On Monday, a former Utah therapist admitted in a Provo courtroom that he sexually abused several of his patients, pleading guilty to three felony charges and no contest to another. He could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Provo police began investigating Scott Owen in 2023 after The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica reported on a range of sex abuse allegations against Owen, who had built a reputation over his 20-year therapy career as a specialist who could help gay men who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
While Owen gave up his therapy license in 2018 after several patients complained to state licensors that he had touched them inappropriately, the allegations were never investigated by the police and were not widely known. He continued to have an active role in his therapy business until the newsrooms published their investigation.
Meanwhile in Tennessee, two Republican state lawmakers have filed legislation that aims to protect domestic violence victims by requiring more transparency from people who’ve been ordered by a court to give up their guns.
The bill’s introduction follows WPLN and ProPublica reporting that found loopholes in the state’s gun dispossession laws that allows firearms to remain in the hands of abusers who’ve been barred from keeping them, including some who have gone on to kill their victims.
