A conversion therapist in Utah who pled guilty to charges related to sexually abusing clients he had promised to help turn straight received three sentences of five years to life in prison for three felony charges of forcible sodomy. He also pled no contest to sexually abusing an underage girl.

Scott Dale Owen was once a Mormon bishop who became a mental health counselor in Provo, Utah, where he ran a “person-centered” therapy practice where he treated men for their “same-sex attraction,” a term often used by conversion therapy proponents to describe being gay.

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Police found over a dozen clients who said that they were sexually abused by Owen after seeking treatment from him.

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“Dr. Owen during his therapy would tell the victims that their relationships with men were broken and his therapy could help them be able to have ‘normal’ relationships with men and eventually women,”  a police booking affidavit said. He “used his position as a therapist to coerce the victims into engaging in kissing, cuddling and sexual touching during therapy session.”

One of the victims said that Owen became “increasingly physical,” would assure him that they were “making progress,” and warned him not to talk about the therapy with others because they “may not understand the treatment.” He said that Owen told him that he had to trust him completely to be “cured.”

The same pattern was revealed in another victim’s recollection of his time as Owen’s client and ecclesiastical follower.

The man told investigators that Owen explained that “they were going to focus on developing an intimate and spiritual relationship.” Owen told the victim that “he was unique” and that Owen “had been spiritually prompted” to work with him.

Owen told the man “that God gives to certain people special permission to do things that are normally wrong.” The victim took this to mean that Owen “had religious authority to be sexually intimate with him,” according to the charging documents.

Owen pled guilty in February to three charges of felony forcible sodomy, for which he received prison terms of five years to life, to be served consecutively. The plea deal dismissed one additional charge of forcible sodomy and six charges of object rape.

He also pled no contest to a charge of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, related to the case of a 13-year-old girl who sought therapy from him in 2007 following the death of one of her parents. Owen would have her sit on his lap so that his “religious authority” could pass through her. Court documents say that he then touched her breasts. He was sentenced to three years to life in that case, to be served concurrently with the other prison sentences.

In total, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison to life.

In 2016, Owen was reprimanded by the Utah Division of Professional Licensing for touching a client inappropriately, according to disciplinary records.

Between 2013 and 2018, Owen “again inappropriately touched a number of other clients” whom he was treating, according to the agency.

After those accusations, Owen surrendered his license but continued to have an active role at the Canyon Counseling Center in Provo, where the victims sought treatment.

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