Convicted:
2020,
LDS positions: Unknown position, - LDS mission:
no
Alleged:
Multiple victims,
Alleged crime scenes:
Unknown crime scene,
Criminal case(s): Convicted, Prison,
updated May 11, 2026 - request update | add info
Samuel Heber Butler, 24, “told the investigator that his parents, religious leader and counselors knew about the incident — and that they chalked it up to Butler being a “kid discovering the world” who was curious about the female body.”
from the Salt Lake Tribune on 2020-02-14:
“This Utah man has been accused of sexual assault eight times — the latest involves a child
For the eighth time, a Utah man has been accused of sexual assault. The latest case, for which police arrested Samuel Heber Butler on Thursday, involved a young girl.
This incident comes just two weeks since the 24-year-old was acquitted of rape in the only case that has actually made it to a courtroom.
Butler sat on the witness stand in St. George on Jan. 30 and professed his innocence after a Dixie State University student reported in 2017 that he raped her on their first date. The next day, a jury acquitted him.
“Do you believe you pushed things too far?” his defense attorney, Michael Petro, asked Butler at the trial.
“I do not,” Butler responded, according to a courtroom recording.
“Do you believe you did anything without her consent?”
“I did not.”
What jurors didn’t hear was any details of the past accusations women have made against him —though that had been a possibility.
In fact, southern Utah prosecutors had won their motion seeking to allow police reports of past allegations to be brought up. But after his defense attorney indicated he would appeal the decision, Deputy Washington County Attorney Ryan Shaum backed off.
Shaum didn’t return a request for comment Friday, but wrote in court papers that he wouldn’t present evidence of past allegations to a jury so to “expedite proceedings in this case.”
A new allegation
Two weeks after that acquittal, officers arrested Butler early Thursday in Utah County after a woman called police and told them he had just sexually abused her 6-year-old daughter.
The woman reported that she had met Butler weeks earlier on Facebook, and that he had been over at her Provo home Wednesday evening. Butler and her daughter had fallen asleep on the couch, the woman reported, and she went to her bedroom and fell asleep.
“The victim woke up her mother a few hours later,” a police officer wrote in jail booking documents, “and told her that Samuel had sexually assaulted her.”
When the woman confronted Butler, the man ran from the house.
Police say that sometime after leaving the woman’s home, Butler cut his arms and wrists with a kitchen knife, then crashed his van into a nearby car before driving away. Police arrested him just after 6 a.m. on Thursday.
The 6-year-old girl later told police that Butler had removed some of her clothing while they were on the couch, and had sexually abused her.
“The victim disclosed that Samuel told her he would never do this to her again,” a police officer wrote, “and also said Samuel told her he was sorry as well.”
Butler refused to talk to police without an attorney, according to jail documents. It’s not clear who is representing him — Petro, who defended him at trial, said he’s no longer Butler’s defense attorney.
“If the allegations are true, I would be shocked,” Petro wrote in an email. “I am not aware of anything in his background which would indicate he has a sexual attraction to children.”
‘I had told him no’
Butler’s arrest comes two weeks after a jury had spent less than three hours deliberating before finding him not guilty of a charge that could have landed him in prison for the rest of his life.
Butler and the alleged victim both testified, and much of their stories were similar: They met on the dating app Tinder. He had picked her up from student housing to get coffee, but instead, took her back to his apartment to watch a movie.
While inside his room, they began kissing and she told him, “No,” several times when he began touching her breast.
But from there, their stories diverge.
He testified that she had told him she didn’t have sex on the first date — but wanted to make an exception to the rule. She helped him take her clothes off, and they had sex.
She testified that he continued to push himself on her, even after she said no. As he began taking her clothes off, she said she froze.
“I didn’t know what to do or how to react,” she testified. “At this point, I had told him no and he wasn’t listening to me. So I wasn’t sure what to do and I kind of froze up.”
She said they had intercourse — but it wasn’t consensual.
The jury wasn’t told about the previous times Butler had been accused of sexual abuse. They didn’t know that, in the four years prior to the trial, police agencies across Utah investigated six prior allegations.
Three of those cases involved adult women he met through online dating apps, who each reported to police that he had assaulted them on first dates. And, in 2015, Butler allegedly told an officer he had inappropriately touched three young girls years earlier — a statement that led police to look into his past.
A judge had ruled this past summer that jurors could read police reports involving two of his past accusers, who had reported similar accounts of unwanted sexual touching while on first dates.
