Utah
A Utah athlete’s arrest, a coach’s firing, and the strict rules for reporting student misconduct
SALT LAKE CITY – The screaming started late at night.
A neighbor looked outside her North Logan home in April 2023, expecting to possibly see college students playing in the snow.
But in a statement to police, that witness described a much different scene: a woman crying and yelling “get off me” and “you’re choking me,” and a man on top of her, holding her down on the ground.
Officers arrested the man, who was a Utah State University athlete, in a case that went on to have profound impact on the Logan campus.
The university fired the head football coach and two other employees in July over how they responded, a wave of severe consequences that came as the school has tried to improve and distance itself from a history of failing to respond properly when male students assault women.
Utah State’s policies require coaches to report sexual misconduct, including relationship violence and sexual assault, to the school. Under federal law, they must then step back. But the school says those things didn’t happen.
Citing an outside review, the university contends former head coach Blake Anderson didn’t report what he knew directly to the school’s Title IX office. Anderson also “took it upon himself to investigate” and sought out “witness statements supporting the player’s defense” from the victim and a roommate, according to a university letter of intent to terminate his employment.
Anderson doesn’t dispute that he gathered evidence, or that he relied on an administrator to file the report. But he denies any wrongdoing, has insisted he “handled this matter by the book,” and said he plans to sue the school over its decision. His attorneys alleged in a statement last week that university administrators “have unfortunately chosen to lead what is essentially a public smear campaign” against the coach.
Do’s and don’ts of reporting misconduct
Title IX, the federal law barring sex-based discrimination in schools, requires universities to be impartial in their investigations of student relationship violence or sexual assault, said W. Scott Lewis, a partner with TNG Consulting who trains college administrators and athletic officers in Title IX compliance.
But when it comes to their players, coaches have a clear conflict, Lewis said.
“In some cases, in recruiting, they stood in the living room and told the parent they would treat them like their own child,” he said. “So, it’d be like a parent trying to investigate their own kid. You just don’t do it.”
Lewis, a co-founder of the Association of Title IX Administrators, said it’s appropriate for them to talk to their athletes to try to be supportive, but it’s improper for them to reach out to witnesses.
If they do, they can make schools vulnerable to lawsuits or sanctions from the U.S. Department of Education, Lewis said. They can also cause further damage to those who’ve been through traumatic experiences.
“When you start asking a lot of questions, you can actually be doing harm,” Lewis said. “Just yet another reason you shouldn’t be doing it.”
Anderson’s attorney Aubri Thomas told KSL that Anderson was trying to figure out what happened so he could meet his own obligation to promptly discipline the athlete if needed.
“Broadly speaking, our position is that he abided by all the requirements of his contract, and by the industry standards and by what every football coach in the industry is typically trained to do,” Thomas said.
The university says Anderson and football staff had multiple trainings on their reporting requirements before this happened, along with regular meetings with its Title IX office.
Outside of Utah, other college coaches and athletic departments have also been accused of sidestepping the official process for handling reports of player misconduct.
Michigan State University basketball coach Tom Izzo got in touch with a witness about an allegation of sexual assault before police did, as reported in 2020 by ESPN.
The same year, USA Today revealed Louisiana State University’s athletic department kept reports of sexual assault to itself. LSU has since settled a lawsuit with 10 women who said the university mishandled their cases. And last year a jury in Texas found Baylor University liable for failing to protect a student after she reported that a football player assaulted her several times. A review commissioned by the university found the football team had its own disciplinary system reinforcing “the perception that rules applicable to other students are not applicable to football players.”
A case in court and fallout on campus
In body camera video from April 2023, North Park police officers can be seen asking a woman about red marks on her neck, talking about how they thought she was grabbed and pulled by her hoodie, and retrieving a survey used to assess a victim’s risk of being killed in domestic violence.
Former Utah State starting defensive back Ajani Carter transferred schools and pleaded no contest in Logan’s First District Court to a misdemeanor charge of assault as part of a plea in abeyance agreement.
Court records indicate the case will be dismissed altogether in November if he meets the conditions of the agreement: completing an anger management course and paying a $690 fee.
The former Aggie declined comment for this story through Pitcher Law, the firm representing him.
To evaluate the coach’s and athletic department’s response, the university commissioned an investigation from Kansas City-based law firm Husch Blackwell. The review cost $137,000, according to copies of invoices provided by the university.
