Trial and Temple Sealing

Hey ya’ll.

Just to start out, this is sort of a heavy discussion so you’ve been warned.

My step children came out for the summer like they usually do since we moved to Utah and I drove out to pick them up from South Dakota and drove back. On the way out to Provo, I casually asked my step daughter (13yearsold) how things were going at home with her mom and step dad. I usually ask this just to make sure things are okay, I have been told by both my step kids that their step dad can be harsh, mean and sometimes unreasonable and that their mom has had to talk to him multiple times about how he treats the children. Anyhow, she said things were okay but recently something had happened that made it uncomfortable, etc. I didn’t want to pry and make her tell me but she reassured me that she wasn’t abused or something of that matter. When we got to Provo, I told her dad and let him know that I had a bad feeling about it. He took a walk with her a few days after and pulled the whole “I’m your dad, you have to tell me what happened” card. Turns out, one morning while she was getting ready for school (this was about two weeks before school was done for the year) she did her usual routine of getting up, showering, wrapping herself in a towel and going to her bedroom to finish getting ready, she went to her closet and found her step fathers cell phone hiding behind an object video taping her. *puke* I know….

I had talked to her about this privately a few days later to really get some detail and find out what happened. She said she had watched the video enough to see that her step dad put the phone there, deleted it, and snuck out her window and went to school. Later that day she told her mom who then confronted her husband (stepdad) about the video. Apparently his excuse was, my step son (then 10 years old) had found some inappropriate material on his kindle or perhaps it was at a friends house, and step dad was curious as to what took my step daughter so long to get ready in the morning (as any woman will tell you, when you’re 13 it takes a long time!) so instead of asking her, he decided to video tape her, without mommy knowing or discussing the idea with her first. Not to mention, step daughters phone was taken away awhile before this, she doesn’t have a computer in her room, nor did she have her kindle. (i.e. no electronics in her room at all)

Anyhow, long story short, I called the police and reported him for making child pornography. The SD detectives took his phone, didn’t find the video, but step daughter talked to detective out here and gave a credible testimony of what happened. After the investigation was closed, we waited to hear from the state attorney if he would be charged. We didn’t hear anything for awhile and things went back to normal. Unfortunately we didn’t have the power to prevent the kids from going back to mommy/step dad at the end of the summer and had to return them. (that was heartbreaking) Fast forward a few months and mommy/step dad get sealed in the temple.

Now my question is……….”Does he really think he’s worthy of going through the temple to get sealed after what he did?” and “Is there anything we can do to get that annulled?”

The detective that was working on our case called the other day, turns out the state attorney is going to charge stepdad. This is great news because we’ve been praying like crazy that justice will be served and I kept finding myself returning to Matthew 18:6 “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

We also went to our Bishop after finding this out and he said he would contact mommy/stepdad’s bishop and talk to him as well. Our Bishop was never able to get a hold of their Bishop until mommy/stepdad were served with a search warrant and they called their Bishop. SUDDENLY our Bishop heard from him. (Seems like he was avoiding talking to ours.) He was saying that they came to him and told him what step dad did was a mistake and his intentions were not vile but rather concern for his step daughter and he claimed that once he heard the shower turn off (from stepdaughter) that he realized he made a mistake but that it was too late to remove his phone. I have played out this scenario in my head over and over, it just blows my mind his lame excuses because my stepdaughter has a routine, he knew that she would be naked in her room. She has the same routine at our house. There is no excuse. Anyhow, I keep praying that he will be charged and that we will be able to seek custody of the kids (because mommy took his side and tried to hide it, also told stepdaughter not to tell anyone about the situation, plus she found out she was pregnant with stepdad right when this situation happened) and provide a safe, stable home for the kids.

Thanks for listening to my rant.