Multiple public commenters urge Salt Lake City Council to investigate alleged religiously linked abuse and demand transparency

During the general public comment segment, several speakers urged the Salt Lake City Council to take action on alleged abuse that they say has occurred under the cover of religion.

Chenille Hill opened the cluster of comments, describing a “silent crisis” of religious abuse and saying that, according to unspecified estimates, more than 1,200 children in Utah had been victims of abuse in religious contexts over a decade. Hill called on the council to “demand transparency in abuse reporting” and to hold institutions accountable regardless of influence.

Another speaker, identifying himself as a software engineer who said he has investigated online fraud and related networks, urged city staff — including representatives from the city attorney’s office noted in the room — to contact him about material he described as evidence of criminal activity “hiding behind the religious veil.” He provided an email address on the record.

Mona M. cited a dataset she described as “Survivors of Scientology” and read statistics she attributed to the data, including that 210 children were listed as survivors, that 22 percent were deceased and that 98 percent of survivors had experienced abuse as defined under Utah law. She urged the council to “detach any alignments associated with Scientology.” She characterized the material as an alarm and urged officials to use the information in decision-making.

Speakers framed their remarks as requests for transparency, investigation and accountability; the comments included allegations and cited survivor-generated data. Council members did not announce formal follow-up actions during the public-comment segment as recorded in the transcript.