Like Anderson, former deputy athletic director Jerry Bovee has maintained he did not do anything wrong in how he responded. Bovee’s now in a formal review process contesting his termination and told KSL in a statement he believes the school will reverse course.
“I trust that once the truth comes out, my alma mater and the institution I love will reverse and correct this decision – a decision that appears to be driven by the agenda of a few administrators, but is not to the benefit of the university as a whole,” Bovee said in a statement to KSL.
He said he’s been dedicated throughout his career to “promoting the values and intent of Title IX, including supporting and promoting female athletes and preventing and reporting any misconduct.”
The school also fired Austin Albrecht, the football team’s director of player development and community, saying he did not comply with its policy for reporting sexual misconduct.
Albrecht said in a statement to KSL that he is “deeply disappointed and saddened by the recent decisions made by Utah State University.”
A campus under a microscope
Those decisions came at a time when the school was still under federal scrutiny for mishandling reports of sexual harassment and assault under Title IX.
Utah State entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to improve its response after the release of a damning DOJ report in 2020 documenting widespread failures. The report states “it was common for the university to close incident files involving the football team after only minimal investigation.”
That history is top of mind for Utah State athletic director Diana Sabau.
“The DOJ has lived on campus since 2020 due to football,” Sabau told KSL. “We have to be better.”
Sabau started the job as the school’s top sports administrator after the player’s arrest and the coach’s response came to light. She and the university president made the decision to clean house.
“Our coaches should and do know what to do,” Sabau told KSL. “Sometimes good people make bad decisions. But we have to be held accountable.”
Anderson previously faced criticism in 2021 for telling his players while talking about sexual assault that “it’s never been more glamorized to be a victim.”
The coach later apologized after an audio recording of his comments surfaced, saying he regretted the words he used.
The recording was part of a student’s lawsuit alleging the school did not respond properly to her report of being raped by a football player. Kaytri Flint later reached a $500,000 settlement with the university.
DOJ’s monitoring of the school continues through May 2025.
“We are carefully monitoring the ongoing settlement with USU, which covers all of USU’s programs and activities, including the athletics department,” a DOJ spokesperson told KSL.
The federal agency did not answer a list of questions about its presence on campus and the impact of the case at the center of the three firings.
Lewis said scenarios like Utah State’s – with multiple employees losing their jobs – are increasingly common.
“Schools are taking this more seriously in a way they hadn’t 25 years ago,” Lewis said. In the past, he said, “it was accepted, it was tolerated. Far less so now than before.”
Have you experienced something you think just isn’t right? The KSL investigators want to help. Submit your tip at investigates@ksl.com or 385-707-6153 so we can get working for you.
Additional resources:
If you or someone you know is going through abuse, help is available.
If you have experienced sexual violence, you can access help and resources by calling Utah’s 24-hour Sexual Violence Help Line at 1-801-736-4356 (English) or 1-801-924-0860 (Spanish). You can also call the Rape Recovery Center office line during office hours at 801-467-7282 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for free, confidential counseling.
SALT LAKE CITY — “If you don’t think you’re a reader yet, it’s because you haven’t found the right book.”
Utah author Sara B. Larson believes there is a book out there for everyone that can make someone love reading. She and dozens of other authors gathered at StoryCon this weekend to teach and inspire young kids to love reading and writing.
“It’s hard to see the drop in literacy that has happened, but it’s also encouraging to see so many people banding together to try and combat it and help our youth,” Larson said.
StoryCon is a literature conference that brings together authors, educators, teens, tweens and everyone in between to focus on the power of literacy. Around 3,500 people flocked to the Salt Palace Convention Center for workshops on writing concepts, shopping for book merchandise, author signings, and even panels about Brandon Sanderson’s famed fantastical universe known as the Cosmere.
Sanderson, one of the most well-known fantasy authors to come out of Utah, said writing can feel isolating because it is such a solitary activity. He attended a conference similar to StoryCon in Nebraska when he was 18, and the opportunity to connect and meet with real authors was “so invigorating.”
“It was so powerful to just have a community. So I’ve always tried to do what I can to support communities, particularly for young people,” he said.
Aspiring writers don’t need to stress about writing the perfect book immediately, Sanderson advises. While some authors get lucky, like Christopher Paolini, who wrote “Eragon” at just 14 years old, most of the time writing is about exploring genres and just improving your skills over time, he said.
