Ex-missionary charged with fondling girls

Heather Rawlyk

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

A former Mormon missionary has been charged with fondling two girls who were in his care during a church service in May.

John Misseldine, 21, was ending a two-year term as a missionary at a Mormon church off Christy Lane in Las Vegas when the alleged incidents occurred.

A criminal complaint filed Tuesday charges Misseldine with one count of sexual assault of a minor under 14 years old and two counts of lewdness with a child under 14, both felonies. Prosecutors allege he touched a 7-year-old girl under her dress and touched both her and her 4-year-old sister over their clothing.

A spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said this morning the church had no comment.

Misseldine was arrested May 4 but not charged until this week. District Attorney David Roger said the delay was because his office asked police to look into reports that Misseldine had faced similar charges in Virginia. Police could find no records of any such charges, Roger said.

After Misseldine's arrest in May, church leaders told police that lawyers in Salt Lake City did not want detectives to question the missionary, according to an arrest report.

Misseldine later told police he had been advised not to talk without an attorney present.

The alleged assaults were reported to police after the girls told their aunt that Misseldine had touched them, the police report says.

The girls were at church with their aunt and, when it was time for adults and children to separate to attend classes for each age group, the girls apparently did not want to go.

Misseldine offered to watch them. The aunt told police she felt comfortable with the arrangement, "due to the fact that Misseldine had been to their residence for dinner on several occasions in the recent past," the police report says.

The aunt noted that Misseldine had never taught children before.

After the girls told their aunt of the alleged assaults, family members went back to the church and confronted church officials, the police report says.

When they did not get a response that satisfied them, the family called police.

The girls were taken to Sunrise Hospital and examined, where, the police report says, the girls' allegations were confirmed.

Misseldine was released from the Clark County Detention Center without bail in May after church officials promised a judge that he would be supervised closely while in Las Vegas and would be placed in an administrative position where he wouldn't have contact with the public.

"The OR release required specific things while he was here in Nevada," Linda Norvell, one of his attorney's, said. "He was put under the church's supervision while he was still involved with the church."

After the mission, Misseldine returned to his home in Arkansas and is no longer under supervision. A woman who answered the phone at his residence this morning said he now attends Brigham Young University.

John Hanks, a spokesman for the Mormon Church, said local church officials have not had contact with Misseldine since the end of his mission.

Will Stoddard, a regional spokesman for the church, said at the time that Misseldine "denied adamantly that he did anything wrong at all."