Multiple sources are indicating that the Attorney General’s Office has assigned a prosecutor to Hamblin case in American Fork, and that a prosecutor will be entering an appearance tomorrow at the Hamblin hearing. Jenny Hatch has organized the rally that will take place before and during the hearing, and I will be making a keynote speech remotely and appearing remotely for a press conference at her invitation.
We need as many people as possible in attendance, and as many people as possible making it clear to the Attorney General and the political and legal establishment in Utah that we will not tolerate a failure to prosecute David Lee Hamblin.
Public pressure has apparently generated a first result, which is ensuring that a prosecutor is assigned to the Hamblin case so that it can survive Leah Aston’s Motion to Dismiss for Failure to Prosecute. We need additional results, which include an investigation into the following:
Governor Spencer Cox’s ties to alleged LDS Church of Satan members and Hamblin accomplices such as a Lincoln Kevin and Khaliel Kelly, who allegedly abused the Hamblin children and retained Hamblin’s services to train them in how to ritually abuse their own children.
Governor Cox’s ties to Joseph Wood Bennion, the alleged Spring City Punisher for the Church of Satan, who appears on the Facebook friends list of both Governor Cox and his wife with the Kellys.
We need an investigation into how those ties played into Cox’s decision to nominate the sole deputized special prosecutor in the Hamblin case, Ryan Peters, for a judgeship, thereby removing the sole authorized prosecutor from the Hamblin case for nearly seven months while Judge Griffin wrangled with the Utah County Attorney’s Office over their bid to take over the case.
The discovery issues with the case, which have delayed Hamblin’s trial for nearly two years, should be investigated as well, along with Ryan Peters failure to manage those issues during his year plus tenure on the case.
The failure of the UCAO to convict Hamblin in 2012-2014 even with a taped recorded apology to his daughter for raping her should be investigated.
The failure of Judge Griffin to recuse himself from the Hamblin case given his assignment as the judge of record in the short-lived divorce proceedings of David and Chelom Leavitt, who Judge Griffin specifically cited as his reason for disqualifying the Utah County Attorneys Office as the prosecuting agency in the Hamblin case. Leavitt is another alleged member of the Hamblin group, the LDS Church of Satan, with allegations of child trafficking, child rape, and proven crimes in an illegal adoption, as well as obstruction of justice due to his failure to extradite Tonah Fishinghawk from Oklahoma during his tenure at Utah County Attorney. Fishinghawk is the mother of the Native American child Leavitt purchased with an offer to leverage his contacts in Ukraine for the benefit of Northern Cheyenne Tribal President Jace Killsback, in violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
During his tenure as Utah County Attorney, and while he was still finalizing the adoption of the adoption of Tonah Fishinghawk’s daughter, Leavitt served as prosecutor in a case against Fishinghawk in which he negotiated a plea deal reducing her charge of felony child endangerment to a misdemeanor. Leavitt never disclosed his prior relationship with Fishinghawk to the court, and he did not recuse himself and his office from her case.
Leavitt also allegedly paid Jace Killsback $30,000 to override Tribal Social Services so that he could depart the reservation with Allisandra Fishinghawk in his custody, in violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act’s clear prohibition of adoptive or foster placements for Native children within a year of their surrender by a biological parent.
In addition, the requirement of ICWA that Allisandra’s biological father Gary Valenzuela be notified was not met, and Valenzuela spent a year searching for his daughter before he found out she was in the custody of David and Chelom Leavitt. ICWA prioritizes placement with biological relatives of Native descent, and its requirements were not met, thereby rendering Leavitt’s adoption illegal and invalid.
Tribal courts have exclusive jurisdiction in the adoptive proceedings of Native children, but Leavitt illegally circumvented this and conducted the adoption through a district court in Provo. His transportation of Allisandra Fishinghawk across state lines is trafficking per se, and he allegedly bribed both Tonah Fishinghawk and Jace Killsback to purchase Allisandra, who is still illegally in his custody.
The allegations against Leavitt are serious enough to warrant disbarment and prison, even before one considers the ritual abuse allegations against Leavitt in the Hamblin case from 2012 to 2014. His exposure to civil liability for his misdeeds is tremendous, as the damages he illegally inflicted on Allisandra’s biological father Gary A Valenzuela are incalculable, in addition to the damages that Allisandra has suffered as a result of Leavitt’s fraudulent, illegal adoption.
