Advocates of Ashley’s Law met with Carbon County Democratic Chairman Nathan Woodward on Monday evening in the USU Eastern Alumni Room, located in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center, for a discussion.
Woodward stated that the event went well, and there was a great turnout from members of the community, who had been urged to attend. The evening began with Vigil’s mother, Paula, who explained that Vigil had a condition called Rett syndrome that rendered her non-verbal, unable to walk and ultimately unable to care for herself.
When Vigil’s seizures began getting worse, her doctor suggested installing cameras within the home to try and catch the seizures. Upon checking the footage, Vigil’s mother discovered that her husband of the time, Brian Urban, was raping Vigil.
“He was arrested but since Ashley was technically an ‘adult’ under the law, he would only be subject to a lesser punishment than he would if Ashley had been the same physical age as her mental age,” Woodward explained. “In Utah, when a person rapes an adult the sentence is much less than that if the victim was a child and adult carries a non-mandatory prison sentence while a minor carries a mandatory 25-life sentence.”
Though Urban was sentenced, he could be paroled in as little as 13 years. Woodward highlighted Ashley’s Law and how it came to be. On Jan. 23, Vigil’s mother had posted a plea for help on Facebook, which Woodward saw, inviting Paula to his office the next day. Woodward, who is also the family attorney, created a working draft of Ashley’s Law with her mother by the end of that same day.
“I explained that I felt that I had to help because ten years ago my son Jonathan, who had Down syndrome, passed away, and I remembered feeling helpless as I held him in my arms for the last time, that I couldn’t do anything to protect him. So I promised to make sure that no parent of a disabled child would ever feel helpless if I could do anything to help,” shared Woodward.
The ultimate goal is to update Utah, and potentially Federal, law to add an additional section under chapter 76 of the Utah Criminal Sentencing Code to include a third category alongside adult and minor. This category would be disabled/incapacitated adult. This would adopt similar sentencing guidelines and requirements as there would be for a minor, which is anyone 14 years old or younger.
Now, the advocates are working on what Woodward had deemed “Project Einherjar”, named after the warriors in Norse mythology that will stand as the vanguard for all mankind during the battle of Ragnarok. Each are protected by a Valkyrie, and this term was chosen as Vigil is a Valkyrie and will be with them as they fight.
This plan will divide all those that are willing to fight into three teams and delegating specific tasks to each team. In the beginning of January, summaries will be provided to Woodward, who will draft the final memorandum. This will be provided to legislators, organizations and the media. Team three will then have recorded communication with each legislator by Nov. 1 and the goal is to have Ashley’s Law passed in the 2025 legislative session.