Prosecutors had initially argued that the reports would show the jury that Butler had a willingness to escalate to physical force even if a woman didn’t consent.
But Petro, Butler’s attorney, appealed. He wrote to the Utah Court of Appeals that the alleged incidents were not similar enough, and noted Butler was never criminally charged in those cases.
That’s when prosecutors withdrew their plan to present past accusations in court.
Past allegations
Butler first came onto police’s radar in 2014, when a Brigham Young University freshman reported that Butler had taken her to a trailhead parking lot and groped her, despite her protests. Utah County prosecutors declined to file charges.
Three months later, a Utah State University student told Logan police she met Butler on a dating app, and after walking with him around campus, she drove him to a ranger station in Logan Canyon and parked.
Eventually, she alleged, he raped her, although she had asked him to stop undressing her and touching her. She said she later “felt paralyzed and thought the only way to get Sam to stop was to just let him do what he wanted,” the police report said.
She reported the alleged rape three days later, but later asked for the case to be closed.
Later that year, three different police agencies received reports concerning Butler after he called 911 while walking along Interstate 15 in Utah County saying he felt suicidal, according to a Utah Highway Patrol report.
A trooper wrote that when he spoke with Butler, then 20, the young man said he was distraught because he had sexually assaulted three girls eight years earlier, in Salt Lake, Utah and Millard counties.
Butler later told a Millard County investigator that he, as a boy, had touched one of the girls, who was 4 or 5 years old, because children at that age are “forgetful and wouldn’t remember it,” according to a Millard County report. Butler told the investigator that his parents, religious leader and counselors knew about the incident — and that they chalked it up to Butler being a “kid discovering the world” who was curious about the female body.
The Millard County investigator later contacted the family of one alleged victim, according to the report. But the girl didn’t remember anything, her parents told police, and they did not want to take action against Butler.
Unified police conducted a similar investigation in Herriman. That alleged victim was interviewed but did not disclose any inappropriate touching, according to a police report. It’s not clear whether Orem police ever followed up on a report of abuse there.
By 2016, a third woman had accused Butler of sexual assault in Utah County, reporting that she met him on a dating app and had agreed to drive with him up Provo Canyon. He pulled over and began kissing her aggressively, she reported, before he pinned her against a door and groped her.
That case was closed after the woman stopped communicating with officers, according to a police report.
It doesn’t appear that Utah investigators connected these reports until the Dixie State University student reported she was raped in 2017.
Butler has not been charged as of Friday in the latest case, and is in the Utah County jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.”
Have any info on this Mormon sex abuse case? Contact us.
Sources
- This Utah man has been accused of sexual assault eight times — the latest involves a child - Salt Lake Tribune- 2020-02-15,
- Police investigated six prior sex assault allegations against man charged in rape of Dixie State student,
- She reported a sex assault to BYU, Orem police in 2014; now Dixie State cops are connecting 3 more cases ,
- St. George man charged with rape; Dixie State police chief sees a pattern ,
- STATE OF UTAH vs. SAMUEL HEBER BUTLER CASE NUMBER 201400526 State Felony,
- SPANISH FORK CITY vs. SAMUEL HEBER BUTLER CASE NUMBER 161300844 Other Misdemeanor,
-
1. This Utah man has been accused of sexual assault eight times — the latest involves a child - Salt Lake Tribune- 2020-02-15
For the eighth time, a Utah man has been accused of sexual assault. The latest case, for which police arrested Samuel Heber Butler on Thursday, involved a young girl.
This incident comes just two weeks since the 24-year-old was acquitted of rape in the only case that has actually made it to a courtroom.
Butler sat on the witness stand in St. George on Jan. 30 and professed his innocence after a Dixie State University student reported in 2017 that he raped her on their first date. The next day, a jury acquitted him.
“Do you believe you pushed things too far?” his defense attorney, Michael Petro, asked Butler at the trial.
“I do not,” Butler responded, according to a courtroom recording.
“Do you believe you did anything without her consent?”
“I did not.”
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What jurors didn’t hear was any details of the past accusations women have made against him —though that had been a possibility.
In fact, southern Utah prosecutors had won their motion seeking to allow police reports of past allegations to be brought up. But after his defense attorney indicated he would appeal the decision, Deputy Washington County Attorney Ryan Shaum backed off.
Shaum didn’t return a request for comment Friday, but wrote in court papers that he wouldn’t present evidence of past allegations to a jury so to “expedite proceedings in this case.”
