Posted on 07/21/2012 7:23:50 AM PDT by Colofornian
SALT LAKE CITY — A GOP activist who prosecutors say kidnapped and raped women that he met online and at church functions has been arrested and charged with 23 felonies.
He appears to have targeted mostly LDS young adult women.
Gregory Nathan Peterson, 37, of Orem, was charged Wednesday with seven counts of rape, three counts of object rape, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, nine counts of forcible sexual abuse, forcible sodomy, assault, burglary and sexual battery.
Peterson is a GOP activist who held political events at his cabin in Heber City, 10160 E. Ridge Pine Drive, the same place where prosecutors allege he took at least two of his victims after kidnapping them and then raped them. One of those attacks, according to investigators, happened just one day after a political event.
Peterson's online history
Investigators have identified at least four victims dating back to March of 2011. Peterson met three of the victims on an online dating site and another at a church function, according to the charges.
Prosecutors would not say Thursday which online dating services Peterson used. However, he had profiles on at least two online dating sites, LDSSingles.com and LDSLinkup.com. His last activity on LDSSingles.com was Wednesday before he was arrested.
On his dating profile, in which he used the profile name, "oddsrgoodbutgoodsrodd," Peterson stated that he had a LDS temple recommend and served an mission to Venezuela and also noted in his profile that he "regularly attends church."
"I have an open heart and an open mind, and I've been told that the best relationships on here come when the girl initiates contact with the guy," he wrote. "I have open heart to all situations and circumstances, so long as you want to have a family and bring that family back to God."
Peterson also says in his profile that he's looking for a woman who's into "physical fitness" and is under 35 so he can start a family with her soon.
By Thursday afternoon, Peterson's profile had been taken offline.
Allegations against Peterson
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said his office considered filing charges in cases involving five women, but did not have strong enough evidence in one of the incidents.
One of the four women first went to the Wasatch County Attorney's Office but prosecutors there declined to file charges, Gill said. She then went to the Unified Police Department in March, where investigators started putting together pieces of information from several alleged victims.
Once investigators in Salt Lake County began sharing information on the cases, they realized they were all looking at the same person, which made it a stronger case for prosecutors, Gill said.
"I saw a pattern that was not available to (Wasatch County Attorney) Scott (Sweat)," he said. "The strength of four victims coming forward speaks for itself."
But once Salt Lake County detectives realized what was going on, Gill said Wasatch County investigators were helpful in sharing the information they had already collected.
On March 26, 2011, a woman told police she met Peterson at a church function in Draper and agreed to go to a movie with him. As they began driving, however, Peterson went in a different direction than the movie theater. He told the woman he was taking her to his cabin in Heber, the charges state.
When the woman told him to turn around, police say he told her he had a concealed weapons permit and pointed to the car's console.
During the drive, Peterson forced the woman to commit lewd acts and "smacked her across the face" for not doing one correctly, the charges state. He again allegedly "smacked her in the face with his backhand" at the cabin. The woman later told police at that point "she did not want to get hit again and did anything the defendant told her to do."
Peterson pointed out loaded weapons in the room and raped the woman and held her in the cabin overnight, according to the charges.
On July 1, 2011, Peterson hosted about 300 Republican lawmakers — including Sen. Orrin Hatch, Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Gov. Gary Herbert — at his Heber cabin in 2011 for the Rocky Mountain Conservatives annual convention and barbecue. It's an event Peterson has hosted before.
Republican politicians Thursday described Peterson as a conservative activist who made himself out to be more than he really was. They say he took credit for things he didn't do, such as raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for candidates. He tried to give the impression he was wealthy, but they say they doubt that is the case.
On July 2, 2011, prosecutors say Peterson arranged to go to a movie and dinner with another woman he met online. He allegedly drove the woman from Sandy to his cabin in Heber City against her will. Peterson displayed a handgun in his car and threatened to have the woman deported because of an expired visa if she did not cooperate, the charges state.
Peterson allegedly held the woman hostage at his cabin overnight and sexually assaulted her. The next day, he took her to his mother's house in Lewiston, Cache County, where she was held hostage for two days and repeatedly assaulted, according to court documents. He also is accused of verbally assaulting the woman, at times yelling, "When I'm talking to you, look at me!"
Peterson followed the same woman to her Salt Lake County home and sexually assaulted her again, according to the charges.
