Alan Brower Bassett

Sources

1. ‘If they said I did it, I did it’: Utah man arrested for alleged child sex abuse, ABC4, June 11, 2024.
2. Payson man, 75, charged with sexually abusing young girls in Fruit Heights, KSL, June 11, 2024.
3. Payson man, 75, wants child sex abuse charges dismissed due to deal made in the '80s, KSL, August 13, 2024.
4. Utah man arrested for child sex abuse that happened more than 35 years ago makes court appearance, FOX 13, March 8, 2025.
5. Many women testify of sexual abuse over 35 years ago in Fruit Heights, KSL TV, March 9, 2025.

• 1. ‘If they said I did it, I did it’: Utah man arrested for alleged child sex abuse

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  • ABC4

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  FARMINGTON, Utah (ABC4) — A 75-year-old man from Payson, Utah, has been taken into custody for alleged child sex abuse spanning more than a decade.

  According to the Davis County Sheriff’s Office, Alan Brower Bassett had been accused of abusing several victims between 1977 and 1989. Investigators said several victims, whose ages at the time ranged between 5 and 10 years old, were sexually abused while Bassett lived in Fruit Heights.

  The abuse only stopped when Bassett moved away from the neighborhood, according to court documents.

  “It has been 40 years that some of these victims have sought justice and we’re happy to tell these victims that Alan Bassett is off the streets,” said Chief Deputy Taylor West. “Detectives with our office put in hundreds of hours in identifying, locating, and interviewing victims. We appreciate their work and the trust these victims had in sharing their stories. We remain committed to seeking justice for all victims, regardless of the time that has passed.”

  According to court documents, Bassett moved into his Fruit Heights home with his family and spent many years at the residence. Many of the victims reported spending a large amount of time at Bassett’s home.

  Victims described in detail times of going on hikes, sitting on Bassett’s lap, and taking off their clothes around Bassett, many of which involved being inappropriately touched by Bassett.

  When Bassett was questioned about the allegations, he reportedly told investigators, “If they said I did it, I did it. Why would they lie?”

  Bassett allegedly admitted to sexually abusing the children during his time in Fruit Heights but was unable to give investigators a total number of all the victims he reportedly abused.

  Bassett was booked into Davis County Jail on Monday, June 10, on eight second-degree felony charges of sex abuse of a child. He has been ordered to be held without bail. An initial court date has not yet been scheduled.

• 2. Payson man, 75, charged with sexually abusing young girls in Fruit Heights

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  FARMINGTON – A 75-year-old Payson man was arrested Monday and accused of sexually abusing several young neighborhood girls from 1977 to 1989 when he lived in Fruit Heights.

  "It has been 40 years that some of these victims have sought justice and we're happy to tell these victims that Alan Bassett is off the streets," said Davis County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Taylor West.

  Alan Brower Bassett lives in a senior residential community in Payson and was sitting at his kitchen table when he was confronted about the allegations and told police, "If they said I did it, I did it. Why would they lie?" according to a police booking affidavit.

  He was charged in 2nd District Court on Tuesday with nine counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.

  Several alleged victims were interviewed, but only the abuse testimony from five victims could be used to charge Bassett, due to statutory limitations, the affidavit states.

  Bassett "had unlimited access to young female children throughout this time frame," but was "unable to give me a total number of all victims he sexually abused," the sheriff's detective reported in the affidavit.

  "Detectives with our office put in hundreds of hours in identifying, locating and interviewing victims," said West, after receiving the first report in August 2020. The incidents all took place between when Bassett moved his family into a new Fruit Heights neighborhood in 1977 until he moved in 1998, according to the arrest report.

  The allegations, broken down into eight distinct offenses, detail the man sexually assaulting the friends of his children when they came over for sleepovers, visits or hikes when they were between 5 and 10 years old. In one instance told to police, Bassett was inappropriately touching a young girl when a helicopter flew over his house.

  Bassett "stopped the touching and ran out of the room distressed, believing the police were coming for him," the affidavit says. The helicopter was actually a medical helicopter responding to a neighbor, and that neighbor was able to confirm "the exact time frame" of the incident.

  A civil lawsuit filed in 2019 against Bassett and his wife detailed similar accounts of abuse, claiming the man sexually assaulted a young girl during trips, hikes and visits to his house.

  The lawsuit says Bassett "used any excuse he could to get (the child) alone and molest her," including checking her for ticks while on camping trips and checking her for injuries following a car collision.

  In the victim's seventh grade year, her parents met with Bassett and a religious leader and Bassett told the girl's parents "he was sorry for what he had done, and that he was happy to pay for therapy," the lawsuit says, but "did not disclose the exact nature of the actions for which he was apologizing."

  The lawsuit alleges that Bassett continued to sexually abuse the girl, and that Bassett's wife "did nothing to stop him or else to report his actions to parents or law enforcement." Bassett once asked the girl's mother if she could go skiing with his family, but when he arrived to pick her up from school, he told her it would just be the two of them going skiing and throughout the day would repeatedly "fall" on the child on the slopes as an excuse to grope her, the lawsuit says.