A new allegationTwo weeks after that acquittal, officers arrested Butler early Thursday in Utah County after a woman called police and told them he had just sexually abused her 6-year-old daughter.
The woman reported that she had met Butler weeks earlier on Facebook, and that he had been over at her Provo home Wednesday evening. Butler and her daughter had fallen asleep on the couch, the woman reported, and she went to her bedroom and fell asleep.
“The victim woke up her mother a few hours later,” a police officer wrote in jail booking documents, “and told her that Samuel had sexually assaulted her.”
When the woman confronted Butler, the man ran from the house.
Police say that sometime after leaving the woman’s home, Butler cut his arms and wrists with a kitchen knife, then crashed his van into a nearby car before driving away. Police arrested him just after 6 a.m. on Thursday.
The 6-year-old girl later told police that Butler had removed some of her clothing while they were on the couch, and had sexually abused her.
“The victim disclosed that Samuel told her he would never do this to her again,” a police officer wrote, “and also said Samuel told her he was sorry as well.”
Butler refused to talk to police without an attorney, according to jail documents. It’s not clear who is representing him — Petro, who defended him at trial, said he’s no longer Butler’s defense attorney.
“If the allegations are true, I would be shocked,” Petro wrote in an email. “I am not aware of anything in his background which would indicate he has a sexual attraction to children.”
‘I had told him no’Butler’s arrest comes two weeks after a jury had spent less than three hours deliberating before finding him not guilty of a charge that could have landed him in prison for the rest of his life.
Butler and the alleged victim both testified, and much of their stories were similar: They met on the dating app Tinder. He had picked her up from student housing to get coffee, but instead, took her back to his apartment to watch a movie.
While inside his room, they began kissing and she told him, “No,” several times when he began touching her breast.
But from there, their stories diverge.
He testified that she had told him she didn’t have sex on the first date — but wanted to make an exception to the rule. She helped him take her clothes off, and they had sex.
She testified that he continued to push himself on her, even after she said no. As he began taking her clothes off, she said she froze.
“I didn’t know what to do or how to react,” she testified. “At this point, I had told him no and he wasn’t listening to me. So I wasn’t sure what to do and I kind of froze up.”
She said they had intercourse — but it wasn’t consensual.
The jury wasn’t told about the previous times Butler had been accused of sexual abuse. They didn’t know that, in the four years prior to the trial, police agencies across Utah investigated six prior allegations.
Three of those cases involved adult women he met through online dating apps, who each reported to police that he had assaulted them on first dates. And, in 2015, Butler allegedly told an officer he had inappropriately touched three young girls years earlier — a statement that led police to look into his past.
A judge had ruled this past summer that jurors could read police reports involving two of his past accusers, who had reported similar accounts of unwanted sexual touching while on first dates.
Prosecutors had initially argued that the reports would show the jury that Butler had a willingness to escalate to physical force even if a woman didn’t consent.
But Petro, Butler’s attorney, appealed. He wrote to the Utah Court of Appeals that the alleged incidents were not similar enough, and noted Butler was never criminally charged in those cases.
That’s when prosecutors withdrew their plan to present past accusations in court.
Past allegationsButler first came onto police’s radar in 2014, when a Brigham Young University freshman reported that Butler had taken her to a trailhead parking lot and groped her, despite her protests. Utah County prosecutors declined to file charges.
Three months later, a Utah State University student told Logan police she met Butler on a dating app, and after walking with him around campus, she drove him to a ranger station in Logan Canyon and parked.
Eventually, she alleged, he raped her, although she had asked him to stop undressing her and touching her. She said she later "felt paralyzed and thought the only way to get Sam to stop was to just let him do what he wanted," the police report said.
She reported the alleged rape three days later, but later asked for the case to be closed.
Later that year, three different police agencies received reports concerning Butler after he called 911 while walking along Interstate 15 in Utah County saying he felt suicidal, according to a Utah Highway Patrol report.
A trooper wrote that when he spoke with Butler, then 20, the young man said he was distraught because he had sexually assaulted three girls eight years earlier, in Salt Lake, Utah and Millard counties.
Butler later told a Millard County investigator that he, as a boy, had touched one of the girls, who was 4 or 5 years old, because children at that age are "forgetful and wouldn't remember it," according to a Millard County report. Butler told the investigator that his parents, religious leader and counselors knew about the incident — and that they chalked it up to Butler being a "kid discovering the world" who was curious about the female body.
The Millard County investigator later contacted the family of one alleged victim, according to the report. But the girl didn't remember anything, her parents told police, and they did not want to take action against Butler.