Sanderson himself didn’t love reading at first until between his eighth and ninth grade years.
“I went from being a C student to an A student because of books. This was partially because I found myself in the books; I had a reason to care, but your reading comprehension going up helps in all aspects of life,” he said. “Having a fluency with reading, reading for the love of it, which will just build those muscles in your brain, is extremely important.”
Brandon Mull, author of the “Fablehaven” series, said he also didn’t like reading as a kid until he read “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” which made a “light go on.” He now feels he owes C.S. Lewis the credit for how his life turned out.
“When I learned to read for fun as a kid, it changed the trajectory of my life,” Mull said. “I’m a practical example of how big a difference learning to love reading can make for someone.”
Mull focuses on children’s literature and said he tries to write stories that children and families can enjoy. Reading fiction helps children develop “a rich inner life,” learn how to be empathetic and develop their minds to be a place ideas can be explored.
The Utah author will soon be celebrating the 20th anniversary of his book “Fablehaven,” which will include a special illustrated edition of the beloved children’s book, a dramatized full-cast audiobook, and the premiere next year of a film based on the novel. He also will be releasing a new series this year called “Guardians” that he believes is some of his best work.
With so many things competing for kids’ attention every day, it’s crucial to teach them to read, Mull said.
“If we don’t get kids to learn how to read a book and turn it into a story in their head, they are missing an aspect of education that makes them good consumers of information and good consumers of stories,” he said.
Larson agreed with that sentiment, saying people’s brains are being “hijacked” and getting stuck in a loop of only having a 3-second attention span because of social media. Larson has written more than eight fantasy books, including the popular “Defy” trilogy.
“This phenomenon that is happening to our kids, they are losing the ability to focus, losing the ability to even think with any sort of deep analytical process. It’s so vital to get to these kids and help them realize you have got to put down the phone and pick up a book and train yourself to focus,” she said.
There is wealth, knowledge, joy, happiness, peace and calm to be found when you put social media away and instead dive into a book, she said. Reading helps children grow up to be successful adults who can pursue goals, constantly learn and successfully contribute to society.
StoryCon CEO Jennifer Jenkins said it has been overwhelming to see the success of the event. StoryCon was created by the nonprofit Operation Literacy last year and has become the biggest literacy-focused event in Utah.
Growing up, she felt there wasn’t a place for writers compared to athletes or dancers who always had camps and conventions, so she helped found Teen Author Boot Camp, which evolved into StoryCon.
“Kids need to know they are being taken seriously. They need to be validated and know they are being encouraged,” she said. “That’s the why behind all of this. We really want to put them before anything else. These kids are the heart of everything we do.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Arizona State basketball is at a crossroads. After back-to-back road losses to Baylor and TCU, the Sun Devils are suddenly fighting just to stay above .500.
Now, with Utah coming to town Saturday afternoon, this isn’t just another conference game. It feels bigger than that. It feels like the moment that decides whether this season still has life or if it quietly fades away.
The Danger of Falling Below .500
All season long, Arizona State has had one strange pattern.
Every time they dropped to .500, they responded with a win. They never let things spiral.
But now they’re sitting right on the edge again.
A loss to Utah would push them below .500 for the first time all year. That might not sound dramatic, but it matters for team morale.
Teams feel that shift. Confidence changes. Urgency changes. And with only a few games left before the Big 12 Tournament, there isn’t much time to recover.
That’s why this Utah game feels different.
Utah Is Playing Better — Especially on Defense
When these two teams met a few weeks ago, Utah was struggling.
Since then, they’ve improved. They’re still built around their top scorers, who combine for around 40 points per game, but the real difference lately has been defense.
Utah has started putting together more complete defensive performances. They’re contesting shots better. They’re finishing possessions. They’re not folding as easily in the second half.
That matters because Arizona State’s biggest issue right now isn’t effort, it’s physical depth.
The Real Niche Problem: Guard-Heavy and Worn Down
Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: Arizona State’s roster balance is off.
Because of injuries, especially the likely season-ending absence of Marcus Adams Jr., the Sun Devils are extremely guard-heavy right now. More than half of the available players are guards. That creates matchup issues, especially against physical teams.
We saw it against TCU. They got to the free-throw line 36 times.
