SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Deseret News
July 7, 2020
By Annie Knox
Charges have tested victim’s memory in alleged crime and the reach of statutes of limitation
West Jordan – A judge has declined to dismiss a set of criminal charges against a former youth symphony orchestra director accused of decades-old sexual misconduct with teenage boys.
Third District Judge Kristine Johnson ruled late Monday that prosecutors in Salt Lake County have met their burden of proof, a preponderance of the evidence, at the early stage in the case against Brent E. Taylor, a former longtime director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony.
Attorneys have focused their attention on the nitty-gritty of Utah’s statutes of limitation and whether they provide Taylor a defense to allegations from a former teenage employee who worked for him in the 1980s.
No one disputes that the charges will hold up only if the boy was legally a child — age 13 or younger — at the time the alleged sexual abuse began. While the defense says the evidence fails to prove his age, prosecutors contend it strongly suggests he was not yet 14 years old.
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.