Unified police conducted a similar investigation in Herriman. That alleged victim was interviewed but did not disclose any inappropriate touching, according to a police report. It’s not clear whether Orem police ever followed up on a report of abuse there.
By 2016, a third woman had accused Butler of sexual assault in Utah County, reporting that she met him on a dating app and had agreed to drive with him up Provo Canyon. He pulled over and began kissing her aggressively, she reported, before he pinned her against a door and groped her.
That case was closed after the woman stopped communicating with officers, according to a police report.
It doesn’t appear that Utah investigators connected these reports until the Dixie State University student reported she was raped in 2017.
Butler has not been charged as of Friday in the latest case, and is in the Utah County jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
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2. Police investigated six prior sex assault allegations against man charged in rape of Dixie State student
In the two years before Samuel H. Butler allegedly raped a Dixie State University student, police agencies across Utah investigated six prior allegations that he had sexually assaulted someone, according to recently released reports.
Three cases involved adult women he met via online dating apps, who each reported to police that he had assaulted them on first dates. And, in 2015, Butler allegedly told an officer he had inappropriately touched three young girls years earlier — a statement that led police to look into his past.
None of the investigations resulted in charges being filed against Butler, now 22, and he was never arrested. It appears that only in the most recent case, at Dixie State, did detectives connect the allegations, after several weeks of investigation. He was arrested and charged in April with raping a student in January.
Butler could not be reached for comment, and his defense attorney, Douglas Terry, did not respond to a request for comment. Butler is free on $20,000 bond. His next court hearing is scheduled for June 12.
A call for help • On a June day in 2015, Butler called 911 and said he was walking along Interstate 15 in Utah County and was suicidal, according to a recently released Utah Highway Patrol report. A trooper wrote that when he spoke with Butler, then 20, the young man said he was distraught because he had sexually assaulted three girls eight years earlier, in towns in Salt Lake, Utah and Millard counties.
The trooper passed the information on to the three police agencies, he wrote in the report, and Butler was released to a family member.
A month later, Butler sat in an Orem Police Department interview room and told a Millard County investigator that he, as a boy, had touched one of the girls, who was 4 or 5 years old, because children at that age are "forgetful and wouldn't remember it," according to a Millard County report released Thursday. Butler told the investigator that his parents, religious leader and counselors knew about the incident — and that they chalked it up to Butler being a "kid discovering the world" who was curious about the female body.
The Millard County investigator later contacted the family of one alleged victim, according to the report. But the girl didn't remember anything, her parents told police, and they did not want to take action against Butler.
The alleged victim's mother said she "just wanted to make sure that Sam got the help that he is looking for," the investigator wrote in his report.
Unified Police conducted a similar investigation in Herriman, according to a report released Thursday. That alleged victim was interviewed but did not disclose any inappropriate touching, it said. The Unified Police investigator did not interview Butler, writing that she would let Orem police interview him about the possible case there, noting he had already been investigated by that department for a sexual assault involving a woman in 2014.
But it does not appear Orem police followed up on the contact that the trooper had described in his report. Orem Lt. Craig Martinez said Thursday there were no records showing that information from UHP was forwarded to his department.
—
Four women, similar allegations • Reports previously obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune showed three women who contacted police about Butler described a pattern: He chatted online with the Dixie State student and women in Logan and Orem before meeting each in person, in 2017, 2015 and 2014. The women said they met Butler believing the dates would be in public places but instead were taken or went somewhere secluded or private.
A Utah County Sheriff's Office report released last week in response to a public records request shows a woman gave a similar account in 2016.
The woman said she met Butler on the app Plenty of Fish in February 2016, chatted for a while, and decided to meet him at a train station in Orem. She said he asked if they could go on a drive up Provo Canyon.
The woman told a deputy she began feeling uncomfortable as Butler touched her as they drove, and Butler eventually pulled over.
Butler soon began to kiss her aggressively — as the other women had indicated in their reports — before he pinned her against a door and groped her, she said. The woman said she worried Butler might rape her, and she began to shake and cry. He eventually agreed to take her home, she said.
Butler "knew [she] did not want to do anything romantic," the deputy wrote in a report, "and yet, he still pushed himself onto her."
The woman said she was concerned about Butler's past and future interactions with other women.
When Butler was interviewed by the deputy, he said that he stopped his advances once the woman objected. He said he stopped kissing her several times and asked her if she was OK with what was happening, according to the report.