Judge Griffin could have recused himself from either the Leavitt divorce or the Hamblin case, but he failed to enter a recusal in either case. In Manti, Judge Mandy Larsen recused herself from an evidentiary hearing in the Hamblin case due to the fact that she carpooled with Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander 20 plus years ago to a training session at POST, because Grunander was to be called as a witness in the hearing. What is good for the goose is good for the gander, and the circumstances around Judge Griffin’s performance in the Hamblin case should be investigated thoroughly by an independent agency empowered to look into the handling of the Hamblin case thus far.
The current Hamblin cases are simple cases: they involve a victim named Emily Sheets, who has two eyewitnesses to her abuse at the hands of David Lee Hamblin and his ex-wife Roselle Stevenson. Sheets should have already been afforded the opportunity to testify in front of a jury with her eyewitnesses, as opposed to suffering through nearly two years of legal maneuvering by Ryan Peters as he danced around ever trying David Lee Hamblin for his alleged crimes. The second case in Manti involves a male named Tobias Schroeder, who was sexually abused by Hamblin at five years of age during therapy sessions.
The jury will determine who they believe: the two victims and their eyewitnesses, who are also victims of Hamblin’s abuse, or David Lee Hamblin, a man who lost his license to practice as a therapist for sexually preying on his mentally ill patients and trying to convince them that the sexual contact was part of their therapy. Some of those patients allege that Hamblin forcibly raped and sexually assaulted them when they refused his advances. Two of those patients testified at Hambin’s custody trial in 2003 when the court found by clear and convincing evidence that he had sexually abused his two eldest daughters Rachel and Eliza. Hamblin admitted during that trial that he had administered peyote to his own children as part of his bizarre Native American religious rituals. His daughter Miriam would have been five years of age when he forced her to ingest peyote, which is a controlled substance under federal law.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office has over 150 victims and witnesses to the ritual abuse perpetrated by Hamblin and others. Those victims deserve their day in court, and the opportunity to tell their stories to a jury. David Lee Hamblin will receive due process, and if his case ever reaches a jury, he will almost certainly be found guilty as victim after victim, witness after witness, takes the stand to tell of a forty year pattern of behavior in which he preyed on children and the mentally ill as a sexual predator.
This is fair, and this is right. I urge the readers of this Substack to keep the pressure on the political and legal establishment in Utah to hold David Lee Hamblin accountable at last, and to give his victims closure. From there, we should see to it that his accomplices are exposed, arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned without exception for forty plus years of rape, murder, and terror. In addition, call your Church authorities. There are alleged members of Hamblin’s group such as Lincoln Kevin Kelly, Khaliel Kelly, Joe and Lee Bennion, Dave and Deborah Sheets, David and Chelom Leavitt, and others who are active members of the Church.
They hold callings in their wards and stakes, and they have infested Provo and Spring City. The Church has a duty to act as a shepherd for the flock, and Salt Lake needs to leverage its power and authority to get to the bottom of these allegations with the same fervor it reserves for those apostates who challenge the core doctrines of the Church, or who violate their covenants in extramarital affairs. These members allegedly raped, tortured, and murdered children. If even a fraction of the allegations made by Hamblin’s victims are true, the Restored Church should be at war with those elements within its ranks who blaspheme Heavenly Father with their secret codes and combinations.
The Devil’s ending has been written, and he and the sons of perdition will perish. He has lost at every turn: he lost the war for Heaven, he was defeated by Christ, and he will be defeated in the final battle. We have no reason to fear him, and every reason to have contempt for him and his band of losers who chose carnality and the material over the things of the spirit. We will prevail. It is time to awaken to our awful situation with boldness, with rage, and to confront the cowardice of the Devil and his followers. They prey on the weak and the compromised. We who follow Christ should rise without hesitation to meet them head on and clean out our houses, our communities, our wards, our stakes, our states and our governments, and we should recognize that while the battle will be long and arduous, it is worthwhile.
Victory is ours if only we fight. Rise. Show up to the rally tomorrow in American Fork. Make your voices heard, and your resolve known in a stentorian chorus, and let the agents of the Adversary know that we will not be placated with scraps instead of the crowns of justice we are owed by birthright. Heavenly Father has given us the tools to solve these problems, but if we will not pick them up, wield them, and go to the battlefield to fight tooth and nail, fang and claw, we will cede the ground to the Devil and the likes of David Lee Hamblin.