Lon Kennard Sr. (pool, Salt Lake Tribune)

Village of  Hope orphanage co-founder Lon Harvey Kennard, Sr. faces charges on 47 felony counts  stemming from his alleged sexual abuse of children he and his wife adopted from Ethiopia, other teenaged female relatives and a final unrelated teenage girl in Ethiopia.

The potential crimes first came to light last March, see Ethiopia orphanage co-founder charged in sex abuse case.

The charges filed in state court Tuesday allege the 68-year-old Kennard sexually abused 2 of his adoptive daughters, who are now adults.

Kennard is co-founder of the Village of Hope orphanage in Ethiopia. In the early 1990s, Kennard and his wife adopted six children from Ethiopia.

Charging documents allege the abuse went on from 1995 to 2002.

Also see this report from late March, Charity co-founder charged with multiple counts of child sex abuse:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

The orphanage was founded by the Kennards with a partner in 1994.

As the webpage for the Village of Hope project explains, the Kennards became interested in the area during the process of adopting several of the Ethiopian children:

The Kennard Family adopted six children from Ethiopia. Four of those children were from the small village of Kersa Illala, about a 4 hour drive south of the capital city of Addis.

Noting the “abject poverty prevalent in Kersa Illala and throughout Ethiopia” as well as the vulnerability of both women and children there, the Kennards and their partner set up their program, giving Lon an opportunity to surround himself with children.

What is readily apparent even from the webpage is that inter-country adoption is very core to the “Village” particularly for very young, and easily marketed children.

While the webpage contradicts itself both claims no direct involvement in the adoption process, AND claiming to “assist” agencies, it does clearly advocate adoption whenever possible, stating flatly “many can be adopted”:

As appropriate, Village of Hope works with local and international adoption agencies to assist in finding permanent homes for HRCC children. …

…If the children are newborns or toddlers, many can be adopted. If the children are over 4 years of age, adoption is often not an option and Village of Hope must either find them a surrogate Ethiopian family, or be prepared to be the family of these children itself, until the kids are raised to maturity and ready to be independent, self-sufficient adults.

His wife filed for divorce within days of the charges being handed down. See this most recent piece, Alleged child sex abuser told to hire attorney in the Salt Lake Tribune.

DeAnna Kennard filed for divorce March 26, three days after Lon Kennard was charged with 47 felonies involving children the couple adopted in Ethiopia. The Kennards, who have six biological children, helped found the Village of Hope orphanage in the east African country and subsequently adopted six youngsters there.

The article also contains a break down of the charges:

Lon Kennard is charged with 25 first-degree felony counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child, 21 second-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child, and one count of third-degree felony witness tampering.

This copy of a Salt Lake Tribune article on an external site contains a few more details, Founder of Ethiopian Children’s Charity charged with sexual abuse of 6 Ethiopian children in U.S. court

According to court documents, the abuse was ongoing between 1995 and 2002. During that time frame, Kennard served as a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bishop.

Naturally, back in Utah, the Kennards were viewed as doing nothing short of ‘god’s work’ and were featured in an article in the Salt Lake Tribune before what the girls had endured finally came to light:

…they began investigating humanitarian organizations and programs. They came across Choice Humanitarian, a West Jordan-based nonprofit organization that seeks to end poverty in small communities by providing water, sanitation and skills. Choice Humanitarian’s Tim Evans helped the Kennards focus on an approach.

Lon and DeAnna determined they could make such an effort in the small village and set up their own nonprofit organization to raise funds.

As the “Founder…” article went on to detail:

In April 2009, The Salt Lake Tribune wrote a story featuring the endeavor.

But on March 6 one of Kennard’s adoptive daughters called authorities to report that she and a sister were victims of sexual abuse “many times over many years,” according to a probable cause statement from the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office.

An adoptive son found nude pictures and videos on Kennard’s computer and made copies, the statement said. On March 7, according to the statement, authorities were provided with 31 photographs and videos that investigators allege constitute child pornography involving one of the daughters beginning at age 14 and another 14-year-old girl.

Other family members told investigators they, too, had been abused by Kennard, according to the probable cause statement.No charges have been filed in connection with those allegations.

Kinda gives a whole new meaning to the Village of Hope motto “Love is spoken here.”

That same day in another article, see Bail denied for Lon Kennard Sr., founder of Heber charity, the charges had expanded to now relate to six female relatives and a seventh unrelated teenage girl from Ethiopia.

In court documents, Kennard is accused of sexually abusing six female relatives and a seventh teenage girl who is not a relative. He is also accused of producing videos that documented some of the alleged abuse.

