Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- David Scott Curtis, a former counselor and Scout leader, has admitted to sexually abusing five children over many years.
- Curtis pleaded guilty to multiple felonies, with many charges dismissed under plea deals.
- Sentencing is set for March 25, with potential prison time ranging from five years to life.
ST. GEORGE — A former school counselor and Scout leader pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four young boys and one young girl in his care multiple times over decades.
David Scott Curtis, 55, entered guilty pleas Jan. 29 to a total of nine felonies in five cases, each involving a different victim, under plea deals that dismissed even more felony charges. Curtis interacted with the individuals primarily as a family friend and Scout leader in Washington County.
He was living in Littlefield, Arizona, at the time of his arrest and working as a middle school counselor in Mesquite, Nevada.
In the first case filed in March 2024, Curtis admitted to sexually abusing a boy whom he knew because he was a family friend and Scout leader when the boy was between 4 and 16 years old. Curtis admitted to inappropriately touching the boy between 2014 and 2017.
Curtis pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony. In exchange for his plea, four counts of sodomy on a child and seven additional counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, both first-degree felonies, were dismissed.
In a second case filed just a few weeks later in April 2024, Curtis pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual abuse of a child and rape, first-degree felonies. The victim in that case is a girl who was a close family friend. He admitted to sexually abusing her between 2018 and 2024.
The girl reported, according to charging documents, that she was sexually assaulted multiple times over several years, starting when she was under the age of 10 and lasting until shortly before Curtis was arrested in his first criminal case.
In a third case filed in May, Curtis admitted to inappropriately touching a boy whom Curtis would babysit between 1991 and 2001. He admitted to sexually abusing the boy from the time the boy was 8 until when he was 16.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony. Two charges of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony, four additional charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, and one count of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
After Curtis was arrested, a man now in his 30s contacted St. George police from out of state saying he was abused by Curtis when the man was his Boy Scout leader in Washington County over several years, police said. Curtis was charged in that case in June.
He admitted to sexually abusing the boy whom he said he was a "Scout leader, close family friend and father figure to." He admitted to sexually abusing the boy when he was between 11 and 16 and sexually abusing the boy on two more occasions when he was between 14 and 16.
Curtis pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony. A third count of forcible sodomy and nine counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
In the fifth and most recent case filed in November of 2024, Curtis pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, admitting to inappropriately touching another boy around November of 2023. He said he had been a babysitter for him.
The boy lived in Arizona, and Curtis would drive him from Arizona to his home in St. George and touch him inappropriately during that drive, a police booking affidavit states. The boy estimated this happened over 100 times over multiple years, beginning when he was 7 and ending when he was 13.
Curtis is scheduled to be sentenced on March 25 in each of the five cases.
As part of the plea deals, prosecutors agreed to recommend that sentences in each of the five cases run concurrent. If the judge agrees to follow the recommendation, Curtis could spend at least five years in prison or as much as life in prison.