  "We remain committed to seeking justice for all victims, regardless of the time that has passed," West said in a statement. The Davis County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone who might have been victimized by Bassett to call detective Derrick Pyles at 801-451-4403.

• 3. Payson man, 75, wants child sex abuse charges dismissed due to deal made in the '80s

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  • KSL

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  FARMINGTON — A Payson man recently charged with sexually abusing young neighborhood girls from 1977 to 1989 when he lived in Fruit Heights is seeking to have his charges dismissed, saying he made a deal in the '80s that he wouldn't be prosecuted.

  Alan Brower Bassett, 75, was charged in June with nine counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. Several alleged victims were interviewed, but only the abuse testimony from five victims could be used to charge Bassett due to statutory limitations, court documents state.

  At the time, Davis County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Taylor West released a statement saying "detectives with our office put in hundreds of hours in identifying, locating and interviewing victims," after receiving the first report of sexual abuse in August 2020.

  "It has been 40 years that some of these victims have sought justice and we're happy to tell these victims that Alan Bassett is off the streets," West said.

  But Bassett's attorney filed a motion Saturday to dismiss the case, citing a 35-year-old "nonprosecution agreement" with the Davis County Attorney's Office.

  Bassett submitted a draft of an agreement from 1989 sent by former deputy Davis County attorney Brian Namba saying the state of Utah would not file any charges against Bassett "for any of his sexual activities" between February 1978 to the date of the agreement, provided Bassett "meet and disclose his conduct and activities to all of the victims and their parents," pay for all therapy expenses and complete a sexual abuse treatment program, among other stipulations.

  No signed version of the agreement was found by either party; however, a separate letter referring to the agreement signed in May 1989 was submitted as evidence of a contract.

  The defense argues it is a blanket contract that prevents Davis County from prosecuting Bassett for any sexual activities with minors during that time period.

  Two other civil suits against Bassett and his wife have been dismissed to date. One, filed in 1988, was dismissed after the woman who sought emotional damages for Bassett's alleged abuse was "having a difficult time in determining whether continued prosecution is justified by the emotional distress inherent in dealing with the factual basis of her claim."

  In court documents related to that suit, the lawyer for the plaintiff wrote that Bassett "entered into an agreement by which the defendant agreed to pay for any counseling incidental to any alleged misconduct by the defendant," but that the woman never requested payment for her counseling.

  Bassett's lawyer, in December 1990, wrote in a reply to a request for evidence of the agreement that "no copy of any written agreement exists" outlining covering the counseling costs for the woman. That reply was written after Bassett's current legal team claims he signed a written agreement with the Davis County Attorney's Office in May 1989.

  The settlement was not an acceptance of any liability or admission of guilt by Bassett, the court documents say.

  In January 2020, a civil case brought against Bassett and his wife by a different woman was dismissed, as the statute of limitations had run out. Court documents from that case detail similar accounts of abuse, claiming the man sexually assaulted a young girl during trips, hikes and visits to his house.

  "We remain committed to seeking justice for all victims, regardless of the time that has passed," West said in June, and asked anyone who may have been victimized by Bassett to call detective Derrick Pyles at 801-451-4403.

• 4. Utah man arrested for child sex abuse that happened more than 35 years ago makes court appearance

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  • FOX 13

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  FRUIT HEIGHTS, Utah — It wasn’t until last year that Alan Bassett was put behind bars on child sex abuse charges dating back more than 35 years. Now, dozens of women are taking the stand against their alleged abuser.

  “I’m here today because all of my childhood friends were on that stand, testifying against someone who abused them for years,” said Patrice Pederson.

  Patrice Pederson sat among a packed courtroom who felt the pain of their young years living in Fruit Heights once again.

  “What he did has devastated them and it devastated our neighborhood,” said fellow friend Kristy Sauter.

  They each wore white, representing the purity of the victims, and how young and innocent they were. They watched as victim after victim relived childhood trauma in the Davis Justice Center on Friday.

  “This was a man that had children, and these children were the ages of many of the kids in our neighborhood,” Sauter said. “These little girls would go over there for sleepovers, for play dates, for dance class…and despicable things would happen.”

  These friends say the defense for Alan Bassett is asking to dismiss all of this because of a decades-old agreement signed by a past Davis County attorney.

  “He is not to be prosecuted for any of his sexual activities - they gave him a free pass,” Pederson said. “Sexual activities - that’s how they described assaulting young girls.”

  Pederson and Sauter say the justice system failed these women for all these years and they hope that won’t continue for anyone who’s suffered abuse.

