SALT LAKE CITY -- Excommunicated Mormon leader George P. Lee has surrendered to authorities to face charges of molesting a 12-year-old girl, a friend of his daughter, a court official said Friday.
The incidents allegedly occurred while Lee was a church general authority, a member of the highest order of leadership in the 8.4 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Lee surrendered Thursday and was freed on his own recognizance, a spokesman for the 3rd Circuit Court said.
He was arraigned on one count of first-degree felony child sex abuse, which carries a maximum sentence of five years to life in prison. Prosecutors said the charges were filed as a first-degree felony because Lee 'occupied a position of special trust to the victim' as a church leader.
Lee issued a statement saying he was 'innocent before God' of the charges and predicting that 'what's happening to me may be a a turning point for Indian people.'
The only American Indian in the First Quorum of the Seventy, Lee became the first general authority in 46 years to be excommunicated. Lee was forced out Sept. 1, 1989, for 'apostacy and other conduct unbecoming a member of the church.'
Lee is accused of fondling a 12-year-old girl, a friend of one of his daughters, at his West Jordan home after talking to her about polygamy, a system of plural marriage abandoned by the church officially in 1890.
Lee said after his excommunication that he had been falsely accused of polygamy and other unspecified acts of 'immorality.' He also charged church leaders with being 'racists' engaged in a 'silent, subtle, scriptural and spiritual slaughter' of Native American people.
A sheriff's report accuses Lee of fondling the girl during trips the family took with her to Arizona, Canada and Lake Powell.
Prosecutors said the possibility of other victims is being investigated.
After his surrender, Lee issued a statement promising that God will punish the 'perpetrators of those who are doing this to me and my Indian people.'
Since leaving the leadership of the church, Lee had become active in Navajo politics, and had been expected to run for tribal president.
