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AMERICAN FORK -- A former chiropractor in American Fork, sent to prison for sexually abusing a patient, will get a new trial. That's the order of the Utah Court of Appeals.
Grant Hildreth was convicted of abusing one woman but was acquitted of abusing three other women who made allegations against him.
The state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Hildreth should have been afforded a separate trial for each of his accusers.
The case goes back to 2008, when Hildreth was found guilty of two counts of forcible sexual abuse involving the woman. Hildreth's attorney appealed that decision.
Prosecutors can appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court or can take Hildreth back to trial on the case he was found guilty of. Hildreth's attorney is hopeful he will be set free.
"They could retry him. We're ready for that, because if they did retry him just alone on that one witness, in my opinion, that they can't win on that evidence," defense attorney Carolyn Howard said. "The state won this trial on the mere quantity of women that came forward, which was a real injustice to Dr. Hildreth."
The prosecutor who handled the case was out of the office Tuesday and could not comment. He does have some time to decide if Hildreth will be prosecuted again.
Hildreth's attorney has asked for a court hearing within the next month and will ask that he be released from prison pending the outcome of the case.
For now, Hildreth continues to serve the one to 15-year prison sentence he was given.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
