'I am no longer your puppet,' victim tells ex-seminary teacher Michael Pratt

AMERICAN FORK — The double life is over.

On one side, Michael J. Pratt preached about morality, counseled students to draw closer to God and talked often about visiting the LDS temple.

The former seminary teacher and principal was loved and praised as a pillar of righteousness, yet, amid the applause, he was also ferociously pursuing a 16-year-old student, texting her morning and night, and slipping her off into the shadows to act out sexual fantasies.

"I came to you in one of the weakest moments of my life ... as a man of God to point me in the direction ... of light, truth and righteousness," the now-18-year-old girl testified Monday during Pratt's sentencing in 4th District Court. "What you did is lead me down a (road of) sorrow and destruction."

"You mixed my dreams with nightmares, reality with fantasy and teachings of God with actions of the devil," she continued in a firm voice. "I put my trust in man, not God, and you encouraged me to do so. You've broken rules, promises, laws, covenants and the hearts of the innocent."

Pratt was sentenced to a five-years-to-life prison term for three first-degree felony charges, two object rape and one forcible sodomy, as well as a term of one-to-15-years for forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Based on Pratt's lack of criminal history and strong family and community ties, he will likely serve close to six years before being released, said his attorney Stephen McCaughey.

Pratt was taken into custody immediately after the hearing, leaving his wife alone to care for their four young children — the youngest just 2 months old. They, too, are victims in this case; they did nothing to deserve the embarrassment heaped upon them, said prosecutor Julia Thomas.

Thomas acknowledged it would be difficult without a father at home, but said such hardship exists for any defendant's family. She asked for prison time, adding it was Pratt's beloved qualities that put him in the position to commit his crime.

"He used and twisted (the victim's) religion ... to validate what he was doing and make her feel that this relationship was OK, not only in the eyes of society but in the eyes of God," she said. "He twisted her hopes, dreams, her expectations ... all to suit his own desires."

Thomas said she still believes Pratt is rationalizing his behavior and failing to take full responsibility, which he denied.