A jury found an Orem chiropractor guilty Friday of object rape and other sexual offenses against three patients who said he touched their genitals during treatment.
The crimes for which Dale Harland Heath, 58, was convicted occurred over a three-year period, Orem police Lt. Craig Martinez said at the time charges were filed.
When the first two victims reported the incidents to the city in 2013, prosecutors did not feel they had enough evidence to proceed, but when a third patient came forward in 2015, all the cases were reopened, police said.
Despite prosecutors initially declining charges, the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) reviewed the complaints, and Heath allegedly claimed the contact with the women’s genitalia had been either accidental or incidental to treatment, court documents state.
Heath was allowed to continue practice under conditions that he, one, explain planned contact near his female patients’ private areas ahead of time and obtain their consent and, two, have a “chaperone” present during such contact.
When the third alleged victim came forward with allegations of vaginal contact, Heath again insisted he had not touched her inappropriately, and that a DOPL chaperone had been present, as required.
But “police interviewed the chaperone, who admitted to signing patient logs representing that they had been present for treatments of females when they had not been present for such visits,” a probable cause statement said.
Charges against Heath were filed Sept. 28, 2015. Heath has practiced chiropracty in Orem since 2011, police said.
Heath faces five years to life in prison for object rape, a first-degree felony; one year to 15 years for forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony; and up to one year for each of the sexual battery counts, a class A misdemeanor. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 21.
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