Butler explained that he had crossed "boundaries" with a woman a few years earlier, and he "felt bad for making her uncomfortable," so he had sought counseling to learn how to treat women he dated, according to the report.
The case was closed with no charges filed because the woman stopped communicating with officers, the report said.
"In any sexual assault case, if we don't have access to an interview, or an ability for the victim to testify, then we can't pursue charges," Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman said.
The Logan woman's case was closed after she said she no longer wanted to cooperate, a report said. There is no indication officers alerted the Utah County and Logan women to other reports involving Butler.
Utah County prosecutors had declined to file charges related to the report from the first woman, Madeline MacDonald, who contacted Orem police in 2014. MacDonald also had expressed concern about other women and later shared her experience publicly while urging Brigham Young University to grant amnesty for Honor Code violations to students who report sexual assaults.
The Tribune generally does not identify victims of sexual assault, but MacDonald has agreed to the use of her name.
Washington County officials will investigate the three recent allegations against Butler and may reinterview the women as they build their case, aiming to show Butler's alleged "mode of operation," Dixie State Police Chief Don Reid has said.
Speaking generally, Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap said Friday that when building a case, "there is nothing that would stop us from looking at prior juvenile behavior," as well, if it matched certain behaviors by a suspect. "We would potentially pursue that."
jmiller@sltrib.com
lramseth@sltrib.com
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3. She reported a sex assault to BYU, Orem police in 2014; now Dixie State cops are connecting 3 more cases
In 2014, Brigham Young University freshman Madeline MacDonald was disappointed — and worried about possible future allegations — when Orem police told her no charges would be filed in her sexual-assault complaint against 19-year-old Samuel Butler.
She pressed police: "If he moves to like the other side of the country and something else happens again, will they be able to find this [report]?"
Orem and BYU officers assured MacDonald that Butler was "on everyone's radar" with his name "in the system." One officer said, "The data is all … very easy for communication."
But since then, three other women have accused Butler, now 21, of sexual assault in reports to Utah police departments. It appears that only in the most recent case did investigators connect the allegations.
"I'm very much upset that I reported him two years ago, and he's been running around [allegedly assaulting] women ever since," said MacDonald, who last year publicly described her assault and later being investigated by BYU under the LDS Church-owned school's Honor Code.
Samuel Heber Butler was charged last week in Washington County with first-degree felony rape in an assault reported by a Dixie State University student in January. Dixie State campus police sent inquiries about Butler to departments at or near campuses in Utah after Chief Don Reid interviewed him and suspected there may have been earlier accusations.
They found the three reports women made about Butler to investigators for Orem, Logan and the Utah County Sheriff's Office were similar to the Dixie State student's allegations.
In all four cases, the women said they first encountered Butler on online dating apps, Reid said. In the three cases in which police records have been provided to The Salt Lake Tribune, each woman reported that she had explicitly declined sex when Butler broached the topic early in the acquaintance.
The women said they met Butler believing the dates would be in public places but instead were taken or went somewhere secluded or private. Each woman said her assault began with kissing that quickly escalated to more intimate contact despite her protests.
Butler could not be reached for comment. A defense attorney who has appeared in court with Butler said he could not comment because he has not been retained.
Gary Cox, associate dean for Salt Lake Community College's criminal justice program, said there is no statewide "central clearinghouse" for officers to easily find people named in police reports but not arrested, prosecuted or convicted.
Showing a pattern of conduct may help a prosecution, he said, but circulating the name of a person accused but not charged "takes us down a dangerous path." He added: "To say there's a gap in the system, it depends."
But Elizabeth Bluhm, the sexual-assault advocacy coordinator at St. George's DOVE Center, said investigators should be more aggressive in searching for past reports because many sex-crime perpetrators establish a pattern of attacks. For victims, learning they are not the only one to accuse an individual can help them heal and give them courage to pursue charges, she said.
"Often, they are waffling, saying, 'I don't want to destroy somebody's life, he would never do that again, he's so sorry,' " she said. "But then if she [knew about other allegations] ... it would make a difference."
—
Case closed • MacDonald began having conversations with Butler on the dating app Tinder, where he told her "he was struggling with chastity issues but was trying to repent and be better, and I felt like I could be supportive of him," she later wrote in a statement for police, which she shared with The Tribune last year.
During their December 2014 date, MacDonald wrote, she told him that premarital sex was "a deal breaker."
"He was going to pick me up, and we were going to get hot chocolate or something," MacDonald said during a Trib Talk online broadcast in April 2016.
