The family of a slain Alta View nurse wants to know what Karen Worthington said to her LDS bishop during her phone call to him in the moments before the Sept. 19 siege at Alta View Hospital.
Worthington's ex-husband, Richard, has been charged with first-degree murder stemming from the shooting death of nurse Karla Roth during the standoff.Roth's husband and children have asked a 3rd District judge to compel Karen Worthington to reveal details of her conversation with LDS Bishop Wayne Mills.
Karen Worthington refused to discuss that conversation when Roth's attorney took her deposition recently. She claimed a state law protecting information given during confession to a clergy protects her from having to reveal what she said to her bishop.
Karen Worthington also refuses to reveal what she and Richard Worthington, who was then her husband, discussed during the weeks prior to the standoff. Those conversations, too, are protected by the same state law, she claimed.
Colin King has filed a motion before 3rd District Judge Kenneth Rigtrup asking him to rule on whether Karen Worthington's conversation with her bishop could be protected by state law even though she was not confessing to Mills.
In a memo supporting the motion, King noted that the language of the state law only protects confessions with clergy, not all conversation with clergy.
He asked Rigtrup to interpret the law strictly according to its plain language.
The Roth family believes Karen Worthington was telling Mills that her husband had taken guns and a bomb to Alta View Hospital.
A similar issue is before the Utah Supreme Court. Michelle Scott has sued her stepfather, Steven LeRoy Hammock, for allegedly sexually abusing her.
Scott believes Hammock discussed the abuse with his LDS bishop, but not while making a confession.
Scott has asked the Utah Supreme Court to rule that only confessions made to clergy are protected by state law.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has intervened in the matter, asking the court to consider all conversations with clergy protected by law.