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FARMINGTON — A former counselor of the popular Especially For Youth religious seminar has pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a teenage boy he met through the program.
Keldon Severn "KC" Cook, 29, pleaded guilty earlier this week to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16 or 17 year old. All the charges are third-degree felonies.
Cook was originally charged with four counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony; one count each of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor; and one third-degree felony count of dealing in materials harmful to a minor.
Investigators say Cook met the boy, who was 14 at the time, at BYU in 2012 when he was assigned as his counselor during the weeklong program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The two stayed in contact through social media and texting, police say, and began sending "inappropriate" and "disgusting" messages. The boy told investigators the explicit conversations confused him but that he looked up to Cook as a mentor.
Shortly after the boy turned 16, Cook allegedly met with him at the LDS temple in Bountiful to "catch up" and then went to a nearby park.
"(Cook) made advances toward the minor male in the minor male's car," the charges state. "The minor male stated to law enforcement that the defendant persuaded him that the contact they had was acceptable and that it was acceptable because (Cook) was his EFY counselor."
Cook met up with the teen, then 17, twice more in 2014 at the same Davis County park.
Cook and the boy also exchanged explicitly sexual photos with each other during the same time period, the charges state.
"The defendant told the minor male that this was acceptable as he had photos with other 'EFY boys,'" the charges state.
Cook, who was arrested in April, remains in the Davis County Jail. Sentencing has been scheduled for Nov. 30.
