All language subtitles for I.Went.Undercover.S01E03.The.slpover.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor

[Reporter] Some major
allegations are coming out today

against the cofounder of
the Sundance film festival.

[Narrator] A Utah man risks
it all to confront his abuser.

[Man speaking]

[Narrator] Then
broadcasts it to the world.

[Sterling Van wagenen speaking]

[Narrator] But will
there be real justice?

You know there’s other victims out
there. You know damn well there is.

[Narrator] Or has he
made a huge mistake?

That is [bleep].

I thought, "oh, my god,
i’ve ruined this guy’s life."

Dean, this is detective sergeant
powers, he worked a prior case.

[Narrator] Undercover work is some
of the riskiest in law enforcement.

[Officer] Okay,
she’s out of the car.

Okay, good deal.
Good deal. Good deal.

[Narrator] One wrong move...

[Sirens wailing]

can cost a life.

[Officer 1] Hey!
Police! Don’t move!

[Officer 2] Get down!

[Narrator] In rare situations,

everyday people go
undercover in search of the truth.

They’re willing
to risk it all...

even taking down
friends and family.

This isn’t the movies. I
have to actually do this.

[Narrator] Doing the right thing
has never been so dangerous.

The Sundance film festival is
held in a place called park city,

which is actually about 45
minutes or so outside of salt lake city

and kind of up in the mountains.

[Narrator] The Sundance film festival is
one of the most prestigious in the world.

Where filmmakers and celebrities
alike converge in park city, Utah,

for two weeks each winter.

The people in Utah like
the, um, tourism revenue

that Sundance film
festival brings into the area.

[Narrator] But in 2017, the vibe
at Sundance is decidedly dark.

Sordid allegations against one of
the festival’s darlings have emerged.

[Reporter] More than 60
woman have now come forward

with accusations
against Harvey weinstein,

alleging decades of harassment.

[Reporters
shouting indistinctly]

[Reporter] Allegations against movie
mogul Harvey weinstein keep piling up.

[Narrator] With the weinstein
allegations a hot topic,

news outlets turn to the
co-founder of the Sundance festival,

sterling Van
wagenen, for comment.

When they interviewed
Van wagenen and he said,

"this is just the
tip of the iceberg,"

I don’t think sterling
Van wagenen had...

any idea what was coming.

[Mcknight] I think
what he didn’t realize

is that people were paying attention
to him and the things that he said

because they
knew about his past.

[Narrator] There’s an irony to Van wagenen
commenting on the weinstein situation,

when he himself was at the center
of controversy some 23 years earlier.

[Christensen] Sterling Van
wagenen was a big deal in Sundance.

[Mcknight] He’s been an executive
producer on a number of films,

director on a number of films,

including one that won the
academy award for best actress,

uh, called the
trip to bountiful.

Robert redford, at the time, was
married to sterling Van wagenen’s cousin,

and that’s how the
two of them met.

Their knowing each other led to
them creating the Sundance film festival.

[Narrator] Sterling Van
wagenen is also a prominent figure

in nearby salt lake city.

Sean Escobar grew up just a few
doors down from the Van wagenens.

Growing up in salt lake
city, Utah, was... it was fun.

We played outside
a lot, all day.

Um, salt lake is...

you know, it’s a lot of nice, happy
people is... Is the way I remember it.

We were mormon and
everybody kind of knew each other.

And I grew up in a... A
family of four children.

Um, it’s actually not a big
family by mormon standards.

We lived only three doors
down from the Van wagenens.

Sterling Van wagenen’s two youngest
boys were like little brothers to me.

You know, from sunup to
sundown we’d be outside playing.

It... it kind of felt like one of those leave
it to beaver type upbringings, you know?

[Narrator] Carrie poulson is also
a neighbor of the Van wagenens

and the escobars.

I knew Sean because our families
were close. They were neighbors.

And, um, my younger brothers
and sisters were the age of their kids.

We were in the same mormon
congregation, same neighborhood.

