David was 13 years old in 1993, enjoying a sleepover at a friend’s house, when he woke up in the middle of the night.
His friend’s father — Sterling Van Wagenen, a prominent Latter-day Saint filmmaker and co-founder of what would become the Sundance Film Festival — had his hand inside the boy’s pants, David said, and was touching him.
The teen leapt up and ran to a bathroom, locking himself there the rest of the night. He told his parents the next morning.
Van Wagenen admitted to the abuse back then to police and his lay leaders within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and again, 25 years later, in a conversation that David secretly recorded and the Truth & Transparency Foundation released Monday.