UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Bob Mims and Michael McFall
The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Apr 11 2013
A local-level Mormon church counselor has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl in his ward.
Cesar Duran, 31, was booked into Utah County jail on Tuesday on suspicion of two counts of sexually abusing a child with whom he had a relationship of special trust, a first-degree felony.
However, Duran’s defense attorney, Clayton Simms, said his client will fight the charges.
“His position is that he is absolutely innocent,” Simms said Thursday. “He was alone with this girl and didn’t protect himself from false allegations. He maintains that nothing inappropriate occurred at all, there was no sexual contact.”
LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter confirmed that Duran had, until this alleged incident, been a first counselor in the bishopric of a Spanish-speaking ward of the Geneva Height Stake in Orem.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.