They won the physical battle. Even when their best scorer struggled, they still controlled the game inside.
ASU just doesn’t have the same frontcourt depth.
With only a few true bigs available and some undersized forwards playing bigger roles than expected, the team can get worn down.
Late in games, that shows up in missed rebounds, second-chance points, and tired legs.
It’s not about hustle. It’s about bodies.
Why Saturday Truly Matters
If Arizona State beats Utah, everything changes.
Suddenly, you’re heading into Senior Night against Kansas with momentum. Win that, and you’re talking about a possible 7–11 conference finish and a much better Big 12 Tournament matchup.
From there? Anything can happen.
But if they lose Saturday, the math and the hope get much harder.
That’s why this game isn’t just about Utah.
It’s about belief. It’s about roster limitations. And it’s about whether this team has one more push left in them before the season runs out.
SALT LAKE CITY — A controversial Utah proposal to crack down on the presence of immigrants in the country illegally that had seemed stalled gained new life Friday, passing muster in new form in a relatively narrow vote.
In a 39-33 vote, the Utah House approved HB386 — amended with portions of HB88, which stalled in the House on Monday — and the revamped measure now goes to the Utah Senate for consideration.
The reworked version of HB386, originally meant just to repeal outdated immigration legislation, now also contains provisions prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from being able to tap into in-state university tuition, certain home loan programs and certain professional licensing.
The new HB386 isn’t as far-reaching as HB88, which also would have prohibited immigrants in the country illegally from being able to access certain public benefits like food at food pantries, immunizations for communicable diseases and emergency housing.
Moreover, Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton and the HB88 sponsor, stressed that the new provisions in HB386 wouldn’t impact immigrants in the country legally. He touted HB88 as a means of making sure taxpayer money isn’t funneled to programming that immigrants in the country illegally can tap.
Rep. Lisa Shepherd, R-Provo, the HB386 sponsor, sounded a similar message, referencing, with chagrin, the provision allowing certain students in the country illegally to access lower in-state tuition rates at Utah’s public universities. Because of such provisions “we’re taking care of other countries’ children first, and I want to take care of Utahns first. In my campaign I ran and said Utahns first and this bill will put Utahns first,” she said.
If we stop young folks who have lived here much of their life from going to school and getting an education, it is really clear to me that we have hurt that person. It’s not clear to me at all that we have benefitted the rest of us.
–Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful
The relatively narrow 39-33 vote, atypical in the GOP-dominated Utah Legislature, followed several other narrow, hotly contested procedural votes to formally amend HB386. Foes, including both Democrats and Republicans, took particular umbrage with provisions prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from being able to pay in-state tuition and access certain scholarships.
As is, students in the country illegally who have attended high school for at least three years in Utah and meet other guidelines may pay lower in-state tuition, but if they have to pay out-of-state tuition instead, they could no longer afford to go to college.
“If we stop young folks who have lived here much of their life from going to school and getting an education, it is really clear to me that we have hurt that person. It’s not clear to me at all that we have benefitted the rest of us,” said Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful.
Rep. Hoang Nguyen, D-Salt Lake City, noted her own hardscrabble upbringing as an immigrant from Vietnam and said the changes outlined in the reworked version of HB386 run counter to what she believes Utah stands for.
“I fear that what we’re doing here in Utah is we are eroding what truly makes Utah special, the Utah way. We are starting to adopt policies that are regressive and don’t take care of people. Utahns are one thing. Citizens are one thing. People is the first thing,” she said.
Rep. John Arthur, D-Cottonwood Heights, said the measure sends a negative message to the immigrant students impacted.
“If we pass this bill today, colleagues, we will be telling these young people — again, who have graduated from our high schools, these kids who have gone to at least three years of school here — that you’re no longer a Utahn,” he said.
If we are compassionate to those who come the legal way and we are compassionate to those who already live here, that does not mean that we lack compassion for others in other ways.
–Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland
Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland, said the debate underscores a “fallacy” about compassion. She backed the reworked version of HB386, saying Utah resources should be first spend on those in the country legally.
“If we are compassionate to those who come the legal way and we are compassionate to those who already live here, that does not mean that we lack compassion for others in other ways,” she said.
The original version of HB386 calls for repeal of immigration laws on the books that are outdated because other triggering requirements have not been met or they run counter to federal law.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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