Brian Richard Peterson

In 1989, Brian Richard Peterson, 25, of Orem, Utah was “charged with first degree felony on three counts of sodomy on a child.”

Peterson was placed in the BSA confidential “perversion files” in 1989.

According to a letter from Darryl Alder of the BSA Utah National Parks Council in 1989 for the BSA national office, Peterson “had attempted to solicit a position in his local LDS Ward as a Scout leader.” (source: BSA perversion file on Brian Richard Peterson, p. 18)

Alder also wrote that between 1985 and 1988, Peterson was accused via multiple complaints to the Council of varying offenses, including “attempted child abuse.” Regarding those complaints, Alder wrote that “no formal complaints were ever filed with the authorities.”

in December 1987, local Scout Executive Rees Falkner, a Mormon, met with and reprimanded Peterson, forbidding him from working with boys and ordering him to “restrict himself solely to adult level volunteerism.”

However, Falkner did not report Peterson to law enforcement until October 14, 1988.

Floodlit is trying to find out exactly when the alleged child sexual abuse occurred.

During his sentencing in 1989, “District Judge Cullen Christensen said “Peterson was a poor candidate for sex
offender treatment, and had proven ‘He’s quite accomplished in this type of activity.”

According to a 1990 news article on Peterson’s criminal sentencing, a neighbor testified that Peterson “bragged about his sexual exploits with male children” and said to her, “I’ve had little boys all over the state of Utah in conjunction with the Boy Scout program. Give me an 11-year-old boy for a week, and I’ll make him a homosexual for life.”

There was a plea agreement in this case, plus a no contest plea to an amended complaint.

In 1990, Peterson was sentenced to five years to life in prison.

Peterson was registered as a district committee member in the Squaw Peak and Timpanogos districts of the BSA National Parks Council prior to the criminal charges.