MacDonald said Butler instead took her to a water tower and trailhead with a parking lot that had views of Utah County. Inside his pickup truck, Butler repeatedly groped her over and under her clothes although she had protested and tried to push him away, she wrote in her statement.
When Butler drove MacDonald back to BYU, he told her he was "glad I was so firm in my standards otherwise we would have gone all the way and there would maybe have been violence," she wrote in her statement. "I felt violated by how he wouldn't take no for an answer."
MacDonald reported her alleged assault first to BYU's Title IX office, which is tasked by federal law to handle sex-crime complaints from students, and then to Orem police.
Officers from Orem and BYU later told her Butler would not be charged, MacDonald said, and she recorded the conversation. The Tribune offered to share the recording with BYU and Orem police for their review, but they declined.
On the recording, a man MacDonald identified as Orem police Detective Joshua Backus said he had not spoken with Butler.
But based on her statements, he said, he had asked county and city prosecutors about potential charges, and they had concerns.
Backus explained: "There was some participation on your part that I'm not saying was something that you wanted to happen, but it kind of still [inaudible]. On a moral standpoint ... what he did was wrong. ... He pushed things farther than you wanted it to go. ... On a criminal level, prosecutors still just don't feel that they have enough to push it."
Backus and the BYU officer, identified by MacDonald as Sgt. Elle Martin, then admonished her not to use Tinder and urged her to take a self-defense class.
When MacDonald asked whether other police departments would have access to her report, Martin replied: "Agencies could run a criminal history that pulls things from everywhere. ... Definitely in Utah County."
In an interview this week, Orem police Lt. Craig Martinez said prosecutors had declined to take on the case because there was not enough information to show Butler broke any state law, reasoning that MacDonald did not clearly indicate that the sexual contact was unwanted.
"She never said, 'Don't do this,' " he said.
However, in the written statement MacDonald sent to Backus, she said Butler repeatedly reached under her clothing despite her explicit verbal instructions to stop. She wrote that at times he prevented her from speaking by kissing her and tipping her head at an angle that temporarily prevented her from breathing, and said she eventually realized he was ignoring her protests.
—
Pursuing an interview • Butler was not a student at BYU — but the school opened an Honor Code investigation into MacDonald's conduct after she told the Title IX office she had been sexually assaulted.
Unlike police, Title IX investigator Melba Latu talked with Butler, an email from February 2015 shows. He described MacDonald saying "no," but he maintained he heeded her objection, Latu wrote.
Latu summarized his comments in a letter that frames Butler's response as "allegations" against MacDonald — a document label the school no longer uses, BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins confirmed Monday.
According to Latu's summary, Butler said MacDonald consented to the sexual contact. However, Latu's summary specifically notes that Butler indicated some degree of protest or struggle occurred, stating: "Madeline was not as vocal about her objections as she has made it out to be. Samuel was not as aggressive as Madeline has said he was. Samuel pushed, but when Madeline said, 'no,' he stopped."
BYU cleared MacDonald of violating the Honor Code, which bans premarital sex, regulates when and where unmarried men and women can visit one another in their homes, establishes a dress code, and forbids alcohol, tea, coffee and illicit drugs. The Title IX office determined MacDonald was a victim of sexual misconduct.
Jenkins said Monday that a Title IX investigation "is never done to determine an Honor Code violation by the victim."
MacDonald was among BYU students who last year urged the school to adopt an amnesty policy to protect students from investigation and discipline when they report sex crimes. The school, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced in October that it would immediately begin providing such amnesty, and a final written policy is still being reviewed, Jenkins said.
MacDonald, who no longer attends BYU, said it now appears to her that the school put more effort into investigating whether she had consensual sexual contact than Orem police put into investigating an accused abuser.
"I felt [Orem police] never felt urgency or much of a drive to investigate," she said.
—
Accusations in 2015, 2016 and 2017 • Three months after MacDonald's alleged assault, a Utah State University student told Logan police she met a man named Samuel Butler on MeetMe, an online dating site, and agreed to meet him March 17, 2015.
After they walked around campus, she said, she drove with him to a ranger station in Logan Canyon and parked, and they got into the back seat.
Eventually, she alleged, he raped her, although she had asked him to stop undressing her and touching her. She said she later "felt paralyzed and thought the only way to get Sam to stop was to just let him do what he wanted," the police report said.
She reported the alleged rape three days later. When police believed they had identified Butler months later, she looked through a photo lineup, but said she didn't see her assailant. She also said she did not want to testify or participate in any court proceedings, and asked for the case to be closed.
