This story describes obvious details of a sexual attack.
This article has been prepared The Salt Lake TribuneMember of the local reporting network PROPBLICA. Sign up for sending To get such stories as soon as they are published.
On Monday, a former Utta therapist Scott Owen confessed to the courtroom in law that he was sexually harsh with several of his patients during classes.
Police Provo started investigating Owen in 2023 after The Salt Lake Tribune and Propublica reported A spectrum of charges of sexual abuse Against Owen, who created a reputation in his 20-year therapy as a specialist who could help the gays that were members of the Church of Jesus Christ in recent days. Some men who talked to Tribune and Propublica said them Bishop used church funds Pay for classes in which Owen allegedly also touched them inappropriately.
While Owen refused the therapy license in 2018, after several patients complained to the state licensers that he had affected them inappropriately, the charges were never investigated by police and were not widely known. He continued his active role in his therapeutic business Canyon counseling until the editorial staff published the investigation.
On Monday, having pleaded guilty on three first -degree crime, violent sodium, Owen publicly admitted that he had sexually treated his patients.
66 -year -old Owen confessed that he was sexually cruelly treated with two man -man, “using his position as a therapist” and made them believe that sexual contact was part of their therapy.
On Monday, he also did not express any competition for another first-degree crime, trying to strengthen sexual abuse against the third person, who allegedly touched her inappropriately during the therapy in 2007 when she was 13 years old . Insufficient request means that Owen did not admit that he committed the crime, but acknowledged that the prosecutor’s office would submit evidence in court, which would probably make the jury to condemn him.
Owen threatens the maximum term of life imprisonment during the sentence scheduled for March 31.
The prosecutor’s office agreed in the Agreement to recognize seven more accusations of the crime in connection with two victims of men. Both told the police that Owen had sexual contact with them during the therapy sessions – including kisses, hugs and Owen using a hand to touch their anus.
In the documents on the guilt Owen confessed in sexual contact with two patients, including putting the testicles of one patient in the mouth.
In the documents of the Aven guilt agreement, he admitted that, as a therapist, he was in special trust when he had sexual contact with his patients who, he said, “part of their treatment process.” Utah’s state law says patients cannot agree to sexual activities with a healthcare provider if they believe that touching is part of “medical or professionally diagnosis, counseling and treatment”.
According to court reports, the police police questioned at least a dozen former Owen patients who said he had touched them in a way they believed that they were inappropriate during the therapy sessions. Many of these male patients who told the police that they were looking for therapy with Owen for “same-sex attraction”. Police captain Brian Taylor said that some of the reports of former patients participated in the accusations that were beyond the time that the prosecutor’s office had to initiate the case called the statute of limitations.
As part of the unraveling of Utah’s licensing unit in 2018, Owen was able to pass a license without acknowledging any inappropriate behavior, and the sexual nature of his patients does not refer to the documents he signed when he abandoned the license.
Both state licensers and local leaders in the LDS church knew about inadequate touchs in 2016, reporting Tribune and Propublica, but none said or reported if they were in the police. In Utah, with rare exceptions, the state licensing department does not need to transfer information to law enforcement.
The Church said in response that he perceived all questions about sexual violations seriously and that in 2019 she confidentially announced internal records to warn the bishops that Owen’s behavior threatened the well -being of others or the church.