Sterling Van wagenen
was a big deal in the church

in kind of a big fish in a
small pond kind of way.

Sterling was involved in a
number of mormon film projects,

like, uh, the work
and the glory movies.

These are highly
produced films that are,

in some way or another,
related to Mormonism.

The church has a very strong interest
in elevating sterling Van wagenen

to... to the public as the
best the church has to offer.

[Narrator] Yet despite all the
outward trappings of success,

sterling Van wagenen
has secrets as well.

In 1993, my husband and
I would come up frequently

and hang out at
my parents’ house.

At one point there was just some
general commotion that I became aware of

involving, um,
something that happened

down the street at a sleepover the
night before with sterling Van wagenen.

Um, and...

a kid that he molested.

In 1993, sterling Van wagenen was accused
of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy.

[Poulson] And people knew it.

I don’t know who the victim is.

But I... I could guess, I
mean, I know the family names.

The most interesting
part about that

is that these allegations actually
came from him, from sterling himself.

On, uh, July 21, 1993, I
received a... a report, and a call,

to speak with a gentleman by the
name of, uh, sterling Van wagenen,

that he needed to talk to me about
an incident with a, uh, young boy.

Mr. Van wagenen said that, uh,
he had a... a sleepover for his boy.

And that he was up at, uh, about,
like, 1:30, two o’clock in the morning.

And uh, he decided to go
downstairs to where the, uh,

his son and this...
this boy was sleeping.

And at that point he, uh,
he decided he was going to,

uh, touch the... The young man.

"I’m, uh, telling you
exactly what happened.

I went downstairs and, uh, touched
him sexually, inappropriately."

[Mcknight] According
to the police report,

the police officer even asked
him if it had ever happened before

and sterling said, "no, that
this was the first and only time."

[Jentzsch] I contacted the family
and I believe I spoke to, uh, the father.

And he just indicated that, uh,
they didn’t want to go forward with it,

and pursue the...
Pursue the charges.

When... when the... The
parents, uh, their caregiver,

well says, "well, we’ll
just work it out ourselves,"

uh, our... our case
kind of comes to an end.

Because we have to have, uh, someone
say, "this is what happened to me."

[Narrator] With that the
police investigation ends.

Leaving the matter in the hands
of the family and the church.

The victim was left to sort of
deal with this trauma himself.

So nothing happens
from the case.

There’s a police report filed.

There’s... the church leaders
know about it, but it just disappeared.

It was kind of just buried.

People did know that there was a
secret here in Utah, with... with sterling.

The church leadership knew.

The police knew.

And that alone is...
Is mindboggling,

that this just stayed...

under the rug.

For 23 years, no
one talked about it.

Sterling went on to hold

very privileged positions in
the community and in the church.

In fact, um, I think he
became a... A professor at byu

months after, uh, the
incident happened.

[Mcknight] He spent
some time in academia,

was an adjunct professor
at the university of Utah

in their film department.

And then probably one of the most
important things that he went on to do,

um, as a member of the church
of Jesus Christ of latter day saints,

was to direct the
mormon endowment film.

Here we have sterling Van
wagenen, like, playing such a vital role

in one of mormonism’s
most sacred rituals.

[Narrator] While Van wagenen’s
abuse remained hidden from the public

some will never forget what
happened that night in 1993.

Particularly Sean Escobar.

What is he doing?

What is he involved in?

Are... are others safe?

Has he hurt anyone?

[Narrator] For
Sean, it’s personal.

He was the boy sterling Van
wagenen molested that night.

In my whole life i’ve... i’ve felt
this need to protect other people.

[Narrator] Fearing that
history might repeat itself,

Sean decides to act.

My dad would
always tell me to...

defend people.

And, uh, you know,
protect the little guy

if you see someone get bullied.

And I took it very seriously.

It was 1993 and I was
almost 13-years-old.

What I remember about
those summer days,

was that from the time we woke
up till the time we went to bed,

I was with the friends
in the neighborhood.

Towards the night, it... it...

You know, as kids often
times do, it just wasn’t enough.

