The Sins of Brother Curtis: A Story of Betrayal, Conviction, and the Mormon Church Rating :
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
A Must Read
By Jggab
As a psychotherapist who has worked with survivors of sexual abuse for over 20 years, I am very impressed with Lisa Davis' book. She writes a captivating story of how a pedophile is able to get close to his victims and commit heinous acts over and over. This is a story that needed to be told. Her writing style is so engaging that you will have a hard time putting this book down. I highly recommend it.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Must-read for parents
By SSinAZ
I would recommend this book to anyone, but particularly to parents of young children. The author paints a scary, but all-too-real picture of how quickly and easily children can become victims of sexual abuse. That's a critical message to get out and the author tells the survivors' stories with great sensitivity. A reader will walk away with not only a dramatic story, but a greater understanding of an important issue.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful.A Good Read, Well Written
By Chris Ames
This was a well written book especially for Lisa Davis' first. It was however a difficult read because my son was sexually abused by his scout leader, home teacher in the Mormon church in New Jersey when he was 11 years of age. It amazed me how close the case in the book was to our case. Tim Kosnoff was also our attorney and he is as Lisa describes in the book, a lawyer that never stops learning and researching to find the truth. She covers how come the church didn't flag his records as a child abuser, how the Mormon church hides behind the "clergy - penitent privilege: an application of the principle of privileged communication that protects the contents of communications between a member of the clergy and a penitent, who shares information in confidence". In my opinion this needs to be abolished, it falls under the first amendment. How the church will spend any amount of funds to protect its image, whether they are right or wrong. The Mormon church is vindictive, hypocritical, judgmental, arrogant, and believe they are always in the right. This book is worth reading if you would like to see how the church works. I believe that a second book need to be written. There is much more to tell about the history of the Mormon church and as to why they allow these pedophiles to continue to abuse the children and it dates back many years and is deep within the doctrine of the church. For some reason the Catholic church has dominated the news but the Mormon church has the same problem if not more so. Read this book, well worth it.
Product Description
This brilliantly reported, unforgettable true story reveals how one of the most monstrous sexual criminals in the history of the Mormon church preyed on his victims even as he was protected by the church elders who knew of his behavior.When Seattle attorney Tim Kosnoff agreed to listen to an eighteen-year-old man who claimed to have been molested by his Mormon Sunday school teacher, he had no idea he was embarking on a quest for justice on behalf of multiple victims or that the battle would consume years of his life and pit him against the vast, powerful, and unrepentant Mormon church itself. As Kosnoff began to investigate the case, he discovered that the Sunday school teacher, a mysterious figure named Frank Curtis, possessed a long and violent prison record before he was welcomed into the church, where he became a respected elder entrusted with the care of prepubescent Mormon boys. Through Lisa Davis’s deft storytelling, two astonishing narratives unfold. The first shows how Brother Curtis ingratiated himself into the lives of young boys from working-class Mormon families where money was tight, and was accepted by mothers and fathers who saw in him a kindly uncle or grandfather figure who enjoyed the blessing of the church. Having gained the families’ trust, Curtis became fiendishly helpful, offering to supervise trips or overnights out of the sight of parents, when he could manipulate his victims or ply them with alcohol. The other narrative is a real-life legal thriller. As Davis shows, Kosnoff and his partners tirelessly assembled the case against the church, sifting through records, tracking down victims, and convincing them to testify about Brother Curtis’s acts. What began as a case of one plaintiff turned into a complex web stretching across multiple states. Joined by what would become a team of attorneys and investigators, Kosnoff found himself up against one of the most insular institutions in the United States: the secretive and powerful Mormon church. The amazing legal case at the heart of The Sins of Brother Curtis shows how the church’s elite, well-funded team of attorneys claimed the church was protected under the Constitution from revealing that Curtis had molested a number of Mormon boys. Yet Kosnoff and his devoted legal team (which included a female investigator adept at getting parents of victims to talk to her) succeeded in forcing the church to reveal that it knew about Curtis and ultimately achieved a successful settlement. Emotionally powerful page by page, The Sins of Brother Curtis delivers a redemptive reading experience in which the truth, no matter how painful and hidden, is told at last and justice is hard won. This is a remarkable story, all true.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1065908 in Books
- Published on: 2011-03-15
- Released on: 2011-03-15
- Format: Bargain Price
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 368 pages
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