Tooele life coach who admitted to sexually abusing clients gets consecutive prison sentences

TOOELE — A former life skills coach was sentenced to prison after admitting to sexually abusing six girls.

Douglas Richens, 53, was sentenced on Aug. 10 to 10 terms of one to 15 years in prison, each for sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony, by 3rd District Judge Douglas Hogan.

The judge ordered the sentences to run consecutively, meaning he will spend a minimum of 10 years behind bars. Hogan also gave him credit for the 509 days he had already spent in custody since being arrested in March of 2025.

Richens pleaded guilty to the 10 charges on Feb. 3 as part of a plea deal that eliminated two first-degree felony charges. In his plea, he admitted to touching the genital area of the six girls.

Initially he was charged with sodomy on a child and two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, first-degree felonies; sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony; and sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor. When the charges were filed, only two of the six girls had reported abuse to police.

The judge also ordered him to not have any contact with the victims, following a request agreed to by both prosecutors and Richens.

Richens is a co-owner of Gray Space Experts, 102 W. 1180 North, in Tooele — a mental wellness and business consulting company, according to the company's online bio. A woman who was a client there reported to police he slapped her butt at the end of a session and said "oh, that was inappropriate," but did not apologize, charging documents said.

According to charges, the woman contacted others who had been clients there who reported actions that police found "did not appear to violate any state or federal statute, but it all seemed very unprofessional and inappropriate," charges state. The officer said it sounded like his actions were "possible attempts to groom the women."

While investigating those allegations, the same detective was assigned another case where a teen girl claimed she had been inappropriately touched by Richens during four or five sessions where the man "made her do strange stretches that made no sense to her."

Charges said the girl knew what Richens was doing was wrong but did not know how to stop the behavior.

The officer continued investigating and learned of an earlier incident with a young girl in 2020 who claimed she was sexually abused by Richens at his home, but after Richens refused to comment the girl and her family eventually asked for the case to be closed. When the officer contacted the family again, they said they now did want to press charges.

Richens had no license to practice medicine or counseling when he was arrested.

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