There is no indication in the report that Logan police discovered or told her about MacDonald's earlier case. Logan police have not responded to a request for comment.
The Tribune generally does not name sex assault victims; MacDonald has agreed to the use of her name.
A third woman accused Butler of sexual assault in Utah County in 2016 — but she also stopped cooperating, police say.
The woman said she met Butler on a dating app, Reid said, referring to a report his officers obtained from the Utah County Sheriff's Office. The Tribune has requested that report, but it has not received it.
Reid said Utah County's report does not indicate that detectives found or considered either of the two earlier sex assault accusations.
Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said Wednesday that he was "sure we knew about" MacDonald's report in Orem, but he said the cases were not connected to one another. He said investigators spoke with the alleged victim and Butler, but when the woman later stopped communicating with officers, "There was nothing more they can do."
In January, a Dixie State student told police she agreed to get coffee with Butler after talking with him on Tinder. He instead took her to his St. George apartment and eventually raped her, she says.
Spurred by Reid, his officers made phone calls to departments near campuses over several weeks and found the three earlier reports.
While Orem and Utah County don't plan to reopen their cases, Reid said Washington County officials will probe the previous allegations against Butler and may reinterview the alleged victims as they build their case.
Prosecutors "will want to show a mode of operation," he said.
Reid said interviewing Butler was key. As Butler described his dating experiences, the chief said, he had a hunch other allegations may have been made and asked Butler where he has lived in recent years.
"He said some things where I thought, 'You know what? This isn't the first time. This isn't the first time it's happened,' " Reid said.
— Reporters Courtney Tanner, Luke Ramseth and Mariah Noble contributed to this report
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4. St. George man charged with rape; Dixie State police chief sees a pattern
A St. George man was charged Thursday with raping a Dixie State University student who met up with him after chatting on the dating app Tinder.
Similar allegations have been made against Samuel Heber Butler, 21, in at least three other Utah municipalities, Dixie State police investigators found after a weekslong investigation.
Police arrested Butler on Wednesday after the incident that allegedly occurred the evening of Jan. 9. He was charged Thursday in 5th District Court with one count of rape, a first-degree felony. Butler was released from the Washington County jail Thursday evening after posting $20,000 bail, officials said.
The alleged rape — at an apartment where Butler was living near campus — was reported to Dixie State police on Jan. 10. A Dixie State spokesman said Butler is not and has never been a Dixie State student.
Before meeting up on Jan. 9, the woman chatted with Butler on Tinder, according to a probable-cause statement.
Butler told her he wanted to "get laid," according to the charging documents. The woman said she made it clear that she didn't want to have sex, but that she would meet Butler for coffee.
The woman told police they did not end up getting coffee.
Instead Butler picked her up on campus and took him to his apartment, where he "forced himself upon her," documents state.
He kissed her, she told police, and she pushed him away, telling Butler "that's not why I'm here." He continued to kiss her and put "his hands all over her body."
He stopped briefly, she told police, then he went back to kissing her and pushed her down onto the mattress. She tried pushing him off but was unsuccessful, she said. He then raped her, she said.
According to the probable-cause statement, police recently learned that Butler has been involved in "similar events" in Logan, Orem and Utah County.
"This department learned that the suspect has been listed as a rape suspect in other cases where the suspect forces himself upon the victims," according to the police statement.
In a Friday telephone interview, Dixie State Police Chief Don Reid said Butler aroused the lawman's suspicion that there could be other sex-related cases involving Butler when he brought him in for an interview. Butler told Reid several things about his dating preferences and previous experiences in meeting women via the internet, and the discussion led the chief to believe "this had happened before," Reid said.
Reid had officers in his department reach out to other university police departments; he knew Butler had attended or lived near several other Utah universities. Investigators also sent a notice asking for information about Butler on a statewide police database, he said.
It took several weeks, Reid said, but his officers eventually found several other previous similar investigations involving Butler. Only one — a domestic violence investigation in Spanish Fork — led to criminal charges.
"It was the persistence on our end to keep making the phone calls," Reid said. "And it took a while to get those departments to respond."
Details of the investigations into Butler are unclear; The Salt Lake Tribune has requested police reports from each agency.
"As we read the reports, there were so many similarities [with the Dixie State case]," Reid said. "This guy's got a mode of operation down."
The chief said tracking down the previous investigations will strengthen Washington County's case against Butler.
