A former member of a northern Utah cult has assured a Board of Pardons official that she is preparing herself for a useful role in society once she is released from prison.
However, Sharon Kapp, one of 15 women who considered themselves eternal companions of convicted child molester and cult leader Arvin Shreeve, admitted she "cannot comprehend the pain" she caused while she was a member of the Zion Society.During her preliminary parole hearing on Tuesday, a tearful Kapp said she also was a victim of the cult, but realizes her accountability for her crimes.
"I sit here as a perpetrator . . . and I am totally responsible for my actions," she told hearing officer Pete Haun. "I made the choices, and embraced and practiced the beliefs."
Preliminary parole hearings usually do not result in scheduled release dates but are held to assess inmate progress and receive testimony from victims.
Kapp is serving a five-years-to-life sentence for one count of attempted aggravated child sexual abuse and two concurrent sentences for second-degree felony sexual exploitation of minors and third-degree felony dealing in materials harmful to a minor.
A first-degree felony conviction for child sodomy was overturned last December by 2nd District Judge Michael Glasmann. He ruled Kapp had been incorrectly charged by the state with child sodomy because her alleged victim - her daughter - was 14 years old at the time, not 13.
That charge carried a minimum mandatory 10-year sentence, which would have kept Kapp in prison through the year 2002.
Since the conviction was reversed, Kapp is now being considered for parole in November 1998.
However, no specific date will be set until she completes certain programs and undergoes psycho-sexual testing.
Haun, describing Kapp as a model prisoner who has been willing to help other female inmates with their problems, said another hearing date for Kapp's parole will be scheduled by mid-April.
Kapp's daughter testified, too, saying she has forgiven her mother. She also said she was a member of the group and understood what went on there.
"I believed everything too," she said. "Now I just think it's crazy."
Included in the group's doctrines were teachings that encouraged sexual relations among women in Shreeve's "Sister Council," made up of the 15 females of various ages who viewed themselves as the cult leader's wives.
Kapp was one of 10 cult members sentenced to prison or jail or placed on probation for some form of child sexual abuse or exploitation after an August 1991 police raid on Shreeve's cult based in a northern Ogden subdivision.
Shreeve himself was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing children, and will not be eligible for parole until 2012.