A third woman said she met Peterson online and went on a lunch date with him on Dec. 11, 2011. When he arrived at her West Jordan residence, he assaulted her, court records state.
On April 21, 2012, a fourth woman who met Peterson online also had a lunch date with him. Prosecutors say Peterson pushed the woman into the bedroom of her Salt Lake home and attempted to assault her.
U.S. marshals arrested Peterson Wednesday night and booked him into the Salt Lake County Jail. He was being held Thursday on $750,000 bail.
Investigators say if there are any other potential victims, they should contact police.
Peterson's history
Meanwhile, Gill said whatever political ties Peterson did or didn't have, had no influence on the charges that were filed.
"I don't care if you're a Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist or Republican. This conduct by itself is serious. I have four victims who have come forward and made some serious allegations. If you violate the law in this fashion in our jurisdiction, you will be prosecuted regardless of who you are or whatever your affiliation may or may not be," he said.
The Utah Rape Recovery Center expressed a similar message in a prepared statement, asking the public to consider the victims, "their needs and the notion that anyone — no matter social, political, economic or religious status — is capable of committing acts of sexual violence."
"These cases show a clear pattern of Mr. Peterson working to win his victims' respect and trust in a deeply conniving way," said Holly Mullen, the center's executive director.
According to Peterson's Facebook page, he has been a certified financial planner and owner of Peterson Wealth Management in Orem since 2007.
Peterson earned a bachelor’s degree in global economy from BYU and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from the Marriott School of Management at BYU, where he was a dean’s scholar.
In 2006, Peterson filed for divorce from his wife. The petition was eventually withdrawn. But in 2009 he filed for divorce again and this time the couple went through with it.
On June 12, 2012, a woman filed a civil stalking injunction against Peterson in 3rd District Court and asked for a protective order. On July 9, the injunction was granted. As part of the ruling, Peterson denied the stalking allegations against him but stipulated to the protective order, according to court records.
He also has his own YouTube channel where he posted comedy sketches, including one in which he impersonates President George W. Bush as part of a BYU charity event.
The charges against Peterson include: seven counts of rape, a first-degree felony; three counts of object rape, a first degree felony; two counts of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony; nine counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony; burglary, a second-degree felony; assault, a class B misdemeanor; and sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor.
Contributing: John Daley
Say what you will, Mormons make great neighbors!
Thank you so much Jean for ignoring the point of the thread and having no compassion for the victims.
It is sad you apparently do not care about mormons or others being abused but you do care it seems a great deal about who posts what and subjects you are offended by.
I made the mistake of stumbling into two of these threads. I was able to get the mods to delete my posts to the one thread, but forgot this one, so I’m getting sucked back in by the haters.
It’s best to ignore them.
Well, you are now attacking freepers, and elsewhere you suggested that they were “defending” rapists.
And as a practical matter, it makes NO difference to the victims of this horrific crime whether people discussing it here state some boilerplate sympathy for the victims. This is a conservative web site to discuss issues and try to get conservatives elected and advance conservative principles.
It’s not a place for people to worry about political correctness. Sorry if we don’t argue points the way YOU want, but that’s the way it is.
Well, some of my Mormon extended family makes for fine relatives...but not sure how relevant to thread...If you ask these four-plus Mormon victims of sexual violence, some Mormon men -- at least this one -- make themself {themselves} to be the "date" from hell.
I didn't complain, I explained why someone might react the way they did to the post. Explaining is not complaining -- if I didn't think the thread belonged, I'd hit abuse and let the moderators decide.
I ignore the threads about catholic abuse -- heck, I ignore religion threads here as much as possible, since they became open grounds for hatred and division. SOmeone thinks they are doing the Lord's work, and who am I to judge, but I don't see it, I find it offensive and disturbing, but while it seems to be allowed to take potshots at people now, I'd rather not get into these arguments, so I just want to stay away.
I sometimes get tricked because the threads are so clearly political that I miss that people are playing the "religion" game.
You know, lurkers to a given Web site discussion DO nab a good glimpse of priorities/focus of posters. I'm not talking about every single post -- but a sense of the corporate/collective "sense" of what's being emoted.
Are they provoked about a criminal?
Are they moved with compassion for victims?
