This text was produced for ProPublica’s Native Reporting Community in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Join Dispatches to get tales like this one as quickly as they’re printed.
The final time Sam met together with his therapist, Scott Owen, the session was nothing greater than an hour of Owen sexually abusing him, he advised a Provo, Utah, courtroom this week. Sam remembers sitting in his automotive afterward, screaming as loud as he might.
“I might really feel him throughout my pores and skin,” he mentioned. “I couldn’t imagine this was occurring.”
It was October 2017, and Sam had been seeing Owen for remedy for greater than a yr. A trustworthy member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was scuffling with what he referred to as “undesirable same-sex attraction.” Owen was a high-ranking chief within the LDS Church at the moment, and Sam mentioned Owen assured him that he had helped greater than 200 males who felt equally.
As an alternative, he mentioned, Owen “meticulously leveraged” his two roles as a therapist and a church chief to guarantee him that the sexual touching throughout their classes was key to serving to him heal, learn to settle for intimacy and develop nearer to God.
“He exploited my belief, he weaponized my religion and dismantled my confidence,” Sam advised the courtroom. “What he did was not simply unethical. It was calculated, predatory and damaging.”
Police started investigating Owen in 2023 solely after The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica reported on a variety of intercourse abuse allegations towards Owen, who had constructed a repute over his 20-year remedy profession as a specialist who might assist homosexual males who had been members of the LDS Church. A few of the males who spoke to The Tribune mentioned their bishop within the religion referred them to Owen and used church funds to pay for classes the place Owen allegedly additionally touched them inappropriately.
Austin Millet at his residence in Oregon. Millet is one in every of a number of males who advised The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica that Owen abused them throughout classes paid for with funds from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Amanda Lucier for ProPublica
In February, Owen pleaded responsible to 3 costs, admitting he sexually abused Sam and a second affected person who additionally mentioned he sought Owen’s assist as a result of he was struggling together with his sexuality and Latter-day Saints religion. Owen additionally pleaded no contest in one other case, saying prosecutors probably had sufficient proof to convict him at a trial on an allegation that he had groped a younger woman throughout a remedy session.
However the quantity of people that say that Owen harmed them is way bigger — they usually stuffed a Provo courtroom on Monday as Owen was sentenced to spend at the least 15 years in jail.
One after the other, they stood at a podium in court docket and advised Owen how he had harm them. Most had been his sufferers, like Sam, a pseudonym to guard his identification from his neighborhood.
One man advised the court docket Owen had abused him when Owen was a pacesetter of a younger males’s group organized by the LDS Church.
“He had sleepovers at his home,” Mike Bahr mentioned. “I used to be there as soon as, and I’ve lived in a nightmare since.”
Additionally talking had been members of the family of a person who had died by suicide, together with his brother who mentioned his sibling disclosed to him that Owen had abused him simply days earlier than he took his life.
And there was one in every of Owen’s circle of relatives members, his cousin, who alleges that Owen molested him on a household journey when he was a child. After changing into extra public together with his personal abuse allegations a number of years in the past, James Cooper has labored to collect others who say his cousin victimized them.
James Cooper speaks throughout Owen’s sentencing listening to. Cooper is Owen’s cousin and alleges the person abused him when he was a baby.
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Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune
He spoke concerning the dynamics that allowed Owen to harm others for therefore lengthy with out repercussions.
“Definitely, we all know how charismatic he’s, and what it’s wish to be a sufferer of sexual assault. The disgrace you carry. The guilt you carry,” he mentioned. “The concern of Scott. The concern of not being accepted by your loved ones, your society, your church. All these issues are huge components.”
One lady spoke about Owen touching her inappropriately throughout remedy when she was 13 years outdated, in 2007. In the course of the listening to, the one lady to have publicly accused him mentioned Owen had made her really feel like one thing was incorrect along with her. Now, she added, “He now not holds energy over me.”
When Owen, 66, was given an opportunity to talk, he mentioned there was no excuse or rationale for what he had performed.
“I’m so sorry,” he mentioned. “All I’ve to supply is what’s left of my life. And I hope that in providing these years, justice may have been met in some small trend, and those that I’ve harm can disconnect from me and transfer ahead with their therapeutic.”
Protection lawyer Earl Xaiz mentioned Owen didn’t need leniency from the choose however talked about in court docket that his shopper had been sexually abused himself as a baby and had struggled together with his sexuality.
Fourth District Decide Kraig Powell sentenced Owen on Monday to fifteen years to life in jail. Given Owen’s age and the character of his crimes, each prosecutors and the protection agreed it’s probably he’ll spend the remainder of his life in jail.
Powell turned emotional as he handed down the sentence, telling Owen that he harmed not solely those that spoke publicly on Monday, however all of these therapists and church leaders who’re moral and dealing to assist folks.
“1000’s and hundreds of those folks, I concern, shall be affected by this horrible, abhorrent case,” the choose mentioned.
Owen was sentenced to jail after he admitted he sexually abused sufferers throughout classes.
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Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune
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 had been by no means investigated by the police and weren’t broadly identified.
Underneath a negotiated settlement with Utah’s licensing division, 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. He continued to have an lively position in his remedy enterprise, Canyon Counseling, till The Tribune and ProPublica printed their investigation.
Police interviewed greater than a dozen former sufferers of Owen’s, all of whom reported that he touched them in methods they felt had been inappropriate throughout remedy classes. However Owen confronted costs in reference to solely three sufferers, as a result of the kind of touching that the opposite males alleged fell beneath elements of the felony code that had a shorter window of time for prosecutors to file a case, referred to as the statute of limitations. The crimes that Owen was charged with are all felonies that don’t have any statute of limitations.
Each state licensors and native leaders within the LDS Church knew of inappropriate touching allegations towards 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.
The church mentioned in response to that reporting that it takes all issues of sexual misconduct significantly, and that in 2019 it confidentially annotated inside information to alert bishops that Owen’s conduct had threatened the well-being of different folks or the church.
The church additionally mentioned it has no course of in place to vet the therapists its church leaders advocate and pay for utilizing member donations. It’s as much as particular person members, a church spokesperson has mentioned, to “make their very own selections” about whether or not to see a selected therapist that their bishop recommends.
Michael, a former affected person of Owen’s who agreed to be photographed however requested to be recognized by solely his first identify, appears to be like at his spouse whereas talking in court docket concerning the inappropriate touching he mentioned occurred in remedy classes.
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Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune
For some who accused Owen of abuse, Monday’s sentencing was the one likelihood they needed to tackle Owen as a result of costs couldn’t be introduced of their instances. That features Michael, who requested to be recognized by solely his first identify. He mentioned he noticed Owen for remedy on and off for a few decade, beginning when he was 14. He learn a letter to his youthful self in court docket on Monday.
Utah Man Pleads Responsible to Sexually Abusing Sufferers “Utilizing His Place as a Therapist”
“I simply discovered on Thursday that we’re past our authorized alternative to repair this downside,” he mentioned. “And it broke my coronary heart to be taught that I can’t pursue a court docket case for you. … You’ll must be sturdy. It’s going to be so exhausting, however you’re going to make it by means of.”
Editor’s be aware: Sam is recognized solely by a pseudonym as a result of he requested anonymity. We’ve granted this request due to the danger to his standing in his neighborhood. The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica usually use sources’ full names in tales. However typically that isn’t attainable, and we think about different approaches. That always takes the type of initials or center names. On this case, we felt that we couldn’t absolutely shield our supply by these means. We all know his full identify and have corroborated his accounts in paperwork and thru interviews with others.
