This story describes express particulars of a sexual assault.
This text was produced by The Salt Lake Tribune, a member of ProPublica’s Native Reporting Community. Sign up for Dispatches to get tales like this one as quickly as they’re printed.
Former Utah therapist Scott Owen admitted in a Provo courtroom on Monday that he sexually abused a number of of his sufferers throughout periods.
Provo police started investigating Owen in 2023 after The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica reported on a range of sex abuse allegations in opposition to Owen, who had constructed a repute over his 20-year remedy profession as a specialist who may assist homosexual males who have been members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A number of the males who spoke to The Tribune and ProPublica mentioned their bishop used church funds to pay for periods wherein Owen allegedly additionally touched them inappropriately.
Whereas Owen gave up his remedy license in 2018 after a number of sufferers complained to state licensors that he had touched them inappropriately, the allegations have been by no means investigated by the police and weren’t extensively identified. He continued to have an lively position in his remedy enterprise, Canyon Counseling, till the newsrooms printed their investigation.
In pleading responsible on Monday to 3 prices of first-degree felony forcible sodomy, Owen for the primary time publicly acknowledged that he sexually abused his sufferers.
Owen, 66, admitted that he sexually abused two male sufferers “utilizing his place as a therapist” and led them to imagine that sexual contact was a part of their remedy.
He additionally pleaded no contest on Monday to a different first-degree felony, tried aggravated sexual abuse of a kid, in reference to a 3rd affected person — a girl who alleged Owen touched her inappropriately throughout remedy periods in 2007, when she was 13 years previous. A no-contest plea implies that Owen didn’t admit he dedicated the crime however conceded that prosecutors would current proof at trial that might probably lead a jury to convict him.
Owen faces a most sentence of as much as life in jail throughout a sentencing listening to scheduled for March 31.
Prosecutors agreed in a plea deal to dismiss seven different felony prices that Owen confronted in reference to the 2 male victims. Each advised police that Owen engaged in sexual contact with them throughout remedy periods — together with kissing, cuddling and Owen utilizing his hand to the touch their anuses.
Owen admitted in plea paperwork to having sexual contact with the 2 sufferers, together with placing one affected person’s testicles in his mouth.
Owen admitted in plea settlement paperwork that, as a therapist, he was in a particular place of belief when he had sexual contact along with his sufferers, which he advised them was “a part of their remedy course of.” Utah regulation says sufferers can’t consent to sexual acts with a well being care skilled in the event that they imagine the touching is a part of a “medically or professionally acceptable prognosis, counseling or remedy.”
Provo police interviewed a minimum of a dozen of Owen’s former sufferers, in accordance with court docket data, all of whom say he touched them in methods they felt have been inappropriate throughout remedy periods. A lot of these sufferers are males who advised police they have been looking for remedy with Owen for “same-sex attraction.” Provo police Capt. Brian Taylor has mentioned that among the former sufferers’ stories concerned allegations that have been outdoors the window of time that prosecutors needed to file a case, referred to as the statute of limitations.
Below a negotiated settlement with Utah’s licensing division in 2018, Owen was capable of give up his license with out admitting to any inappropriate conduct, and the sexual nature of his sufferers’ allegations will not be referenced within the paperwork he signed when he gave up his license.
Each state licensors and native leaders within the LDS church knew of inappropriate touching allegations in opposition to Owen as early as 2016, reporting by The Tribune and ProPublica confirmed, however neither would say whether or not they ever reported Owen to the police. In Utah, with few exceptions, the state licensing division will not be legally required to ahead info to regulation enforcement.
The church mentioned in response that it takes all issues of sexual misconduct critically and that in 2019 it confidentially annotated inner data to alert bishops that Owen’s conduct had threatened the well-being of different folks or the church.
