SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
One woman wanted to learn Web design from Ozwald Balfour. Three others interviewed at Balfour's Salt Lake City media production company for acting jobs.
Instead, all four ended up fending off Balfour's groping and sexual overtures, according to testimony Tuesday in a preliminary hearing in 3rd District Court.
Balfour, 51, was ordered to stand trial on three counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and one count of attempted forcible sexual abuse, a third-degree felony.
Balfour did not comment after the hearing.
But David Alleman, a South Jordan dentist, said friends and neighbors have raised $10,800 to help pay for Balfour's defense.
"He's a legitimate person with a legitimate business who is being ruined because of these accusations," Alleman told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Balfour, a founder of the Utah Republican Black Assembly, is a father of eight and an instructor in his Mormon ward's high priest group, Alleman said.