Ex-seminary leader hears his charges

PROVO — Flanked by friends, supporters and former students, a former LDS seminary principal appeared in court Monday to hear his charges.

Michael Jay Pratt, 37, was formally presented with 21 felony charges that stem from allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct with a 16-year-old student at the Lone Peak High School seminary program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He faces 10 counts of forcible sodomy, seven counts of object rape and two counts of rape, all first degree felonies, and two second-degree felonies of forcible sex abuse.

A first degree felony conviction carries the potential of life in prison.

Pratt originally approached 4th District Judge Claudia Laycock with an affidavit to request a public defender, but she said he hadn't filled it out accurately enough and told him to try again. She later ruled that Pratt qualified for a court-appointed defense attorney because he lost his job after the allegations surfaced. He also supports a wife and three children and has no equity in his rental home, Laycock clarified.

Pratt will be in court again Aug. 18 at 8:30 a.m. in the American Fork courthouse.

Pratt was arrested July 9 after police received information he had been checking a 16-year-old girl out of school and taking her up the canyons and to other areas in Utah County for sexual encounters, according to a police affidavit.

Police also said they learned about hundreds of text messages, many of them sexually explicit, which had allegedly been sent between the two.

Former students came to court Monday to show their love and support, and said their lives have been changed by Pratt's teaching.

"We weren't here to find out the facts," student Sierra Huddleston said. "We were here to support and that won't change."

Landon Young said he doesn't know where he'd be today without Pratt's seminary class. Although Pratt was the principal, he also taught one class, Huddleston said.

"He was there to help us," Young said. "We are (here) to help him."

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