Cleared of rape, Steven Dale Green says: ‘I will never help a child again’
Steven Dale Green responds to questions in regards to felony charges that were dismissed earlier this week in Greg law's office in Murray Wednesday, March 26, 2014. He was accused of having sexual relations with a teenage girl. (DYlAN BROWN/Standard-Examiner)
Steven Dale Green responds to questions in regards to felony charges that were dismissed earlier this week in Greg law's office in Murray Wednesday, March 26, 2014. He was accused of having sexual relations with a teenage girl. (DYlAN BROWN/Standard-Examiner)
Steven Dale Green responds to questions in regards to felony charges that were dismissed earlier this week in Greg law's office in Murray Wednesday, March 26, 2014. He was accused of having sexual relations with a teenage girl. (DYlAN BROWN/Standard-Examiner)
Steven Dale Green responds to questions in regards to felony charges that were dismissed earlier this week in Greg law's office in Murray Wednesday, March 26, 2014. He was accused of having sexual relations with a teenage girl. (DYlAN BROWN/Standard-Examiner)
Steven Dale Green responds to questions in regards to felony charges that were dismissed earlier this week in Greg law's office in Murray Wednesday, March 26, 2014. He was accused of having sexual relations with a teenage girl. (DYlAN BROWN/Standard-Examiner)
MURRAY — Steven Dale Green headed to the gym on Feb. 6, 2013, not realizing his life would be turned upside down.
Green, 42, spoke to reporters in the office of his attorney, Greg Law, on Wednesday night about what happened more than 14 months ago when he was arrested by Bountiful police and then subsequently charged with 13 first-degree felonies.
Judge David Connors dismissed without prejudice on Tuesday eight counts of rape, one count of rape of a child, two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and one count of forcible sodomy. If Green had been convicted of any of the charges, he could have served a life sentence at the Utah State Prison. “Without prejudice” means that if at any time prosecutors believe there is enough evidence, they can refile the charges at a later date.
Deputy Davis County Attorney Cristina Ortega said Tuesday the reason the charges were dismissed is because she did not believe her office could prove the case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
Green and his attorney, Law, both say they don’t believe those charges will be refiled based on the evidence they provided to the prosecutors, who then independently verified the evidence. Part of that evidence included having Green go to the state crime lab, where he disrobed and was photographed.
Green said he has not had much time to process that he won’t be going to court on these charges. He thought he would feel “elation,” but said he is mostly just tired.
“When I heard the charges were dismissed, I was part angry, I wanted to cry and I wanted to throw up,” Green said.
Green said he knows there will be people out there who will believe he got off on a technicality, but he maintains he is innocent and that the girl, who is now 18 and living out of state, fabricated the entire story.
“First, I want to make a couple of things clear, there are real predators out there doing real harm to real kids,” Green said. “I don’t want my story to turn into we shouldn’t be pursing those people at all.”
Holly Mullen, executive director with the Rape Recovery Center in Salt Lake City, said false accusations or recanting from victims, “tends to give fodder to those who say rape cases are just cases of women who had sex then regret it.”
Mullen was not speaking specifically about the Green case. She said she does not know anything about the case, but that, across the country between 2 percent and 4 percent of all sex crime cases involved accusations that were false.
Green said he has bitter feelings toward the girl, the police and the Davis County Attorney’s Office.
“The state did a lousy job investigating this case,” Green said.
The day after the media reported his arrest, he lost his job. But his wife did not lose her faith in him, Green said.
“You go through life thinking: What would I do if my kid uses drugs or if I get cancer, you don’t go through life thinking, ‘What would I do if I get charged with child rape?” Green said.
Green said it took him a long time to get another job. The case has also taken on toll on his family. Some parents of his children’s friends do not allow them to hang out with his children. Green said he understands that. Also, adults whom he considered good friends at one time no longer speak to him or to his wife.
Green said he understands their attitudes. In the past, he said he would have been the person who would automatically think that if a person was arrested and charged, there had to be a good reason.
Now Green knows differently. He said that if the police and the county attorney’s office had done a more thorough investigation, his case would never made it as far as it did.
Law and the investigator provided evidence after the preliminary hearing in July of 2013 to the prosecutor to show Green could not have done what the girl claimed. Green said he and his wife believed the case was going to be dismissed before Christmas, butit kept dragging on.
Green said six police officers showed up at the gym where he worked out to arrest him. They took him to the Centerville police station to question him and he said he wanted an attorney. He was then booked in the Davis County Jail. He posted bail.
Green said he knows he is lucky that he had the funds to post bail, hire a private attorney and also to hire an investigator.
“If I was not in the position to post bail, pay for a polygraph test, hire my own attorney and own investigator, I would have still been in jail, had an overworked, underpaid public defender and I would have probably been in the penitentiary by now,” Green said.
This experience has shown him that even the innocent can be arrested and charged.
The girl who accused him of having a sexual relationship with him for a four-year period was a troubled girl he and his wife tried to help, he said.
The girl was never alone with him “because she had issues,” Green said.
The girl was at the Greens’ home three or four times a week. She seemed to be doing better in school and was participating on Green’s soccer team. But then her behavior changed, Green said, and the family tried to distance themselves from her.
According to the probable cause statement filed in with the court, the girl’s grandmother confronted her about a condom she found in the girl’s bedroom. The girl told her grandmother she was having a sexual relationship with Green.
It was the girl’s testimony at the preliminary hearing in July 2013 that gave Green hope. She told of times and places they had sex. Green could prove he was out of town.
Green’s private investigator went to work to find the evidence that showed he could not have done what the girl said.
As to the future, Green hopes he and his family can walk into a grocery store without people whispering behind his back.
And right now, Green said, “I will never coach again. I will never tutor again. I will never help a child again. We obeyed all the rules. We were never alone with her.”
Contact reporter Loretta Park at 801-625-4252 or lpark@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @LorettaParkSE.