You know we... we needed
the fun to keep going.

So I called my parents
and asked if I could sleep

over there at the
Van wagenens’ home.

That night we slept
in the basement.

Next thing I remember is

I was awakened by... There was
somebody’s hand down my pants.

I...

I looked at the hand, and I
knew it was an adult hand.

And my friends were asleep,

you know, one friend
was asleep on the couch,

and the other was on the floor.

And I felt powerless.

Um...

And then I sat up.

And I... I looked.

And, um, sterling Van wagenen was...
he was standing at the back of the room.

He retreated a little bit.

And he was holding
a... A remote controller

in his hand pointing
it towards a... a TV.

He didn’t even look at me,
he just looked at the TV.

And then I sat up and I
just, as quick as I could,

I... I ran up the stairs

and I... I made it to the bathroom
and I locked myself in the bathroom.

I waited there in the bathroom
all the way until the next morning.

I didn’t see sterling
that morning.

He wasn’t there.

Thank god he wasn’t there.

My mom picked
me up and I just...

blurted it out, you know,
what sterling had done to me.

And she just looked at... looked
at me and she just turned white.

She was just so
mortified and she just said,

"oh, oh no."

I was so scared.

I had it in my mind
that, you know,

something really bad
could’ve happened that night,

you know, if he had known
that I knew what he’d done to me.

Uh, especially with
him having a career

and being successful.

That’s what was
going through my mind

is that he would kill
me to keep that a secret.

So my parents, um,

they...

did not go to the
police directly.

They went to, um, a
mormon church leader

who was a leader in the area.

And my father was
friends with him,

and my father told him
what had happened to me.

Apparently what had happened was
sterling had gone to his counsellor,

his, uh, therapist.

And his... he told his therapist
about what he had done to me

and the therapist, by law, was required
to tell sterling to go to the police.

[Narrator] Sterling files
his report with the police.

But when sean’s family declines to
participate in the police investigation,

it falls back on the church.

[Mcknight] What you have to understand
is that within the mormon church,

there is a common belief
that ecclesiastical counselling

is the best way to deal
with situations like this.

First...

ecclesiastical therapy,

ecclesiastical counselling.

Second, police.

[Narrator] All of which leaves Sean to try
to get on with his life the best he can.

Wondering why the church
didn’t do more to protect him

or to punish his molester.

Sean and I got married in 2004.

Which was actually just three
months after we met. [Laughs]

It was a little crazy.

I mean people
thought we were crazy.

Aw.

This our... my mormon
wedding dress. [Laughs]

Uh, good memories.

That was a great day.

It’s kind of fun because most
mormon weddings you don’t get to,

like, dance and have fun.

- Still a sober wedding but, uh...
- [Laughs]

but we did have fun.

-Crystal danced! She danced her ass off.
-[Both laugh]

Oh!

Nice shot.

[C. Escobar] We
have four children.

Sean is very involved.

And he’s very protective.

You gotta make a move!

[Exclaims]

That’s actually a lot of power.

Having children was my dream.

I wanted to be a dad.

And there’s a lot of parts about
being a dad that I... that I really love.

And there’s parts about
being a dad, or a mom,

that just feel impossible
and scary and hard.

And that’s hard as a
father that’s protective.

It took many years before
he’d actually be comfortable

with letting our kids go play
at other people’s houses.

Though he would say, "you
need to go and talk to the mom,

and ask her all these questions.

Is she gonna be
home the whole time?"

I’m like, "of course
she’s gonna be home."

"Um, is her... is the
dad gonna be there?"

I felt this need to
protect my children.

[Escobar exclaims]

Oh!

My wife and I, we...

We were active in the mormon
church for 20 adult years.

As time went on I became
more and more, uh, skeptical.

I became more and more critical
of... of the church, of their practices,

of the beliefs,
of the leadership.

There was a day crystal came to
me and said, "what if it’s not true?"

And I said... [laughs] I said,
"what? What’s not true?"

And she said, "what if the
mormon church is not true?"