Are they wanting to protect the GoP reputation with the oft-knee jerk reaction of blaming the liberal media -- or, the other convenient trick, just blaming the messenger -- the person who posted it?
Actually, that's what Svcw addressed in post#38 to Jean S: ...you seem to be only focused on the poster not the victims who apparently are mostly mormons. Why is that
What we've seen in this "microcosm" of thread dynamics of this sort is several posters (posts 2-->23) attempted to blame "liberal" Mormon journalists! (That was a rather strange position to find myself in...Me defending the conservative components of Lds journalists/editors @ KSL/Deseret News!)
When that tactic didn't work, posters took to attacking me -- many for simply posting this thread. There were 10 such posts between from posts #17 --> 44.
You can review 21 of these categorized comments in the chart below...
[I subtracted my comments, the James Holmes unrelated comments (#7, #34), and the tactical questions by svcw and CharlesWayneCT (#37, 38, 46)]... Hence, although I agree in part re: Chuck's reference to a "boilerplate" re: comments...or "political correctness" not being honored...this thread has made for a "good microcosm" of the dynamics of the "turf" posters felt the need to either protect -- or attack.
We actually see this same pattern expanded and exercised DAILY on FR on MANY threads!
| Posts attempting to convince others that Lds church owned KSL/Deseret News presented 'liberal' slant | Posts focusing on Defending GoP reputation | Posts focusing on Colofornian -- primarily for posting this thread | Posts focusing on MormonISM | Posts focusing on Romney | Posts focusing with perp-specific comments | Posts focusing on victims | |
| 21 overall Posts reviewed: # of sub-topics covered in these posts: | 9 (43%) | 9 (43%) | 10 (48%) | 4 (19%) | 1 (5%) | 1 (5%) | 1 (5%) |
| Which post #s tallied above? | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 16, 21, 22 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 16, 21, 22, 23 | 17, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 35, 44 | 11, 18, 19, 41 | 19 | 21 | 3 |
This chart also readily addresses two questions Jean S asked in post #33: What in the heck are you talking about? perp advocacy? That comment makes no sense.
* When you see that there were 10 negative comments made about the thread poster -- and only one negative comment specifically made about the perp (Tammy8 in post #21), that is by sheer vacuum "perp advocacy." That is outright failure to condemn rape...
...and instead winds up turning ALL negative attention from the perp to the thread poster who shines a light on the perp (commonly known as "shooting the messenger.")
Instead of distancing themselves from an immoral GoP activist racist, they instead prefer to distance themselves morally from the thread poster.
Very interesting group psychology exercised here.
Likewise...
* When there is only a terse six-word focus on the victims (by Rktman) very early in the thread -- and only prompted by my comment in post #1 -- whereas nine attempts to protect the GoP by blaming the source (KSL/DesNews)...
...THAT is turning the attention from the victims to placing the blame on the media source that cast its light on this GoP activist! (also commonly known as "shooting the messenger")
LURKERS:
Want a compassionate unbiased conservatism that won't "knee-jerk" in putting political reputations above justice; above compassion and concern for the victims? (Well, it's getting MUCH harder to find in the GoP representation we're seeing on FR!!!)
A chart?
You have lost your mind.
Truly .
Get help for your hate.
You damage the site.
My first post made no comment about the thread poster, just my opinion about the general religion thread vs this particular thread.
I attacked you in another post, because you suggested that a freeper was sympathising with rapists. I’ve seen comments like that from time to time, but not on this thread — in context, the argument was simply an attempt to make people address the issue the way you wanted, by slandering them.
If this was news-activism, I’d discuss more why people might react negatively to the post; since it is a religion thread, I’ll let them do so if they wish.
I would say that, having done so much of the research, and having found that most of the thread posters reacted quite negatively to the thread, rather than as you wanted them to react, you might want to take that into account in your future postings, if you are bothered by what other freepers think about what you are posting.
I’m not saying you should care what other people think, just that you appear to be quite concerned about it, and if you are, maybe you should take a lesson by the harsh negative reaction you get to some of your posts.
I don’t think the mormon faith is a christian faith. As such, from a religious perspective, i see the danger in the appeal of such a religion to misguide people from the truth. As a presbyterian, I feel God has already chosen whom he will chose, so I fear more for my relationship with God than I do that one who would be saved might miss out because some non-christian faith might do too good a job.
