For years, Utah has allowed government officials to do something other states prohibited: ask a person who reports a sexual assault to take a polygraph test.
This will change soon. Earlier this month, state lawmakers passed a bill prohibiting police and other government officials from requesting polygraph tests from alleged victims of sexual assault. Gov. Spencer Cox signed it Thursday and it will take effect in May.
Experts say these tests are particularly unreliable in victims of sexual abuse. Indeed, victims may feel stress and anxiety at the idea of recounting their assault, which the polygraph may interpret as deception. Other states do not allow their use with assault victims for this reason.
It took two years and three legislative sessions for Utah state Rep. Angela Romero, the House minority leader, to get the bill across the finish line. When she first sponsored it in 2024, she cited reports from the Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica As she told fellow lawmakers, the harmful effects polygraph tests can have on people who report sexual abuse.
In the case covered by the media, state licensors required a man to take a polygraph test after he reported that his therapist, Scott Owen, had touched him inappropriately. Test results indicated he was misleading, leading the patient to drop his complaint. Owen was allowed to continue practicing for two more years, until others came forward with similar allegations. Owen is now in prison after admitting to sexually abusing patients.
Romero said in a recent interview that she was determined to bring back the former patient’s bill.
“For me, it was really specifically for this individual who was disbelieved,” Romero said, “and then their attacker continued to harm other people.”
Cox signed the law in a small ceremony at her office, telling Romero that she “has been such a champion, making a difference and saving lives.” The governor also nodded to reporting from The Tribune and ProPublica that was driving change.
Provo police began investigating Owen in 2023 after The Tribune and ProPublica published an article detailing a series of sexual assault allegations by the man taking the polygraph test, identified in previous reports under the pseudonym Andrew, and three others.
Former patients who spoke to the media said they sought Owen’s help because he was a therapist who had built a reputation as a specialist who could help gay men who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They said he touched them inappropriately during these sessions, some of which were paid with church funds.
Half of states have laws that explicitly prohibit law enforcement from performing a polygraph test on someone reporting a sexual assault. Some go further, prohibiting a broader group of government employees, beyond law enforcement, from requiring an alleged sexual assault victim to take one.
Although Romero’s bill has received support from prosecutors and police in every session she has proposed it, defense attorneys and some fellow lawmakers have been reluctant to keep polygraph tests as an option because alleged sexual assaults often have no other witnesses.
Polygraph test results are not admissible in court due to their unreliability. But Steve Burton of the Utah Defense Attorney Association said at a recent legislative hearing that it’s still helpful for prosecutors and investigators to consider those findings before deciding whether to pursue criminal charges.
“It’s often one of the only things a defense attorney can ask or use to try to demonstrate that their client may be telling the truth,” he said.
Romero pushed back on that idea, saying there are other types of interview techniques that authorities can use to determine whether a person’s account is truthful.
“It’s not a solution,” she said. “Especially when you’re dealing with someone who has been a victim. You could re-victimize that person. And it could also discourage them from moving forward and participating in the process of criminally prosecuting their abuser.”
“The worst thing I have ever experienced”
Reporting from The Tribune and ProPublica showed the harmful effects of a polygraph test on the man who reported Owen to the state’s licensors.
Andrew reported Owen to the Utah Division of Occupational Licensing in 2016. As part of the investigation, the licensors offered polygraph tests to both Andrew and Owen.
Owen refused. Andrew agreed, recalling that an investigator told him his death would reinforce what was essentially one person’s word against another’s.
But the polygraph results, Andrew said, suggest he was deceptive. Polygraph tests usually work to record signs of internal stress, which might suggest someone is not telling the truth.
“I had so much trauma,” he told The Tribune and ProPublica. “And so, certainly, when they ask me about particular things that happened in therapy, that’s going to elicit a very strong emotional response.”
The outcome affected his mental health, he said, and he told an investigator he no longer wanted to pursue the complaint.
In a public reprimand from licensors in 2016, Owen admitted to hugging Andrew – touching he called inappropriate but “non-sexual.” Andrew had reported that Owen groped him, encouraged him to undress and kissed him during sessions.
DOPL officials said they believe they responded appropriately to the complaint. But communications between Andrew and an investigator suggest that the agency’s decision not to discipline Owen more harshly was based largely on his denial and Andrew’s lie detector results.
Owen pleaded guilty to criminal charges in February 2025, admitting to sexually abusing two patients and leading them to believe that sexual touching was part of the therapy. He pleaded no contest in the case of a third patient.
Andrew was one of more than half a dozen men – most of them former patients – who spoke at Owen’s sentencing hearing a month later, about the harm he had done to them.
“The experience with Scott Owen was the worst thing I have ever experienced,” Andrew said. “I don’t think he has a place in society anymore.”
A judge sentenced Owen to at least 15 years in prison. He is currently being held at Utah Central Prison.
A new state task force
The state is also addressing some of the gaps identified by The Tribune and ProPublica in another way: by creating a task force to look into the increase in sexual misconduct complaints that the state’s licensors say they’ve seen against licensed professionals. The task force will focus on health care, mental health and massage therapy, professions that state officials say have historically received the highest percentage of sexual misconduct complaints.
News organizations reported that more than a third of mental health professionals who faced disciplinary action by licensors starting in 2012 were accused of sexual misconduct. In 2023, DOPL spokeswoman Melanie Hall said the agency is aware that certain types of licenses “are prone to certain types of violations.” The agency, she said, “takes these factors into account when investigating complaints and takes appropriate disciplinary action if necessary.”
The task force, announced earlier this month, will focus on suggesting changes to the law and creating resources to help victims more easily report misconduct to the state.
It also plans to develop a standardized process for sharing reports among agencies that may become aware of an accusation — something currently not legally required. The Tribune and ProPublica highlighted this gap in their reporting on Owen’s case: Although Andrew and at least two others reported Owen to DOPL, the licensors never shared those reports with Provo police.
Margaret Busse is the executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, which hosts the DOPL. She said in a statement that licensed professionals who commit acts of sexual misconduct violate not only their clients’ trust, but also the public’s trust in their profession.
“These heinous acts cause profound harm to victims and damage the reputation of entire industries,” she said. “This task force is our unequivocal statement that Utah will hold licensed professionals accountable for protecting our communities and the integrity of state-regulated industries.