PART 2
OKLAHOMA NIGHTMARE: CASE REPORTS

In 1993, Scott McCallister, a recently returned missionary, told his parents that he had been sexually abused by the bishop, Stanley Dennis Powell, as a teenager. To Jack, it was a horrifying revelation, since he had spent his entire adulthood dealing with the exact experience during his own teen years thirty years earlier—sexual abuse by his own bishop, Wallace L. Mercer, since deceased.

Powell, by the time of Scott’s revelation, was stake executive secretary. After pleas to the stake president and to the First Presidency brought no satisfactory response, the McCallisters refused to let the matter drop. Merradyth asked Mary Snow Plourde, one of her friends, to find the divorce proceedings of Roseanne Hales Campbell, a ward member who had moved precipitously out of the state with her five children the previous summer. Mary had taught one of the children in Primary; with her husband, the Campbells’ home teacher, she had frequently visited their home. The court record unfolded a chilling story. Roseanne had not only won custody rights in the divorce but her former husband had relinquished all parental rights after three therapists testified to horrific sexual and ritual abuse that the children had suffered. The children also named Powell and "Garrett’s daddy" (Earl Harrison) as being involved in the abuse.

A few months later, they discovered that Powell had been arrested for masturbating in the presence of an undercover police officer at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Merradyth, Jack, Scott, and Roseanne spoke on-camera in a five-part series by a local television on child abuse. The stake president said they were "embarrassing" the Church and excommunicated Merradyth and Mary in 1994. Powell was released and excommunicated—but for the police charge, not for sexual abuse. The McCallisters, the Plourdes, and the Hales no longer attend LDS services.

Sources: The following materials contributed to the McCallister, Hales, and Snow stories. These articles were published in the Yukon (Oklahoma) Review: (1) Michael Levin, "Trial Set June 10 for Former Bishop," 18 May 1994, 6; Conrad Dudderar, "Ritual Abuse Allegations Rock Church Community," 23 Feb. 1994, 1-2; "Church Leader Charged in Solicitation," 26 February 1994, 3; Conrad Dudderar, "Residents Unsure of Ritual Abuse Allegations," Yukon Review, 26 Feb. 1994, 1-2; Conrad Dudderar, "Ritual Abuse Claims ‘Not Fair,’ Church Leader Says," Yukon Review, 2 March 1994, 1-2; Conrad Dudderar, "Occult Crime Topic of PAVE Conference," 13 March 1994, n.p.; Conrad Dudderar, "Accusers Continue Fight after Ex-Bishop Named," 20 April 1994, 1, 3. Conrad Dudderar, "Church Member Excommunicated," 6 August 1994, 8; photocopies of all clippings are in possession of Lavina Fielding Anderson, as are copies of the correspondence as cited by author and date and the personal writings by Jack McCallister, Merradyth McCallister, Roseanne Hales, Maxine Hales, and Mary Snow Plourde, plus notes on telephone interviews with Merradyth McCallister, Jack McCallister, Ted Godwin, Steve Allen, Mary Snow Plourde, Roseanne Hales, and Maxine Hales. Videotape of five-part series, "Are the Children Lying?" in possession of Lavina Fielding Anderson, aired by KFOR-TV (Channel 4, Oklahoma City), during the week of February 21-25, 1994; Jack and Merradyth McCallister and Mary Snow Plourde, among the participants on "Child Sexual Abuse in the LDS Community: A Panel," audiotape 8L94 #273, Sunstone Symposium, Salt Lake City, August 1994; Initial Offense Report information, case No. 9338932, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma; Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Identification Division, No. 264052; [Campbell] v. [Campbell], Canadian County District Court, El Reno, Oklahoma (Case # JFD-92-406), photocopy of official transcript in my possession.