Former Utah County therapist Scott Owen is facing a new felony charge alleging he molested a teenage girl during a session. This comes a month after he was arrested and charged in connection to two male patients’ allegations of sexual abuse.
Owen, 64, was charged Thursday with aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony. Last month, prosecutors charged him with 10 other felonies alleging object rape and forcible sodomy.
The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica reported in August on a range of sex abuse allegations against Owen, who had built a reputation over his 20-year career as a specialist who could help gay men who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some of the men who spoke to The Tribune said their bishop used church funds to pay for sessions where Owen allegedly also touched them inappropriately.
Owen gave up his therapy license in 2018 after several patients complained to state licensers that he had touched them inappropriately, but those allegations were not covered by media and were not widely known. He continued to have an active role in his therapy business, Canyon Counseling, until this summer.
In the latest case, prosecutors say that a woman reported to Provo police that Owen touched her inappropriately during a therapy session in November 2007, when she was 13 years old. She had sought therapy to help her deal with the death of a parent, charging documents state.
Owen allegedly told the girl that religious authority — which he said he had — would help her feel better, according to the charges. Tribune reporting has shown that Owen has had various leadership positions within the LDS Church through the years, including as a bishop and a stake counselor.
“The defendant had her sit on his lap telling her the religious authority would pass from him into her and make her not feel sad,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents, adding that Owen allegedly rubbed the girl’s body and groped her chest while she sat on his lap.
Owen’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Provo Police began investigating Owen this summer, after The Tribune and ProPublica published their investigation. He was charged last month in connection to two men’s reports, both who say Owen engaged in sexual contact with them during therapy sessions. The alleged touching included kissing, cuddling and Owen using his hand to touch their anuses. One man also alleges Owen performed oral sex on him.
In total, Provo police have interviewed at least a dozen of Owen’s former patients, according to court records, all of whom say he touched them in ways they felt were inappropriate during therapy sessions. Many of those patients are men who told police they were seeking therapy with Owen for “same sex attraction.” Provo Captain Brian Taylor has said that some of the former patient’s reports involved allegations that were outside the window of time that prosecutors had to file a case, called the statute of limitations.
Provo police wrote in arrest documents that Owen allegedly used his position of trust as a therapist to coerce his patients into engaging in kissing, cuddling and sexual touching during therapy sessions. Utah law says patients can’t consent to sexual acts with a health care professional if they believe the touching is part of a “medically or professionally appropriate diagnosis, counseling or treatment.”
Under a negotiated settlement with Utah’s licensing division, Owen was able to surrender his license five years ago without admitting to any inappropriate conduct, and the sexual nature of his patients’ allegations is not referenced in the documents he signed when he gave up his license.
Both state licensers and the local leaders in the LDS Church knew of inappropriate touching allegations against Owen as early as 2016, reporting by The Tribune and ProPublica showed, but neither would say whether they ever reported Owen to the police. In Utah, with few exceptions, the state licensing division is not legally required to forward information to law enforcement.
The church said in response that it takes all matters of sexual misconduct seriously, and that in 2019 it confidentially annotated internal records to alert bishops that Owen’s conduct had threatened the well-being of other people or the church.
Follow @jm_miller