Utah Ex-Therapist Scott Owen Sentenced to Prison for Sexually Abusing Patients — ProPublica

The last time Sam met with his therapist Scott Owen, the session was nothing more than Owen’s hour, which he sexually abused, he said this week in Utah, Utah. After that, Sam remembers as he sat in his car, shouted so loudly.

“I felt it all over the skin,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it was happening.”

It was October 2017 and Sam saw Owen for more than a year. The faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Saints in recent days he fought that he called “an unwanted same -sex attraction.” At the time, Owen was a high -ranking leader in the LDS church, and Sam said that Owen assured him that more than 200 people who felt similar to.

Instead, he said, Owen “carefully used” two of his roles and the church leader to assure him that the sexual touch during his classes was key to help him heal, learn to accept closeness and grow closer to God.

“He used my trust, armed my faith and dismantled my confidence,” Sam said in the courtroom. “What he did was not just unethical. It was calculated, predatory and devastating.”

Police started investigating Owen in 2023 only after The Salt Lake Tribune and Propublica reported A spectrum of allegations of sexual violence against Owenwho created a reputation in his 20-year therapy as a specialist who could help gay members of the LDS church. Some men who talked to the podium said their bishop in Vera sent them to Owen and used church funds for Pay for classes Where Owen allegedly also touched them inappropriately.

In February, Owen pleaded guilty of three accusations, admitting that he was sexually raped by Sam and the other patient, who also said he sought help from Owen because he was fighting his sexuality and faith in recent days. Owen also did not recognize any competition in another case, saying that the prosecutor’s office probably had enough evidence to convince him on the charge of the fact that he had secured a young girl during the therapy session.

But the number of people who say that Owen caused them much more – and on Monday they filled the courtroom right when Owen was sentenced to spend at least 15 years in prison.

In turn, they stood in the podium in court and told Owen how he harmed them. Most of them were his patients like Sam, alias to protect their identity from their community.

One man said the Owen court abused him when Owen was the leader of a group of young men organized by the LDS church.

“He had a dream in his house,” said Mike Bahr. “I have been there once and since I have lived in a nightmare.”

The members of the person who died of suicide, including his brother, also performed, who said his brother had revealed him that Owen abused him a few days before he had taken his life.

And he was one of Owen’s family members, his cousin claiming that Owen mocked him on a family trip when he was a child. After a few years ago, it became more public with his own abuse, James Cooper worked to gather others who say his cousin sacrificed them.

He told about the dynamics that allowed Owen to hurt others for so long without consequences.

“Of course, we know how charismatic he is, and what is the victim of a sexual attack. The shame you wear. The wine you wear,” he said. “Scott’s fear. Fear not to accept your family, your society, your church. All these things are huge factors.”

One woman said that Owen touched her inappropriately during therapy when she was 13 years old in 2007. During the hearings, the only woman who publicly accused him said that Owen felt something wrong with her. Now she added, “He no longer holds power over me.”

When the 66 -year -old Owen got the opportunity to speak, he said there was no excuse and justification for what he did.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “All I can offer is what is left in my life. And I hope that, offering these years, justice will be done in a small way, and those who hurt me can turn me off and move forward from their healing.”

Prosecutor’s Defense Prosecutor Count Xayiz stated that Owen did not want to indulge himself from the judge, but in court he mentioned that his client was subjected to sexual violence as a child and fought with his sexuality.

The fourth district judge Craig Powell sentenced Owen to 15 years in prison on Monday. Given Owen’s age and the nature of his crimes, both the prosecutor’s office and the defense agreed that he would probably spend the rest of his life in prison.

Powell became emotional when he sentenced, saying Owen that he had been harmful not only to those who publicly talked on Monday, but also all these therapists and church leaders who are ethical and work to help people.

“I am afraid that thousands and thousands of these people will affect this horrible, disreanse,” the judge said.

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.

Within the framework of the conversion of the Utah licensing department, 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. He continued his active role in his therapeutic business Canyon counseling until Tribune and PROPBLICA had published an investigation.

Police questioned more than a dozen former Owen patients who reported that he had touched them in the ways they felt were inappropriate during the therapy sessions. But Owen collided with allegations of only three patients because the type of touch that, presumably other men, came under the Criminal Code, which had a shorter window for the prosecutor’s office to submit the case, called the statute of antiquity. The crimes accused Owen are all crimes that have no limit.

Both state licensers and local leaders in the LDS church knew about the inadequate touch of Owen back in 2016, reporting Tribune and Propublica, but none said or reported if they were in the police.

In response to the fact that the church stated that in response to the fact that it perceived all questions of sexual violation of the rules, and that in 2019 it confidentially announced internal records to warn the bishops that Owen’s behavior threatened the well -being of others or the church.

The church also stated that there was no process to check the therapists who recommend and pay for the use of members of the members. According to the Church’s press, the church press secretary said to “make their own decisions” about whether to see a specific therapist recommends the bishop.

For some who accused Owen of abuse, the sentence on Monday was the only chance to address Owen because the allegations could not be charged. This includes Michael, who asked to identify only his name. He said he saw Owen for therapy and off about a decade since 14 years. On Monday, he read a letter to his young I.

“I just learned on Thursday that we are out of our legal opportunity to correct this problem,” he said. “And it broke my heart, learning that I can’t do court for you. You must be strong. It will be so hard, but you’re going to go through it.”