Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Latter-day Saint movements Provo and Davis County, Utah, USA · 2015

United States: Especially For Youth counselor Keldon Cook imprisoned for grooming a camper he told the abuse was acceptable

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

counselor, Especially For Youth (LDS Church youth conference program)

Organization

Especially For Youth (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints youth conference program), Brigham Young University (program host site)

Spiritual nexus

Cook met the victim, then 14, as his assigned counselor at a weeklong Especially For Youth program hosted at Brigham Young University in 2012. Sexual contact occurred between March 2014 and March 2015; when the victim was 16, meeting again at a Davis County park, Cook told him the earlier contact was acceptable specifically because of his EFY counselor role — an explicit invocation of the program's religious authority as license.

Pastoral or clerical authority
Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2015-12-01 · guilty plea and sentence

Utah state court (Utah/Davis County). Pleaded guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old; sentenced to four concurrent zero-to-five-year prison terms.

Documented coercion mechanisms

counselor authority invoked directly to normalize the abuse ('acceptable ... because he was his EFY counselor')
continued contact and grooming after the residential program ended
trust extended by the church-affiliated program to families

Primary record

Sources

regional newspaper court reporting criminal disposition Deseret News, 'Ex-EFY counselor sent to prison for sex with teen boy' (Dec. 1, 2015).: Reports the sentencing to four concurrent zero-to-five-year terms and background on the guilty plea.
regional newspaper court reporting corroboration and nexus KSL.com, 'Former EFY counselor pleads guilty to sexual contact with teen.': Details the plea deal, the reduced charges, and the BYU-hosted EFY program setting where Cook and the victim met as counselor and camper.
legal commentary corroboration Salt Lake Criminal Defense Attorney case summary, 'Sexual Abuse by a LDS Church Counselor' (Dec. 2015).: Legal-practice summary quoting the victim's statement that Cook told him the conduct was acceptable because of his EFY counselor status.

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