Clearly others feel it is important to create a harshly negative opinion of this particular religion, and feel compelled to use any means necessary.
But this being a conservative site, and knowing that there are many good conservatives who vote for our cause, and are socially and politically part of the solution, who are followers of religions other than the true faith, I don’t feel the same compulsion to spend energy here attacking someone’s religion.
But some do, and I really need to remember to just ignore the hate-threads.
Not necessary to acknowledge a mistake the mormonism defenders are not reading your posts anyway.
What I find fascinating is that until a certain person became the possible nominee for the GOPe they cared not a whit about your threads exposing mormonism.
Amen
Charles, #1 most of what I post are articles from Mormon sources; and those who are provoked are the people who are generally fine & dandy (to a certain degree) with Mormonism. (That's what makes this all so ironic)
#2...99% of the articles I post aren't written by me.
#3...People can react negatively all they want to the articles; it's when they engage in ad hominens that they set a bad tone for the world to see.
#4...Truth isn't subject to a provocation vote. (Otherwise, Jesus wouldn't have spoken so negatively of the legalists of that time -- the Pharisees)
As I said, you should post what you want; I didn’t say you wrote what you post, but you do choose what you post. I could find lots of article to post that would NOT be my words, but would get lots of conservatives mad.
Sometimes people try to avoid angering others by posting “barf alert” on their posts, to indicate a disagreement with the premise of an article; otherwise, the tendency is to believe the posters are in agreement with the excerpt of an article. (On the other hand, I never use parenthetical title modifiers, and trust that freepers will understand that what I post is someone else’s writing, and I will express my own opinion in the body of the thread).
Nice thing about a public forum, is everybody has a chance to give their own reactions to an article. In fact, I signed up for FR precisely to see how other conservatives were dealing with the news of the day. I had just started writing opinion columns for a local newspaper, and wanted to see what arguments worked, and which fell flat. It was a tremendous resource.
It is ironic that a poster who expresses complete disdain for mormons appeals to their authority when others attack mormon writers. On the merits, you have a valid point, except that Mormons are not monolithic, (see Harry Reid), and newspapers and the journolist profession is a haven for liberals, so it is not at all surprising that even a mormon-run newspaper would attract the most liberal of the faith, and would unfairly attack republicans.
Maybe if you go back and read the comments, you’ll find that the harsh negative reaction you perceive was for the authors falsely smearing the GOP for something they didn’t do and had no control over. In a conservative forum, you should expect that to be a primary focus, even if what you wanted was to attack the mormon faith and to get a chance to attack fellow freepers for not showing “sufficient deference” to the victims of some crime (which, sorry to say, sound so much like what liberals do whenever there is some tragedy, attack conservatives for not respecting victims, while the liberals use the same tragedy to score political points.
In this case, while you ask what you seem to treat as mormon sympathisers to “have respect” for the victims, and to think of them first, you are using their tragedy NOT to evoke sympathy and prayers for them, but to attack the mormon faith and politicians who hold to that faith — in other words, you attack other freepers for disliking a thread where you exploit rape victims to score your political and religious points.
I object to that when it’s the anti-Catholic posters using individual bad acts by priests to trash their faith. It’s not surprising that some react negatively to your exploitation here.
His dating profile name “Odds are good, but the goods are odd” is a fairly common saying in AA/NA circles. It refers to a practice known as “13th Stepping” - when a longtime member tries to have sex with a newcomer. I wonder if he also used these meetings as hunting grounds. He wouldn’t be the first.
You take a lot of grief here, Colo, but I appreciate your posts.
Exactly.
A while back, a couple of home schooled kids killed a girls parents and ran. The MSM had "Home schoolers" the most important part of the story.
I'm still waiting for them to say "Government schooled shooter kills up to 13 in movie theater. "
(I know - it's not going to happen. I'd be waiting forever.)
And still we have no mention of obomba’s homosexual encounters with larry sinclair or the fact that from obomba’s own mouth he has committed several felonies.
What bothers me is the fact that no one noticed anything weird about the guy. People don't pay as much attention to their instincts these days as they should - especially now that we live in a world of "Anything that feels good - do it" political correctness. New monsters are being created every day.
Absolutely correct, and prominent placement of "GOP" in the head makes the dem operatives' Google searches easier.
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