Exclusive: Sources Say Adam Hamilton Took Responsibility for Moore's Return After Abuse Reports

Update October 19, 2026, 5:06 PM CT: 24X7 News requested comment from the Hamilton campaign on this story on October 16, with a response deadline of 5 p.m. CT on October 19. The story has not received a response as of this update. Any response received will be added here.

By Will Langan | 24X7 News Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hamilton took responsibility for the decision to send Scott Moore back to a church youth retreat in 2006, according to sources close to Hamilton who have firsthand knowledge of how Church of the Resurrection handled abuse allegations against the volunteer. The sources provided their account to 24X7 News. Court testimony and court filings document the sequence around that decision, and no testimony, filing or published record reviewed for this story names the person who approved the return. The sources say the responsibility was Hamilton's, and that he accepted it. The account lands four days before President Donald Trump is scheduled to rally in Wichita on Monday, October 19, at Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, for Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall. Two national race ratings moved Kansas to a toss-up this month, and an average of recent polling showed the two candidates tied. No Democrat has won a Kansas Senate race since 1932, and the Moore matter has become the sharpest dispute of the campaign. The first complaints arose in November 2005, at a church youth retreat in Linn County, Kansas. Teenage campers reported a man entering their sleeping quarters at night and alleged inappropriate touching, and they suspected volunteer Scott Moore. Church officials handled the allegations internally. Hamilton met with the family of one boy who reported being touched, and he has said he did not recall the specifics of that conversation. The internal investigation was conducted by church employee Randy Meyer and church volunteer Nancy Brown. Prosecutors later wrote in a court filing that the investigators decided not to report the disclosures to social services or law enforcement. Brown testified that the investigators did not contact police or report the allegations to the state's child-protection agency. "No, we did not contact the police," Brown said. The inquiry ended without a conclusion. Asked at the later trial whether Moore was still allowed to be a camp counselor after the 2005 investigation, Brown answered: "That's correct." The sources also told 24X7 News what did not happen after 2005. The church had been told about the allegations. The boys who came forward were given a sermon about lying. Neither police nor social services were called, and Moore's certification to work with children, youth and vulnerable adults was not revoked. Some parents who sent their children to the 2006 retreat without knowledge of the 2005 allegations were kept in the dark. They were never told about those allegations. And Moore was sent back the following year — and it happened again. Hamilton has acknowledged that the first report should have gone to police. In an interview this week, he said: "We absolutely would have taken it to the police first." Hamilton has confirmed that he met with an affected family in 2005, so the allegations had reached him that year. He has denied any cover-up, saying: "There was no attempt at a cover-up." In a separate interview this month, Hamilton said of Moore's return the following year: "This man should never have been allowed to come back the second year." His longtime assistant, Sue Thompson, has said on the record that neither investigator was qualified to lead the 2005 investigation. Of the return, she said: "I was horrified the next year when they let him go back to camp." No testimony or filing reviewed for this story describes any safeguard placed on Moore for that return. Moore returned as a cabin leader in 2006. New reports again concerned nighttime entries into boys' rooms and inappropriate conduct. This time the church went to law enforcement. A prosecution filing describes church investigator Bob Whisman investigating the new reports and then contacting the Linn County Sheriff's Office, and a sheriff's investigator testified that the church supplied information concerning both the 2005 and 2006 incidents. Of the 2006 reports, Jason Gant, who had taken over student ministries that year, has said the church turned the incident over to authorities "the second we found out." The Linn County prosecutor declined to file charges over the retreat allegations. Brown testified that Moore's certification was then withdrawn, extending beyond his camp role to working with children, youth and vulnerable adults through the wider church conference. That cooperation followed Moore's return to another retreat, and the sequence is now the center of the Senate race. Marshall's campaign is running an advertisement, reported as a $1.2 million buy, that says: "Parents were ignored, and Hamilton never called the police." The advertisement says: "The next fall, Hamilton welcomed him back." It says Moore was "later convicted of more child sex crimes," and it closes: "Adam Hamilton protected a pedophile. He should never be our senator." The sequence at the center of the advertisement — allegations in 2005, no call to police that year, and Moore back at camp the next fall — is the sequence in the sworn record. The conviction the advertisement cites came in 2013: a single count of misdemeanor sexual battery, for a separate incident in 2010 involving a 16-year-old at a sleepover at his home, and it carried a one-year jail sentence. He was not charged over the retreat allegations. Hamilton's response advertisements say the church reported the incidents and cut ties with Moore, and his campaign spokesman, Tyson Brody, has said Hamilton "later personally worked to help get this predator convicted." The documented basis for that claim is narrow. In April 2010, a man told Hamilton that Moore had abused him in 1979, Hamilton encouraged him to contact police, and the man did. In the trial testimony reviewed by 24X7 News, Hamilton does not appear as a witness. A published fact check rated the closing line of Marshall's advertisement false and rated the Hamilton response claims mostly true. The sources' account raises the questions neither campaign's advertisements answer: what Hamilton knew about the 2005 complaints before the 2006 retreat, what safeguards were put in place before Moore went back with kids a second year, why families were not told before Moore returned, and who made the decision the sources say Hamilton accepted responsibility for. 24X7 News has sent a request for comment to the Hamilton campaign and a request for comment to the Marshall campaign on the accounts and claims in this story. Trump's rally is Monday in Wichita. The general election is November 3. Sources: Sources close to Hamilton with firsthand knowledge of the church's handling of the allegations, who provided their accounts to 24X7 News State of Kansas v. Scott P. Moore, Johnson County District Court, trial testimony and court filings reviewed by 24X7 News Kansas Reflector, July 22, 2026 Kansas City Star fact check, October 14, 2026 New York Post, October 2, 2026 The Christian Post, October 6, 2026 Interview with Adam Hamilton by Dave Helling, Kansas City Stack, October 2026 Official GOP event listing, Trump midterm rally, Wichita, October 19, 2026 Cook Political Report, October 6, 2026, and Sabato's Crystal Ball, October 14, 2026