FARMINGTON (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
FARMINGTON - Angry parents of children sexually abused by Aaron Montoya heaped nearly as much scorn upon 2nd District Judge Thomas Kay as they did on the defendant at a Thursday hearing.
The parents were upset at remarks Kay made last month while sentencing the former LDS Primary teacher for molesting three young girls at church.
At that hearing, the judge talked about how the parents would raise their children, and encouraged them not to treat their daughters like victims - remarks the parents took as glaring criticism. Kay said little to Montoya beyond urging him to repent, follow his faith and take advantage of prison sex-offender treatment.
"Your harshest words were directed at us, as parents," the mother of one of Montoya's six other abuse victims told Kay on Thursday.
The hearing began with Montoya ending those other six cases by pleading guilty to a single count of first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child. He asked to be sentenced immediately.
Kay did so, ordering Montoya to prison for a five-years-to-life term to run consecutively to the four identical convictions handed down by a jury in August in the Primary cases.