Dixie State spokesman Jordon Sharp said the woman initially reported the January incident to a "campus employee" who reported it to police.
"The DSU employee took the report seriously, followed University policy and procedures, and acted quickly, reporting the incident to the appropriate supervisor," Sharp said in an email.
Butler is scheduled to appear in court Monday.
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5. STATE OF UTAH vs. SAMUEL HEBER BUTLER CASE NUMBER 201400526 State Felony
FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT - PROVO DISTRICT COURT
UTAH COUNTY, STATE OF UTAH
STATE OF UTAH vs. SAMUEL HEBER BUTLER
CASE NUMBER 201400526 State FelonyCHARGES
Charge 1 - 76-5-402.1 - RAPE OF A CHILD - 1st Degree Felony
Offense Date: February 12, 2020
Location: Utah County
Disposition: August 20, 2020 Dismissed w/ PrejudiCharge 2 - 76-5-403.1 - SODOMY ON A CHILD - 1st Degree Felony
Offense Date: February 12, 2020
Location: Utah County
Disposition: August 20, 2020 Dismissed w/ PrejudiCharge 3 - 76-5-404.1(4) - AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD - 1st DegreeFelony
Offense Date: February 12, 2020
Location: Utah County
Disposition: August 20, 2020 GuiltyCharge 4 - 76-5-404.1(2) - SEX ABUSE OF A CHILD - 2nd Degree Felony
Offense Date: February 12, 2020
Location: Utah County
Disposition: August 20, 2020 Dismissed w/ PrejudiCharge 5 - 76-8-508(1) - TAMPERING WITH A WITNESS - 3rd Degree Felony
Offense Date: February 12, 2020
Location: Utah County
Disposition: August 20, 2020 GuiltySENTENCE PRISON
Based on the defendant's conviction of AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD a 1st Degree Felony, the defendant is sentenced to an indeterminate term of not less than fifteen years and which may be life in the Utah State Prison.
Based on the defendant's conviction of TAMPERING WITH A WITNESS a 3rd Degree Felony, the defendant is sentenced to an indeterminate term of not to exceed five years in the Utah State Prison.
COMMITMENT is to begin immediately. The court will accept payment tendered on the date of sentencing for any amount the defendant owes arising from this order. The court hereby transfers responsibility for collection of any remaining balance of the criminal accounts receivable to the Office of State Debt Collection.
To the UTAH County Sheriff: The defendant is remanded to your custody for transportation to the Utah State Prison where the defendant will be confined.
SENTENCE PRISON CONCURRENT/CONSECUTIVE NOTE
The Court orders the counts to run concurrent.
SENTENCE RECOMMENDATION NOTE
The Court recommends the defendant receive credit for 243days previously served. The Court also recommends the defendant enter into sex offender treatment as soon as possible. -
6. SPANISH FORK CITY vs. SAMUEL HEBER BUTLER CASE NUMBER 161300844 Other Misdemeanor
FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT - SPANISH FORK DISTRICT COURT
UTAH COUNTY, STATE OF UTAH
SPANISH FORK CITY vs. SAMUEL HEBER BUTLER
CASE NUMBER 161300844 Other MisdemeanorCHARGES
Charge 1 - 76-6-206(2)(A) - CRIMINAL TRESPASS - Class A Misdemeanor
Offense Date: July 28, 2016
Location: Spanish Fork
Plea: September 26, 2016 No Contest
Disposition: September 26, 2016 No ContestCharge 2 - 76-5-109.1(2)(C) - DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN THE PRESENCE OF A CHILD -Class B Misdemeanor
Offense Date: July 28, 2016
Location: Spanish Fork
Disposition: September 26, 2016 Dismissed w/ PrejudiDefendant waives his/her right to a Preliminary Hearing.Court orders that defendant be held to answer to the charge(s) listed in the information on file.
The court orders the case bound over. City moves to dismiss count 2, motion is granted.
SENTENCE JAIL
Based on the defendant's conviction of CRIMINAL TRESPASS a Class A Misdemeanor, the defendant is sentenced to a term of 1 year(s) The total time suspended for this charge is 1year(s).ORDER OF PROBATION
The defendant is placed on probation for 12 month(s).
Probation is to be supervised by Fourth District Court.
Defendant is to pay a fine of 750.00 which includes the surcharge. Interest may increase the final amount due.
Pay fine to The Court. This can be paid online at:www.utcourts.gov/epayments.
Report to court when required.
Keep current address on file with the court.
Violate no law
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