And I remember I...

i just, like, I was floored.

’cause, like, my wife was always
way more devout than I was.

Crystal and I, we left
our religion April of 2018.

Once we left the mormon church,

there was a level
of empowerment.

Because now I didn’t have to...

submit to authority anymore.

I could be my own authority.

And that level of empowerment,

um, is what motivated me.

[Narrator] Sean is finally
free to seek the type of justice

that he never found
from the church.

He decides to confront
sterling about the abuse directly.

[Escobar] It was
September of 2018,

I... I wrote sterling’s
wife a letter.

I... I just told her "my entire
adult life this has haunted me.

I need to know that...

children were... Were protected.

I need to know that provisions are in
place. Sterling hasn’t hurt anyone else."

And one by one, I began
to contact every one of the,

um, Van wagenen children.

And one of them
actually suggested that,

for the sake of my own closure,
that I should meet with him.

Sean made the move
that I think a lot of people

would consider
unusual, unconventional

to... to reach out to sterling
and, uh, try to set up this meeting.

I think it’s equally surprising that
sterling agreed to meet with him.

And I thought, "hey, if he’s
willing to do it, to meet with me,

then I should take
that opportunity."

I also thought...

in the event that he opens up to
me and tells me of other victims,

I would also like to
have that on tape.

So that, uh, I could
use that information

to help other people,
and... and, um,

make it safe for
them to come forward.

I have to admit, I did
think Sean was crazy.

[Escobar] I couldn’t eat for, like,
three days before the meeting.

I... I went pale, weak.

And I say, "crystal, I can’t
do this, I can’t meet with him."

And then she’d say, "well
don’t. You don’t have to.

Just let it go. Why are
you doing this to yourself?"

And then I would think,
"no, I have to do this."

Then the day came.

[Narrator] Sean arranges for
sterling to meet him at a friend’s house.

I put a recording
device in a potted plant.

[Doorbell rings]

[Exhales heavily]

And there we were and there
he was and it’s time to talk.

It starts out cordial, two old friends
catching up, it almost seems like that.

Sterling might have been
looking for closure himself.

He was very open
and I think he was

much more honest than anybody,
including Sean, probably expected.

Then Sean really moves
the focus to July 15th, 1993,

which is when this
incident happened.

[Sean] I wanted him to pay
for what he’d done to me.

I wanted, uh, there
to be justice there.

[Narrator] After 25 years, Sean finally
gets an apology from his molester.

But he isn’t done yet.

[Narrator] Sterling Van wagenen has just
admitted to abusing his young neighbor.

But Sean Escobar
wants more from him.

He needs to know if there
are other victims out there.

I thought that what
happened to me,

why wouldn’t it be
happening to them?

And I assumed it was.

Were there other victims?

He said, "no, not ever."

That I was the one and
only ever and that there

had never been
any other incidents.

[Sean] Did I believe him?

I think I believed him at first.

[Narrator] Sean has
finally found some closure.

But he’s left with
the burning question,

why hadn’t his parents,
or the church, done more?

The abuse was not talked
about openly in my family.

Um, which I think would have
been useful and helpful for me.

I think they probably thought that
because I was a strong personality,

that I would be okay.

Why do I think my parents didn’t press
charges against sterling Van wagenen?

Back then, it wasn’t
as normal for, uh,

victims of sexual
abuse to come forward.

Um, and if they did, there was
fears that, you know, for instance,

if I were to go to school,
um, that I would be teased,

that certain things
might be assumed,

um, certain things
might be embellished

and people would
make fun of me that,

you know, that I had had anything
sexual happen to me with another man.

Um, this is part of the reason that a lot
of men are afraid [Cries] to come forward.

Were they trying to protect me?

Did they do the wrong thing
for the right reasons? Yes.

But I think my
parents do know now

and they’ve acknowledged that
they should’ve pressed charges.

According to sterling, uh, he
was disfellowshipped by the church

for what he had confessed to.

What disfellowshipped means,

it means that there’s certain
things that you’re not allowed to do.

