Additional sex charges filed against Utah businessman; more victims possible
Mar 29, 2023, 6:35 AM | Updated: Oct 19, 2023, 12:33 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — A man accused of sexually abusing multiple women at a party in Davis County last summer now faces new charges in Salt Lake County.
Over the past month, prosecutors have filed felony charges in two additional cases against 46-year-old businessman and singles group organizer Kevin Linford.
The cases — which are from 2016 and 2022 — bring the total number of cases filed against Linford in Salt Lake County to four, and are all separate from the allegations made by five different women who attended the same party in Fruit Heights last August.
“You don’t see very often multiple victims over an extended period of time in this fashion, and so we’re taking this very seriously,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in an interview with KSL TV.
The most recent case against Linford was filed on March 14, and stems from a July 15, 2022 birthday party.
According to charging documents, a woman told investigators Linford led her under a tree in a backyard and the two were laying there together when she stated Linford pulled her shorts down and assaulted her. Detectives wrote that the woman told Linford, “I don’t think this is right” and “I shouldn’t be doing this.”
Linford was charged with first-degree felony rape and forcible sodomy as well as misdemeanor lewdness.
On Feb. 28, a second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse charge was filed against Linford related to a date in early Nov. 2016. The woman, according to charging documents, told Linford she was a member of a church, was recently divorced, and was not interested in anything sexual or even kissing.
Investigators wrote that the woman stated she and Linford were at her apartment in Bluffdale and were sitting on the couch when Linford allegedly grabbed the woman’s hand and touched himself with it, and as she stood up and asked what he was doing, she said he “pulled down his pants and exposed” himself.
Please read the remainder of Andrew Adams’ story at KSLTV.com.
