Paul Bryant

Bryant is a former HOA president.

His father was a convert to the Mormon church. Paul Bryant grew up in the Tucson, Arizona area.

Bryant was convicted in 2016 of:
Description : 76-5-404.1 – AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD-ATTEMPTED/1ST DEGREE FELONY (attempted)

Thanks to your donations, FLOODLIT has obtained court records in Bryant’s case.

A police probable cause statement in Bryant’s case reads in part:

“PROBABLE CAUSE STATEMENT: [officer], Utah County Sheriff’s Office, having probable cause to believe a crime was committed, submitted evidence in support of the filing of this Information: For more than a decade, Paul Bryant has been sexually abusing two of his adoptive children, in the Highland/Alpine area, on a regular basis.

Between 3/25/1998 and 3/24/2005, Bryant molested his adoptive son, [son], at least twice a year (he disclosed at least 1-2 times a month) for seven years when he was between 6 and 13 years of age (COUNTS 1-14). This molestation included the defendant pulling [son]’s pants down, touching [son]’s penis, and having [son] touch Bryant’s penis until the point of ejaculation, at least once in the back seat of Bryant’s car in a dark, secluded parking lot. Another incident of [son] masturbating Bryant occurred at [son]’s grandma’s home, while [son] was sleeping in the cold storage room. In addition, Bryant had [son] masturbate him in Bryant’s office closet at least once. Bryant would use a monogrammed white handkerchief to “clean up” afterwards. Police seized a similar monogrammed white handkerchief at Bryant’s residence after his arrest. During the years of molestation, Bryant told [son] not to disclose the abuse, saying that if [son] did disclose, Bryant “would kill [him] or make [his] friends disappear and get away with it because he was in the FBI and knew all the laws and how it worked.” (COUNT 23) Due to Bryant’s relationship as [son]’s adoptive father, Bryant was in a position of special trust, which is an aggravating factor.

Between 7/6/2003 and 7/5/2007, Bryant molested his adoptive daughter, [daughter], at least twice a year when she was between 10 and 13 years of age. This molestation included, on one occasion (when she was between 10 and 12), placing her sitting naked on a bathroom counter after her shower, spreading her legs open, and touching the outside of her vagina (COUNT 15). On another occasion (when she was between 12 and 13), she was naked in her room after a shower and had to hide in her closet because he came in her closed room, despite her telling him not to. During this same time period, at least twice a year (she approximates it happened at least twenty times), Bryant would pinch, slap and/or grab her clothed buttocks around their house (COUNTS 16-21), which caused her affront or alarm. On another occasion, when they would go shooting, Bryant’s open palms grazed each side of her breasts while he “repositioned” her body; he also grabbed her hips to “reposition” her; these touches caused her affront or alarm (COUNT 22).
Due to Bryant’s relationship as [daughter]’s adoptive father, Bryant was in a position of special trust, which is an aggravating factor.

During the investigation, Bryant’s sister disclosed she was molested by Bryant when she was 6 or 7 (and he was 14 YO), when he had her put her mouth on his penis, saying, “you can kiss it” and “it’s like chapstick; you can put it on your lips.” Post-Miranda, Bryant confessed that his sister was the sexual aggressor and she just grabbed his penis with her hand and played with it, which aroused him. He denied sexually touching [son] and or [daughter]

After Bryant was booked into jail on August 31, 2015 for the above 22 charges, he called his father and neighbor/girlfriend on September 1 to repeatedly asked them to tamper with the victims’ willingness to cooperate with the investigation and prosecution of the case. At 2:48pm, he called his father and told him to contact [son] and [daughter] to explain to them the “grave consequences” of what they were doing and to have them “go and tell the officers, ‘Hey, we were mad at dad and we were willing to work things out;’ maybe there would be a change of heart” (COUNTS 24 & 25). At 3:59pm, Bryant called his neighbor/girlfriend to tell her that she needed to “beg, plead, do whatever you have to do to talk to [[son] and [daughter]] and have them drop the charges” (COUNTS 26 & 27).”

—

from KSL on 2019-12-04:

“AMERICAN FORK — Utah County sheriff’s detectives are investigating why they say a registered sex offender visited an elementary school for four consecutive days during Halloween without ever signing in at the front office.

Paul Bryant, 51, of Lehi, was arrested Monday for investigation of four counts of being a sex offender in a protected area.

From Oct. 28-31, Bryant visited an undisclosed elementary school in American Fork, according to a police affidavit. Bryant is a friend of a teacher in the school and went to that teacher’s classroom, said Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon.

Bryant does not have a child who attends the school, Cannon said. Whether the teacher knew Bryant was not allowed to be on school property was not known Tuesday, but Cannon said it was something that Bryant should have known.

“He had no legitimate reason at all to be there. He knew that. His signature is on the Sex Offender Registry agreement,” he said.

Bryant pleaded guilty in 2016 to three counts of attempted aggravated sex abuse of a child, after originally being arrested for investigation of 21 counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child. He was given a suspended prison term, but sentenced to a year in jail followed by probation.

“In July of 2019, Paul was released early from probation but as a lifetime member of the Sex Offender Registry, he was still required to register as a sex offender and adhere to the Sex Offender Registry laws and requirements,” deputies noted in the new arresting affidavit.

As part of the requirements for being a registered sex offender, Bryant is not allowed to enter “protected areas” such as schools.

But over Halloween, Bryant visited an elementary school — an action that was noticed by “several others” who called the sheriff’s office to investigate, Cannon said.

“Interviews with the teacher and school administrators revealed that Paul had been present in the elementary school on at least four different occasions the week of Halloween, Oct. 28–31. All visitors to the school are required to sign the ‘visitor registration log’ located in the main office. Even though Paul visited the main office on all four of his visits, he never signed the visitor registration logbook,” according to the affidavit.
“There would be ample opportunities for Paul to interact in an unsupervised manner with the children. This interaction would be further facilitated by the presence of a dog.”
–Police affidavit

A picture was presented to detectives showing Bryant in a Halloween costume at the school, the affidavit states. On at least one occasion, he also brought a service dog to the school with him.

“This occurred during the lunch hour when the kids were in the halls and where there would be ample opportunities for Paul to interact in an unsupervised manner with the children. This interaction would be further facilitated by the presence of a dog,” the affidavit states. “It should also be noted that on at least one occasion, Paul brought treats for the children in the teacher’s class. Many of these elementary school children would be around the same approximate age of the male child victim that Paul has previously admitted sexually assaulting.”

Bryant requested his attorney be present when deputies went to his home to interview him, according to the sheriff’s office. After he was arrested and taken to jail, his attorney was able to post bail.”

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