UTAH COUNTY, Utah — Videos obtained by the FOX 13 Investigates team are revealing new information about the man charged in Utah County on suspicion of ritualistic child sex abuse and his ties to Utah County Attorney David Leavitt.
Both men and women said David Hamblin used positions of power to ritualistically abuse children – as a father, a therapist, a neighbor, and as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Deputies with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office arrested Hamblin in Provo on Wednesday, but investigators said they also anticipate future arrests related to the case.
Neither Leavitt nor his office will be allowed to prosecute the case against Hamblin.
A spokesperson for Leavitt stated she had “no information” as to why.
FOX 13 News chose not to identify any of the subjects of the investigation until Hamblin’s arrest.
That didn’t stop Leavitt from outing himself as a suspect during a press conference in June.
“I have nothing to hide,” Leavitt said in June. “I prosecuted the therapist in Juab County for poaching a deer... He poached a deer for ritualistic purposes.”
Leavitt has made several statements about his relationship with Hamblin and some of the alleged victims between the years 2020 and 2022.
The nature of those statements have changed over the years.
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“When I was a law student, this therapist was my elder’s quorum president with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was my neighbor. I had a family connection... There was no organized ring of abuse. It was debunked more than ten years ago.”
During that same press conference, Leavitt described his accuser as “tragically mentally ill.”
She is one of the same women who accused Hamblin and others.
“Shame on (Leavitt) for doing that. It’s uncalled for,” said Sgt. Spencer Cannon of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. “He said ‘tragically mentally ill woman’ five times... To attack their mental health status as a way to discredit them – and it was clear that that’s what he was doing – that's just not okay.”
More than two years prior to the press conference, March 2020, Leavitt sat down for a different interview.
He was asked if he thought “ritualistic sex abuse” is real.
“Yeah,” Leavitt whispered. “I think it occurs.”
Leavitt went on to describe Hamblin and – perhaps unknowingly – his own accuser, calling her a victim.
“I know some victims of it. I know some victims of it. I was not in a position to prosecute it,” Leavitt said. “He was into Native American stuff, had killed deer, and got deer hearts and drank their blood and drank the deer’s blood. It’s all – there's some pretty goofy people in the world.”
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Hamblin was charged with 18 felony counts of sex abuse in 2012, but the charges were ultimately dismissed.
According to witness statements from that case obtained by FOX 13 News, it’s unclear if more than one of the alleged victims also accused Leavitt of sexual assault. Their names are redacted for privacy reasons.
Leavitt had already been under investigation by Homeland Security for several years at the time of the March 2020 interview. At the time, he did not refer to the woman as “tragically mentally ill.”
Clips from that interview are now evidence in that case. Some of the topics discussed during those clips are very graphic.
“I mean, how do you train a dog to roll over when it’s time to roll over? You do it by giving a reward and repetition,” Leavitt said. “If a man wants to program some little girl to give him oral sex any time he wants, start young and give rewards. It’s the same way you help a child learn how to make their bed.”
After Hamblin’s arrest, FOX 13 News asked Leavitt – through his spokesperson – for a comment.
We were told he “does not comment on pending cases.”
Apparently, that did not stop him in June.