Like, you’re not allowed
to give a prayer in public,

you’re not gonna be allowed to get up
in front of the congregation and speak.

Certain things like that.

Sterling should’ve
gone to prison.

What he received was the virtual
slap on the wrist of disfellowshipment.

When in reality, there was
literally no significant consequence

to his career, to his
standing in the community,

and it was kept silent.

What Sean
experienced was trauma,

was assault or rape.

That Sean was assaulted by
sterling, that’s the first assault.

The second assault
is that your family

didn’t support you,
um, appropriately.

And then, the third
assault is that the church

didn’t appropriately
handle and support you.

So it’s almost
like three assaults.

It’s almost like
three sort of "rapes",

um, happening simultaneous.

[Bleep]

I wonder what his family thinks
when they hear stuff like that.

[Narrator] Sean Escobar finally has
the confession he’s been looking for.

All that’s left now is to
broadcast it to the world.

Sean didn’t initially know
what to do with this recording.

You know, he had gotten sterling to
acknowledge what he had done to him.

Um, but sean’s other
goal of sort of finding out

if there had been other
victims, well, sterling denied that

and Sean had no
real way to refute that.

So, he was kind of left in a position
that he didn’t know what to do.

In the back of my mind,

this realist inside
of me was saying,

"you know there’s other victims out
there. You know damn well there is."

And at that point, I
just determined that

i’m gonna put this
out on the Internet

and i’m gonna make it safe for other
people to come forward if they so choose.

[Mcknight] I think one of the
reasons that Sean was so hesitant

was because of how it would
impact his life and rightfully so.

Um, and I think he
was also concerned

about how it was going
to impact sterling’s life.

Um, he wanted closure,
he wanted justice.

But at this point, he’s
thinking he’s the only victim.

It was 30 years ago
and he’s wondering

how much value there is in
sort of bringing this to light

and creating whatever level of
public spectacle it’s going to become.

My friends said, "oh, my gosh.

Like, I know somebody that
you might want to talk to."

And so then when he
connected me with Ryan mcknight,

who was with truth
& transparency.

[Christensen] Truth &
transparency is founded

by two former mormons

who leak information about
the mormon church that may not,

you know, shed
them in a good light.

Sean contacts me
in the fall of 2018.

Kind of gives me a
rundown of the story.

Um, I thought it
was very compelling.

I guess maybe Sean was
attracted to these two scrappy guys

that were standing up to a
huge organization that failed him.

On February 4, 2019,

we released our story
along with the audio

and, uh, the police report
that we had obtained.

The story got a lot of play.

All the other major
media outlets covered it.

[Reporter] Some major
allegations are coming out today

against the co-founder of
the Sundance film festival,

also a professor at
the university of Utah.

I think the tape was received
by our audience in the way

that he intended
it to be, right,

and that our audience
understood the implications

of sterling Van wagenen, who had
directed the mormon endowment videos

abusing a little boy.

The New York times actually
did end up picking up this story.

[Poulsen] It was Sean?

Sterling Van wagenen
molested Sean Escobar.

I sent him a Facebook
message and I said,

"hey, Sean. I just
read your story.

I just want you to
know I knew about this.

And any one of those
adults back then who say,

’oh, that’s not how
things were handled, ’

that is [bleep]."

[Narrator] Once the story hits,

it forces a sweeping response.

It puts the university
in a bad light.

It puts byu in a bad light.

It puts Sundance in a bad light.

You know, and Sundance came out
and said we do not support his actions.

Sundance said in a statement, in part,
Van wagenen left the advisory board

in the ’90s, but they do denounce
his behavior in recent reports.

[Reporter] He admitted to molesting
a young boy back in the early ’90s.

Well sterling, obviously,
suffered consequences,

but Sean wasn’t free from suffering
consequences as a result of this story.

And, you know, he had friends

and, you know, close friends who
were offended by the fact that he would,

not only secretly record...

somebody, but then, you
know, take it to the media.

The alienation

can be quite significant.

[Narrator] Sterling remains a
free man despite his confession.

