may need extra training.

(But she can correct me I’m wrong!)

[bluebell]

14 hours ago, ALarson said:

Ok...interesting.  Did they also not have a companion and sometimes stayed at the mission home?

I'd just never heard of that before and thought a missionary was always assigned a companion.  I know there are exceptions and then usually a threesome is formed until another missionary is available.

It didn't happen in my mission, but from what I understood, they were usually part of a threesome companionship and though were not often with their companions during the day were with them in the evenings and lived with them.  In my mission one of the office missionaries was a sister and that's also how it worked for her.  My companion and I shared an apartment with her and her two companions.  Her companions would drop her off at the mission office (which was located miles from the mission home) and she was technically the companion of the two office elders (the car elder and the IT elder) while she was there.  In the evenings and on P-Days though she was with her companions.  

There were a few times when my husband was without any companion on his mission (he served in England) but it was only during transfers.

[ALarson]

6 minutes ago, bluebell said:

It didn't happen in my mission, but from what I understood, they were usually part of a threesome companionship and though were not often with their companions during the day were with them in the evenings and lived with them.  In my mission one of the office missionaries was a sister and that's also how it worked for her.  My companion and I shared an apartment with her and her two companions.  Her companions would drop her off at the mission office (which was located miles from the mission home) and she was technically the companion of the two office elders (the car elder and the IT elder) while she was there.  In the evenings and on P-Days though she was with her companions.  

There were a few times when my husband was without any companion on his mission (he served in England) but it was only during transfers.

Yes, that sounds like what I'm familiar with (thanks for the info).  What made this different, of course, is that the sisters had no companions and stayed alone at the mission home (at least one and maybe others wrote specifically about doing this).   That's what I was referring to when I stated that I'd never heard of anything being done like that in other missions.  

Edited May 8, 2018 by ALarson

[rongo]

2 hours ago, JulieM said:

I doubt other missions have a system in place where any of their missionaries are serving without a companion being with them at all times.  That’s a safeguard put in place for good reason.  

I know that these days are long gone, but in the mid 1990s in Germany, we were sometimes alone for up to a day. On transfers, the transferred companion left by train, and the staying companion waited in the apartment until it was time to pick up the new companion at the train station. He/she, of course, traveled alone to the train station. And, I often traveled alone to Hamburg for Mission Council, so with a five hour train ride, meetings, and a five hour return ride, I was gone all day (mostly alone --- companion put with another companionship). Once, I took the return train to a remote area to rendezvous with my companion and the two other elders fairly late at night (they were in Salzgitter, a collection of about 60 villages). All without cell phones!  

But, yeah, none of that would happen anymore. In the Tempe mission, all missionaries go to the mission home every transfer, whether they are being transferred or not. I feel bad that they never get to experience quietly reading and taking a nap on transfer day . . .

[JAHS]

23 hours ago, JulieM said:

This is so weird.

Why would parents think that was ok?  Or is that something that happens now with missionaries?  I thought they were always supposed to be with a companion?

Missionaries are always assigned a companion, but there were times on my mission when I was a alone, like when my companion was transferred and had to leave before my new companion arrived. It was never for longer than a few hours or up to a day at the most. 

[ALarson]

1 hour ago, JAHS said:

Missionaries are always assigned a companion, but there were times on my mission when I was a alone, like when my companion was transferred and had to leave before my new companion arrived. It was never for longer than a few hours or up to a day at the most. 

Yes, I think that happens in most missions and is normal.  What was going on with the MP and the sister missionaries obviously wasn't this and wasn't good.  I'm glad it was taken care of and that he's no longer serving over these young girls.

Edited May 8, 2018 by ALarson

[Marginal Gains]

On 5/7/2018 at 10:10 PM, Calm said:

Check out Puerto Rico's record on sexual assault and in general corruption.

Why?

[Calm]

8 hours ago, Marginal Gains said:

Why?

It explains in my opinion why the sisters were not eager to report charges when they likely knew nothing would come of it legally as far as Smartt was concerned (he was wealthy at the time, had his own plane and could likely arrange legally or illegally to leave Puerto Rico at any hint of charges as well as bribe his way out) and the actual result would be potentially mistreatment by corrupt and unskilled officers for themselves.

Edited May 14, 2018 by Calm