Article - May 6, 2008 - Daily Herald

AF chiropractor appealing conviction

By Jeremy Duda

An American Fork chiropractor who was convicted of sexually abusing a former employee is appealing his sentence, saying that the court erred in lumping the allegations of four accusers into one trial.
Carolyn Howard-Morris, the defense attorney for Grant Joel Hildreth, said the six counts of forcible sexual abuse should have been severed into four cases, one for each accuser. Hildreth, 45, of Riverton, was convicted of two counts of forcible sex abuse stemming from the allegations of a former employee, but a jury acquitted him of four other charges.

Howard-Morris said Hildreth was convicted of guilt by association.

"You tell me, if you're on a jury and you see four women coming forward accusing the same person, you're going to find him guilty of something. That's exactly what they did. But if there's one accuser, he's going to be found not guilty by the facts alone," she said.

Howard-Morris said she believes Hildreth will be found not guilty in a new trial if the previous conviction is overturned on appeal.

Deputy county attorney Alex Ludlow said Hildreth's appeal is without merit, and believes it will be denied. Even if the case had been split into four trials, he said, the prosecution still would have had all accusers testify at each one.

"We are showing that there's a pattern of misconduct and it wasn't an isolated incident. The rules clearly allow us to bring that evidence in," Ludlow said.

Howard-Morris disputed Ludlow's argument.

"If there is, in fact, a pattern, then wouldn't it be reasonable to think that the jury would've convicted on all charges? But they didn't," she said. "They found him guilty only on two. That's why we think (the conviction) is going to be overturned."

Full story