Wade Christofferson was arrested in Utah and is expected to be extradited to Ohio to face the federal charges.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Orrin G. Hatch United States Courthouse in Salt Lake City. Wade Christofferson had his first court appearance at Salt Lake City’s federal courthouse on Tuesday after he was charged with attempting to sexually exploit children.
The brother of an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been charged with federal crimes alleging he attempted to sexually exploit children in Utah and Ohio.
Wade S. Christofferson, 72, was arrested last week in Utah and has been in the Salt Lake County jail, according to jail records.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Ohio announced in a Tuesday news release that Christofferson — whose older brother is an apostle and member of the faith’s governing First Presidency D. Todd Christofferson — has been charged with attempting to sexually exploit a minor, and with coercion and enticement.
Federal prosecutors say that one alleged victim reported to police in Dublin, Ohio, on Nov. 12 that Wade Christofferson had sexually abused them more than a dozen times when they were a child. The news release did not indicate the gender of the victim, or what dates the alleged abuse occurred. The charges are not yet available in online court records.
Dublin police searched Christofferson’s home the same day they received the report, according to the news release. A search of his phone allegedly revealed a search history for criminal defense attorneys in Ohio and the phrase, “In Ohio do clergy have to report child abuse confessions.”
The answer, according to a 2025 law, is that it depends on how the clergy learned of the abuse. In Utah, the law says clergy “may” report abuse obtained through a confession, but it does not require them to do so.
Christofferson also allegedly engaged in sexually explicit conversations with a Utah girl and sent her “coded letters” to her Utah home that referenced sexual activity, according to allegations described by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. “Christofferson also committed hands-on sexual abuse of that child as well,” prosecutors allege in the Tuesday news release.
The girl was 7 years old when these conversations allegedly occurred, the news release states, but it did not indicate what dates the messages were sent. They allege that Christofferson used code words like “friends” for nipples, and asked to see her “friends” and other parts of her body during FaceTime calls.
Federal prosecutors also allege that when Dublin police searched Christofferson’s home earlier this month, they found a modified attic crawl space area that was “accessed by a child-size door with ‘H POTTER’ written on it.”
“Inside the modified attic crawl space area, officers discovered children’s writing on the walls and a mattress, pillows and blankets on the floor,” the news release alleges.
Christofferson made his initial appearance in a Utah federal courtroom Tuesday morning, and Ohio prosecutors say he will be extradited back to Ohio to face charges there.
Latter-day Saint bishops, or lay leaders of congregations, all have access to a 24/7 help line, which the church encourages them to use in cases of suspected abuse.
For its part, the church says “when abuse occurs, the first and immediate responsibility of church leaders is to help those who have been abused and to protect vulnerable persons from future abuse.”
Critics have countered, however, that the help line — staffed by attorneys for the church’s Salt Lake City law firm, Kirton McConkie — is mainly designed to shield the church from lawsuits.