  “I think that if every Utahn could spend one day of their life in a court for witness after witness after witness of people that they loved,” said Pederson. “Not that I would wish that on them, but if they had to - the system would change”

  Nine hours of court testimony wasn’t even enough time to fit in all those who’ve come forward. So, those friends tell me the next step will be another hearing for more of Bassett’s victims. They say the next court date has not yet been set.

• 5. Many women testify of sexual abuse over 35 years ago in Fruit Heights

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  FARMINGTON — The chambers of a 2nd District courtroom were packed for an evidentiary hearing in the case of 76-year-old Alan Bassett Friday, as Judge Jennifer Valencia weighed a motion to dismiss the case entirely.

  Bassett, a former air traffic controller, is accused of sexually abusing young girls who played at his Fruit Heights home from 1977 to 1989 and has already admitted to a number of instances of abuse and exhibitionism. He was arrested June 10, 2024, and charged with nine counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.

  Neighbors at the time, church members, and families of victims wore white “to symbolize the innocence that was destroyed by that man,” former neighbor Patrice Pederson told KSL.com.

  Bassett, wearing a neat white mustache and bow tie, broke down in tears on the witness stand, faced with a full courtroom. He did not deny much of the allegations, saying, “I’m not going to question a victim that comes up and accuses me. Why would anybody make that up?”

  “He terrorized our neighborhood,” said Kristy Sauter, who lived near the Bassett house. “The small, little selfish man terrorized our neighborhood.”

  Bassett said he confessed to a bishop in his local church congregation over 35 years ago and was pushed to turn himself in to police. In the hearing Friday, Bassett said he was motivated to confess because he “wanted to get over this,” referring to a “sexual addiction.”

  “I never knew a door to be locked,” Pederson said of the newly built Fruit Heights neighborhood during that time. “You could just run into any house, open up a fridge, and make yourself at home.”

  The house was always full of young girls, according to witnesses, and Bassett’s wife taught dance for younger children in the basement.

  But the defense has moved to dismiss the case, spurring the hearing on Friday, based on copies of an unsigned 1989 agreement between then-deputy Davis County attorney Brian Namba, Bassett and his lawyer at the time, Robert Faust — who is now a 3rd District judge — agreeing to not pursue criminal charges as long as he complied with a number of stipulations, including “meet and disclose his conduct and activities to all of the victims and their parents,” court documents show.

  Pederson says she is aware of an online support network, with around 50 women accusing Bassett of abuse. Many are not able to testify due to statute of limitations, a police booking affidavit says.

  Prosecutor Jesse Bushnell and detective Derrick Pyles worked to show that Bassett did not report the full extent of his sexual abuse of the many young girls, leaving out numerous victims and incidents, while minimizing the severity of abuse.

  “I knew there were more. I just couldn’t remember who they were,” Bassett said at the hearing. “I gave all the names that I could remember.”

  Multiple alleged victims and their parents, speaking on the witness stand, said Bassett never spoke to them about the abuse or offered to pay for therapy.

  Women took to the witness stand Friday, one-by-one, relaying a series of heartrending accounts of the man, saying he abused them in rooms of the basement, the jacuzzi, the living room, the garage steps, the swimming pool, the master bedroom, the master bathroom, on camping trips and ski days, during water fights and playdates.

  One woman told the judge of a time when she was 6 or 7, being among several girls sexually abused during a sleepover at the Bassett house. She said she remembered vividly being “scared to death that night in my sleeping bag, scrunched up with a little hole looking up the top of the stairs all night long … watching the light under the door. I’ve never been so afraid in my life.”

  “I’m not a bad person,” another woman said Bassett told her months after allegedly abusing her. “I just did a bad thing, and there’s voices in my head that tell me to do bad things.”

  “I am screwed up because I have carried this thing for almost as far back as my memory goes,” one woman testified. “it has negatively affected anything important to me — my relationships, the way I parent my kids, my marriage, my ability to make decisions, my ability to feel confident in standing up for myself. It feels like it’s about damn time that that burden gets passed on to the responsible adult. I feel like the little me deserves that.”

  “Alan Bassett did disgusting, horrifying things,” Pederson said, “but people knew. The district attorney knew. The police knew. And he issued a partial confession and nobody bothered to check anything that he said. … It’s shocking. They literally gave him a get out of jail free card.”

  “Creeps are creeps,” she said. “It’s the system that failed us.”

  “As a wife and a mother, as a woman, my heart absolutely breaks for the testimony that I have heard today,” the judge said after over eight hours of testimony, “and I want the victims and their families, their friends to know that I’ve seen them, I have heard them and I have considered their input.”

  Bassett, who was arrested in June and released on house arrest in October, was found to have violated the terms of his release by making unauthorized stops during grocery trips, and failing to report being within 50 feet of children a number of times.

  Valencia ordered bailiffs to take Bassett, to his clear surprise, into custody pending trial. He was cuffed in front of many of the women who had just testified against him, who celebrated in the hallways afterward. More witnesses will be called at a later date, likely in April, before Valencia rules on the motion to dismiss.