That statute of limitations has
run out on the crime long ago.

Sean is left wondering

if he had made
a terrible mistake.

I agonized over whether i’d made
the right decision or not [sniffles].

Because I thought, "oh, my god.

I’ve ruined this guy’s life.

I ruined his career.

What if there really
were no other victims?"

And then, I started
to doubt, um,

myself and thought that...

That i’d done
something horrible.

I developed an ulcer.

Um, ’cause I was just stressed

more than ever
before in my life.

[Narrator] Then Sean receives the
call he’s both hoping for and dreading.

I got a phone
call and they said,

"you were right."

They said, "you were
right. You were right.

Thank you, thank you."

There is another victim.

Another victim comes forward.

And now, sterling’s gonna face
repercussions for what happened.

[Narrator] Two weeks after Sean
Escobar releases an audiotape

of sterling Van
wagenen’s confession,

the parents of another
victim contacts Sean.

They are ready to come forward.

When I found out there
was another victim,

I just remember feeling,

uh, a tremendous
amount of relief.

That...

all that pain that i’d been
going through was worth it.

[Poulsen] When I heard that
there was a second victim,

I was not surprised at all.

I was horrified that there was
another victim, but not surprised.

She had heard something
happened with sterling Van wagenen,

that he had abused a boy

and that there was some audio
online released online by us,

so she went searching herself.

Found the tape that we
released, listened to it,

and then told her parents that
he did a very similar thing to her.

The other victim was
13 years old at the time.

And went to their parents and
said, um, this happened to me.

I just felt vindicated.

Or is the word validated?

I felt, um, I did,
I felt validated.

[Narrator] Twenty
years after sean’s abuse,

Van wagenen is accused
of harming another child.

This second case,
unlike sean’s, is recent.

Prosecutors bring
forward charges for acts

that took place
in 2013 and 2015.

This time charges are filed.

Sterling didn’t fight
these allegations.

He never said,
"no, I didn’t do this."

He pleaded guilty.

I attended the sentencing
of sterling Van wagenen.

And it was just a really
powerful moment in time.

I was live tweeting
these and during...

I was trying to get quotes
directly from the impact statements,

but it was really hard, um,

because I was
crying the whole time

because they were
extremely powerful, right.

[Poulsen] Everyone
acted swiftly, decisively.

This is a crime. This is not...

an ecclesiastical matter.

The victim’s sister also read a
statement on behalf of the victim,

who was in the court room.

The most bizarre part of the
sentencing hearing was that sterling

praised Sean for coming forward.

Son of a bitch.

[Reporter] Sundance
co-founder, sterling Van wagenen,

was sentenced today for
the sexual abuse of a child.

Van wagenen will spend
six years to life in prison

for acts on a young girl
between 2013 and 2015.

And then they, you know,

they carried him away

and, uh, and that was that.

I have huge respect
for what Sean did.

It takes tremendous courage,

uh, and it’s incredibly risky in the
mormon culture to do what Sean did.

You know, I think that Sean is the reason
why you say survivor, rather than victim.

Because he survived

and he had a successful life.

He has a beautiful
marriage, he has beautiful kids

and moved on with his career.

Yeah, he had the secret
he’s carried with him,

but he is the
definition of a survivor.

I told my mom, I
said, "mom, you know,

I feel like nothing I ever did in
my life or anything that I ever will do

could ever compare to what
i’ve done for this other person."

But...

I mean, I just have to say
I never got a phone call

from any of my siblings
saying, "good job.

Good job, man. Way to go. Like,
that was so brave. Good for you."

This was a crime on a child.

And...

If anything I don’t think I
ever felt like ha ha, i’m a hero,

but did I feel like I stood
up for my childhood self?

Me when I was a child?

I really do.

I feel like the adult
Sean grew up and said,

"nobody stood up for you, man.

Like, nobody stood up for you
and i’m gonna stand up for you now."

And that feels good.

Like, I gotta tell you,
that feels really good.

Ooh! You jump upped it.

Ready again?