Parker Trent Kingston, 21, is currently being held at the Washington County jail without bail.

A Brigham Young University football standout has been arrested and is being charged with rape stemming from allegations in southern Utah.

Parker Trent Kingston, 21, will face a first-degree felony rape charge, according to a statement posted online Wednesday by the Washington County Attorney’s Office.

According to the statement, a then-20-year-old woman told officers at a southern Utah hospital that she had been sexually assaulted by Kingston on Feb. 23, 2025, in St. George.

Detectives with the St. George Police Department, the statement says, gathered evidence and spoke to “other witnesses.”

Kingston is now in custody, being held at the Washington County jail without bail. Jail records confirm that. But charges against Kingston have not officially shown up in the court system as of Wednesday evening.

The county attorney’s office could not be immediately reached Wednesday after business hours.

The office’s statement says Kingston has an initial appearance set in court for Friday at 1:30 p.m.

“The Washington County Attorney’s Office takes allegations of sexual assault seriously,” the statement adds. It also asks any members of the public with information to call 435-301-7100.

Kingston is a senior wide receiver for the BYU Cougars. The school also confirmed the arrest.

“BYU became aware today of the arrest of Parker Kingston,” BYU said in a statement. “The university takes any allegation very seriously, and will cooperate with law enforcement. Due to federal and university privacy laws and practices for students, the university will not be able to provide additional comment.”

The charges against Kingston come less than a year after BYU’s team was rocked by allegations against its former quarterback.

Jake Retzlaff was accused of sex assault in a civil lawsuit. That case was later dismissed after Retzlaff and the woman who filed the suit came to a resolution.

But the allegations led to Retzlaff leaving the team, as he was facing a seven-game suspension from the university for breaking the school’s Honor Code. BYU, owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has strict rules that prohibit, among other things, premarital sex.

Retzlaff later transferred for a spot on the roster at Tulane.

Utah Auditor Tina Cannon’s office began a probe into the state’s health agency after a whistleblower complaint.

More than two million people’s sensitive case records — related to child welfare in Utah and psychiatric treatments at the Utah State Hospital — have not been adequately protected and are easily accessible to over 2,000 employees, according to a report published Tuesday.

After a whistleblower reached out to a hotline run by Utah Auditor Tina Cannon’s office, it began looking into how the state’s health agency is handling access to the records.

“The deficiencies we uncovered at the Department of Health and Human Services represent a critical failure to protect the privacy of families, individuals and our most vulnerable, Utah’s children,” Cannon said in a statement Tuesday.

Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services holds approximately six million records related to 2,020,726 individuals in its information system. The documents include caseworkers’ notes and detail foster care, adoption, child abuse and neglect cases.

The information system for the Utah State Hospital currently contains health records for 10,587 patients.

Auditors found there are almost no limits on viewing those records for the employees who have accounts to use those databases.

“Users are expected to determine for themselves what range of viewing access is appropriate,” the auditor’s office noted. “There are no automated or proactive mechanisms to flag or prevent inappropriate access.”

Currently, 1,222 state employees have access to the DCFS information system. In addition to DHHS social workers, they include representatives from the Utah Office of Guardian ad Litem, which provides legal representation for children who have been abused or neglected; the Utah Psychotropic Oversight Panel, which oversees mental health medications for children in the state’s custody; and the Utah attorney general’s office.

The Utah State Hospital’s information system is accessible to 823 DHHS employees.

All of them have unfettered access to the health records of the 340 patients currently staying at the hospital. And although discharged patients’ records are “soft locked” after 60 days, users can still view them immediately by merely submitting a comment, according to the audit.

Allowing improper access to sensitive information entrusted to the state raises the risk of privacy violations, increased emotional trauma and reputational harm, Cannon’s office wrote.

It also warned that a single compromised account could expose entire databases to bad actors, noting the information “is highly valuable on the dark web.”

DHHS staffers have a low level of awareness about privacy policies and generally did not know how to report violations, the report said.

Employees on the Information Privacy and Security team keep records about policy violations in personal files, rather than using a centralized repository, it said.

And some use the terms “incident” and “breach” interchangeably — a mistake that could make it more difficult to identify and follow laws around responding to a large-scale data breach.

The auditors office did not conduct a full privacy audit, in an effort to secure the databases as quickly as possible and to avoid further jeopardizing confidentiality. Instead, it interviewed 21 employees about metrics and the health agency’s policies.

Responses from DHHS included with the audit outline plans to fix the problems identified, and it has already taken action on some issues.

Tuesday’s report comes less than two weeks after legislative auditors presented findings that DCFS workers had endangered thousands of Utah children by not adhering to deadlines and other policies. Both legislative staffers and Cannon will discuss their respective audits Wednesday morning in front of the Legislature’s Social Services Appropriations Committee, which makes recommendations on DHHS’s budget.

MILAN, Italy — Inside Milan’s massive Central Station, where marble floors meet towering ceilings, and thousands of travelers pass through each hour, Utah’s Olympic planners are taking notes.

For the Utah Transit Authority, transportation is one of the most important pieces of the Olympic puzzle.

“It is beautiful to walk in here, but we all want a station where we can find our way easily and trains are on time. That’s the most important thing for a traveler,” said Jay Fox, executive director of UTA. “The Utah Transit Authority is going to be moving everybody in the Games.”

Fox said watching Milan’s system operate during the Olympics has been eye-opening.

“As big as I thought it was, it’s even bigger,” he said.

Fox said UTA’s goal in 2034 is simple: He wants to make transportation feel effortless.

“We want transportation to be seamless so that you don’t ever think about where you’re going,” he said.

Officials are paying close attention to how Italy handles moving large crowds between urban venues and mountain sites.

In Cortina, where some events are held, bus transportation has presented challenges. Many buses are often packed, forcing people to wait for the next bus, which then is often full as well.

“Having the opportunity to see mountain operations in Cortina is going to be very beneficial for us,” said Andres Colman, UTA’s chief operating officer. “I have a lot of questions, a lot of things I need to learn, to make sure we can do it seamlessly.”

Colman has personal ties to the Olympics. He joined UTA just before the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

“Oh, the Olympics is the reason I’m at UTA,” he said.

State lawmakers are also participating in the Observer Program, using the experience to better understand what Utah will need in the coming years.

“The Olympic Observer Program allows future host committees to observe what the current host committee is doing,” said Rep. Jon Hawkins from Utah County.

Hawkins said seeing the preparations in person helps legislators understand how they can support the Games through policy decisions and funding.

“Especially around security,” he said. “We just need to make sure that we’re ready.”

Utah Olympic leaders say the Games of 2034 will look very different from those held in 2002.

“There are 40% additional events compared to ’02,” said Colin Hilton, CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation. “A lot of things have changed over the years in terms of how the games operate at venues and a lot more hospitality spaces, a lot more, what we call fan engagement.”

Hilton said even those who worked on the 2002 Games are learning new approaches.

“There’s always things to learn from those who are hosting a Games,” he said.

About 80 members of Utah’s 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Committee, as well as Utah state leaders, are in Italy as part of the Olympic Observer Program.

The Committee is also learning how Milan is managing venue operations, signage, and other critical systems during the Games.

Utah’s planning efforts for 2034 have already drawn praise from international officials.

Last week, members of the International Olympic Committee told Utah organizers to slow down because they may be moving too quickly since they are so far ahead of schedule.

State and transit leaders say the feedback is encouraging, but they remain focused on improving.

“We are already very well prepared,” said Fox. “What we’re learning is really how to refine as opposed to how to do it.”