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SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake County jury found a Tooele man not guilty of assaulting a woman during a hike, ending a forcible sexual abuse case filed over three years ago.
Kevin Richard Olmore, 56, was initially charged in August 2020 with two counts of criminal solicitation, a third-degree felony, and sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor. As the case progressed, the sexual battery charge was amended to forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
The charges against Olmore were based on reports from one woman and two girls on April 25, 2020, in the Silver Lake hiking area near Brighton Ski Resort.
Olmore was able to get the criminal solicitation charges dismissed, but 3rd District Judge Paul Parker ruled the other charge had enough evidence to proceed to trial.
Olmore represented himself in the jury trial on Thursday. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning the not guilty verdict.
Police responded to a call from girls who were having senior pictures taken at Silver Lake who said they ran from Olmore after he made inappropriate comments, according to charging documents. Police then received a second call from a woman who was near the same area.
The woman knew Olmore's name from work and said Olmore and his daughter saw her at Silver Lake and asked to hike with her. But after feeling uncomfortable about comments she said he made about her body, she told Olmore she did not want to hike any more, the charges state. But before he left, Olmore allegedly said he wanted to hug her.
The woman consented, but during the hug, Olmore placed both of his hands on her buttocks and kept them there "for some time," according to the charges.
The jury determined, however, there was not proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Olmore committed this crime.
In his motion to dismiss the criminal solicitation charges associated with the teenage girls, Olmore argued prosecutors would need to prove he intended to commit a felony, and there was no evidence supporting that. In a motion to dismiss the charges, he said that he did not solicit, request or command the girls to do anything.
Olmore's motion said those charges "are not about what happened. They are premised on what the state believes (Olmore) wanted to happen."
