By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

Sometimes, when tragedy strikes, triumph can rise from the ashes. This is the case when discussing HB127, or the Sexual Crime Amendments, colloquially known as “Ashley’s Law.” A yearslong journey is approaching its summit as only two hurdles remain before the bill is signed into law. 

For context, currently, within Utah, the penalty for rape is five years to life in prison if the victim is an adult. It also carries no modifications if the crime is against an adult with a disability. HB127 modifies the law to increase the severity of punishment for these crimes against incapacitated adults, raising the base threshold to 15 years to life in prison.

Attorney Nathaniel Woodward – one of the bill’s biggest advocates – joined the KOAL Newsroom to discuss his involvement in the legislation and its journey from its inception to its current location on the Senate floor.

For Woodward, it all started with a social media post,” that post was made by a local woman named Paula Dickson. And Paula is the mother of Ashley Vigil. And Paula told a story in that post that I have a difficult time recounting out loud, even today because it really affected me. She was a wounded mother of a baby child who not only was severely disabled but had been brutally, sexually assaulted, and raped for who knows how long by her stepfather, Brian Urban.”

He continued,” Paula explained that in Utah, our rape sentencing structure seems to be a little unfair when it comes to how we apportion the time we sentence them to prison on those charges.” 

By the word of the law, a minor in Utah is anyone 14 years of age and younger. It does not consider the mental age of the person, which Woodward described as” outdated.”

The story impacted Woodward in such a way he knew he had to get involved in championing a bill to change this law and sentencing guidelines in these cases,” And so I messaged Paula immediately. I said, ‘Paula, I’m a local attorney. I want to help you with this. Come to my office tomorrow morning.’ I canceled my entire day … And Paula came into my office. We spent the day going over her story and Ashley’s story and who this individual, Brian Urban, was. And we made a plan. I drafted a dozen-page long memo. And we sent it to every politician and news media person I knew. And within days, Paula and I were getting interviewed on the news from here to the BBC.”

Woodward also explained,” I took Ashley’s law under my wing. And I booked out my entire year of pro bono hours. Plus, I stopped counting only a few weeks in. I stopped tabulating how much we put into this. But I was committed to putting this thing together.”

Speaking on Dickson, Woodward shared,” Paula Dickson is a force that will not be stopped. And so I knew this law could happen in the best way or in the most aggressive way; because Paula was going to get this done, and she deserved it.”

When discussing a bill or other legislation, outsiders see it as a process consisting of the bill being introduced, passing a vote and being signed into law. However, the behind-the-scenes process of drafting the bill and ensuring it is legal consumes countless hours. “I said, now here’s the current law. And I pulled out the bill and then I pulled, I did my edits. I did redline edits. I said, and this is how I would change it. And so that’s how it started. And then these needed to go up to the legislature.”

Continuing on the drafting process, Woodward stated,” Without getting too into it, it’s a sexual assault bill. You spend three days in a room arguing over the definition of the term sodomy. Because boy, that’s a hard one to really figure out in this state with all our other statutes and saying, well, this statute defines this word as this. But we have case law from the courts that have determined that this actually means this. And that’s why it’s important to have lawyers involved with writing laws.”

The next hurdle was to find a Representative to run the bill. After an exhaustive search, the duo got in contact with Rep. Mark Strong (R-Bluffdale). “He’s got the biggest IOU from me for the rest of his life and days,” said Woodward.

Following the drafting process, the bill was presented in committee, something which Woodward described as” the scariest part.” “That’s when everyone’s in a smaller room. They’re not at the Capitol building. They’re just next to it, either in the Senate or the House buildings. They have their own little places. And you go down to these dark, cramped rooms, these big, long U-tables. And they sit up, and they discuss, and they debate these bills. And this is where the real yucky politics happens. And this is where just tempers are lost.”

He continued,” Rep. Strong was on this committee and presented it. He stepped down from his podium, came down to the actual front, the lectern, and they introduced the bill with the drafting attorney. And then it came open to public comment. And, of course, we pushed Paula right up there. And she was able to give testimony in front of that committee. I went up and gave testimony and then drug up the attorney who’s the Utah Defense Attorneys Bar president, which was the one I was scared of. I’m a defense attorney myself. And so when I’m saying, hey, we should make stricter criminal laws, that’s against the interests of my clients.”

During her comment, Dickson stated,” My entire world has been destroyed. She could not walk, or talk, or fight, or scream, or crawl or tell me. For what happened to her, he should be in there (prison) till the end of his life.” 

“It was an emotionally charged, heavy, but joyous day,” shared Woodward,” And it’s that very deep joy you get after a long cry, like a hard, deep sob. That catharsis that comes afterward. Standing in the hallway after the committee voted and hugging Paula, telling her, ‘I told you we’d get here. I knew we’d always get here.’

After successfully passing a house vote 72-0-3, only two hurdles remain for Ashley’s Law – a senate vote scheduled for the week of March 3 – and a signature from Gov. Spencer Cox.

“He’ll sign it, and we’ll go up and sign it with him. We’ll make sure Paula’s right there.”

Once the bill is signed, Woodward has a celebration planned which coincides with the Carbon County Democratic Convention on Saturday, March 15,” we’re going to have a celebration for this community, this triumph, because this was, I mean, watching Schoolhouse Rock as a kid, it showed you how a bill was made. They told you, you write someone, and that’s how a bill can be made. And Paula did that. Paula did that. She did what every kid dreamed of doing. She created this law through sheer will, which is going to leave our Ashley a legacy that will endure forever. Her memory will never die and her spirit will live on to protect us and our kids.”

In closing, Woodward stated,” Look what we did in one year, folks. Imagine what all of us could do in the next one. Let’s take Ashley’s legacy and do something else. Let’s start now. Come to me, come to Paula, come to anyone, and I will join. Let’s keep going. We have the momentum. Once again, Castle Valley is leading, and we’re gonna keep doing that.”

*Photo Courtesy of the Utah State Senate