The article goes on to provide further details and a listing of some of the locales Village of Hope works within (emphasis added):

The allegations against Kennard came to light on March 6, when a female relative contacted a Wasatch County sheriff’s deputy to ask if Kennard was a suspect in a child sex abuse investigation. The woman told the deputy that Kennard’s son had shown her videos of Kennard engaging in sexual contact with an underage girl. The son told detectives he had found the videos on an external computer hard drive that his father kept in his locked home office.

Detectives interviewed six women related to Kennard and each described “individual, personalized accounts of being sexually abused” by Kennard, according to court records. Investigators also believe Kennard sexually abused a seventh victim, who is not related to him, and made videos of the abuse. Court records say the girl is from Ethiopia and is 17 or 18 years old.

The sexual abuse outlined in court records allegedly began in 1995, around the time Kennard was serving as bishop of his LDS Church ward and one year after he and his wife founded Village of Hope. The nonprofit organization provides “development programs for destitute villages” in Mexico, Central America, Ethiopia and the Caribbean.

To date, the charges only involve a single unrelated girl from Ethiopia. As to whether or not he was abusing any of the other kids back in Ethiopia remains an unanswered question.

All the more so when you see quotes such as this from before the revelations (emphasis added):

“Now the villagers tell me, ‘Water is life, dad, water is life,’ ” Lon explained.

It certainly raises questions as to precisely what his role with the vulnerable young women of the “Village” entailed.

This article, Heber charity founder Lon Kennard Sr. charged with years of sexual abuse, provides a little more:

On March 6, a female relative of Kennard’s contacted a deputy to ask if Kennard was a suspect in a child sex abuse investigation. The woman told the deputy that Kennard’s son had shown her videos of Kennard engaging in sexual contact with an underage girl.

The son told detectives he had found the videos on an external computer hard drive that his father kept in his locked home office. The son said he had gone looking for evidence of sexual abuse after someone told him that Kennard was molesting a female relative, court records state.

Deputies seized Kennard’s home computer and “several” external computer hard drives. Wasatch County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jared Rigby said those drives and the computer are undergoing a full forensic examination. A preliminary review of digital files on those drives, however, revealed 31 videos showing Kennard having sexual contact with two teenage girls, court records state.

Detectives said they interviewed six women related to Kennard and each “related individual, personalized accounts of being sexually abused” by Kennard, according to court records. Investigators also believe Kennard sexually abused a seventh victim, who is not related to him, and made videos of the abuse. Court records say the girl is from Ethiopia and is 17 or 18 years old.

It also discusses his having seperated from Village of Hope in 2009 before the scandal broke, makes mention of a new organization he founded, and a very specific reason as to why the court should (and did) consider him a flight risk:

Village of Hope president Daniel Alger told the Deseret News that Kennard and his wife left the group in August 2009. Kennard’s Facebook profile lists a second organization, Love One Another, that he launched in 2009. It apparently focuses on social and economic issues in east Africa.

Kennard remains in the Wasatch County Jail. His bail is expected to be set Wednesday, when he makes his first court appearance. Investigators, however, have argued that Kennard poses a flight risk. They point to his frequent travels to Africa and his purchase more than a year ago of a home there without his family’s knowledge as grounds to deny him bail.

As the only charges so far only involve his own adopted children, relatives, and a single unrelated girl, it remains an open question whether or not additional abuse was taking place with any of the other kids back in Ethiopia.

Having  (allegedly at least) secretly put down roots in terms of buying a house there, a house supposedly kept a secret from his own family that is, it should be deeply concerning in that it could provide both a physical space under his control and potentially a space apart from the curious gaze of others.

Considering Lon’s track record of how he apparently behaved with Ethiopian children he was ‘being family to’ there are certainly more than enough reasons for concern.

This report from July 15th  Charity co-founder pleads not guilty in abuse case contradicts the earlier report, claiming the incidents have been as recent as this year:

The alleged incidents in the case date as far back as 1995 and continue through this year.

Court records say detectives interviewed six women related to Kennard and each gave accounts of sexual abuse. Investigators also believe Kennard sexually abused a seventh victim not related to him.

The Pound Pup Legacy profile page on Village of Hope – Ethiopia provides links to several additional articles.

Finally, here is a promotional video for the Village of Hope by way of the Salt Lake Tribune created prior to the story breaking.

The adoption open marketplace that Ethiopia ( now well on it’s way to becoming the number one destination for American would-be-adopters) has provided a wide open landscape for monsters like Kennard to play in. No one gave a second thought to this man with his arms draped around black children.

Nope, individuals, corporations, and the Mormon church itself gave the project grant monies and praised his efforts. The Salt Lake Tribune did a profile piece on his efforts, putting him forward as a picture perfect adopter and role model to be emulated.

Anyone who thinks he has been the only one in the midst of this adoption racket (redundant, I know) who has been “enjoying” his times abroad and easy access to kids and desperate mothers should think again.