Tucson attorney for the Adams children
Lynne Cadigan
1 topic · 3 dated events
Their part in each topic
Sexual Abuse and the Institutional Response
Tucson attorney for the Adams children
Cadigan represented three of the Adams children in the Cochise County suit against the Church and two bishops, filed in November 2020. She pressed for release of the Church's disciplinary records and won an order from Judge Laura Cardinal requiring them; she is the source of the public characterization of those records as the Church's "secret records." The case ended against her clients at summary judgment and, ultimately, in the Arizona Supreme Court.
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3 events across 1 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
Three of the Adams children sue in Cochise County
Attorney Lynne Cadigan filed an 87-page complaint on behalf of three of the six Adams children, alleging that two bishops and a Sunday School teacher — who was also a former Border Patrol agent — failed to report, and that the clergy-penitent privilege did not apply because the defendants had knowledge outside any confidential communication. The Church's answer asserted that it owed the children no duty. A Cochise County grand jury investigation, disclosed in December 2021, delayed proceedings.
Summary judgment for the Church
Judge Timothy B. Dickerson of Cochise County Superior Court granted the Church defendants' motions for summary judgment, holding that there was no evidence Church officials had knowledge independent of confidential communications with Adams, and that Arizona's reporting statute is overridden when the only source of the information is a confession or similar conversation. Through attorney William Maledon the Church said: "Contrary to some news reports and exaggerated allegations, the court found that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its clergy handled this matter consistent with Arizona law."
The Arizona Supreme Court decides who defines a confessionhinge
A unanimous court, Vice Chief Justice John R. Lopez IV writing, ended the Adams children's suit. It held that whether a communication is a "confession," and whether keeping it confidential is "reasonable and necessary within the concepts of the religion," are questions of religious doctrine that the First Amendment bars fact-finders from reviewing: "We may not substitute our interpretation of Church doctrine for the Church's reading of its own doctrine." The ruling reinstated the 2023 trial-court judgment and vacated a 2025 appellate decision that had sent the case toward a jury. Amicus briefs supporting the Church came from the Catholic dioceses of Phoenix, Tucson and Gallup, the Church of Scientology International and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, among others.
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