Exposing the Corruption of the "Family Values" Party
Jeannette Garcia is a Republican member of the Avondale, Arizona, city council. She was also a staff member for Turning Point USA, the extreme conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk. While she has not been criminally charged, she has been accused of kidnapping a man’s 14-year-old daughter after the man rebuffed her sexual advances.
Les Hughey is the founder of Highlands Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. Highlands is a megachurch with around fifty staff. Before founding Highlands, he was a youth pastor at Scottsdale Bible Church and the First Baptist Church in Modesto, California. He left his position in Modesto after several allegations of sexual abuse of the girls and young women at the church emerged. The church sent him off without disclosing his actions to the congregation. He resigned from Highlands.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often called the Mormon Church, has protected and shielded child predators repeatedly. In December, 2023, The Associated Press did a story exploring just one of the many times the LDS Church has intervened to protect predators. The case they write about is unique in having recordings of the church’s efforts.
In May, 2023, Godfrey voluntarily surrendered his license after the state licensing board received four complaints about him alleging sexual misconduct toward at least two of his employees. However, according to his website, he seems to flout his loss of license. Instead of therapy, he offers “coaching” and “consultation,” which seem clever synonyms to continue his harmful conversion therapy.
Michael Wayne Coleman was a Mormon bishop in Mesa, Arizona. In 2014, he was arrested and charged with soliciting minors for sexual exploitation. The LDS church suspended him when he was investigated. He was working for a company that arranged foreign exchanges for students to come to the United States and had online conversations with the students. He asked them for nude photos, for a kiss, etc. A student complained to the company, they seized his company laptop and informed the police who arrested him.
Aaron Mitchell was a Customs and Border Protection officer in Arizona when he was arrested in April 2022 for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a fifteen-year-old girl. According to the police, Mitchell approached a girl walking to school. He was wearing a tactical vest that identified him as a CBP officer. He asked her for her documentation. After she gave it to him, he told her he was taking her to the police station. Instead, he took her to an apartment complex where he raped her.
Samuel Rappylee Bateman leads a Fundamentalist Mormon cult that practices polygamy. He has twenty wives, including a nine-year-old wife. The FBI believes one of his wives his own daughter. He was arrested in December 2022 and was not released on bond as he is perceived as a flight risk.
Randy Kaufman was a GOP candidate for the Maricopa County Community College Governing Board. He is also an election-denying Trump supporter. He claimed he was running to make sure “our children are protected [from] the progressive left.” He suspended his campaign after he was arrested while masturbating in a parking lot near a preschool and childcare center however, he remained on the ballot because he did not file a withdrawal. He was cited for sexual indecency. He lost.
Tom Horne is currently the Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction. During his 2022 campaign, he defended hiring former Arizona Rep. David Stringer for his campaign. He didn’t just hire him and defend it, he made the false claim that Stringer was proven innocent.
Terry Peters was a Arizona Republican donor. His wife, Mary Peters, was Bush’s Transportation Secretary. In 2012, when he was 66, he was arrested for repeatedly raping a seven-year-old girl. The girl told her mother that he raped her several times from 2009 to 2010 when she was just seven.