Nearly two decades ago, a 23-year-old man went to Salt Lake City police to report that a hypnotherapist had touched him during a session at Sugar House Hypnotherapy in a way that “wasn’t right.” He was worried, court documents show, that William Del Draney could be doing the same with other young men.

When the two men met, Draney said he was a psychiatrist, could see the man had some kind of problem and that he could help, according to allegations in court records. The man told an officer that when he went to the hypnotherapist’s home office in Salt Lake City, Draney instructed him to take off his clothes and then touched his genitals.

He was the first to report Draney to Salt Lake City police, and officials say the case was closed in 2007 because there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges.

But in the years since, eight other men have come forward with similar allegations.

Like in 2014, when a man told police that Draney kissed and groped him and simulated sex, which Draney described as “transferring energy.” The case was closed without criminal charges.

And in 2023, another man went to a hospital for a sexual assault exam after he said Draney placed crystals on his genitals and tried to engage in sex acts with him.

He said he had kept going to sessions prior to the alleged assault — despite feeling uncomfortable — because Draney used had his “position of authority” to confuse him and he was afraid of stopping. Draney, he said, was “a medical professional and had a position of advantage over him,” according to a police report.

Still, no charges followed.

Then, last year, a client recorded a conversation with Draney where he confronted the hypnotherapist at Draney’s newer West Jordan office. In the recording, Draney did not deny touching the man’s genitals, according to charging records, but said it was “part of the healing process” and that he was not trying to be sexual.

That led to a re-examination of previous reports, and in May, Draney was charged with 20 felony counts of forcible sodomy and forcible sexual abuse in connection to five men. In charging documents, prosecutors point to a Utah law which says patients can’t consent to sexual acts with someone who holds themselves out as a health professional if the touching was done under the guise of providing treatment.

Hypnotherapists aren’t licensed therapists, and Utah law prohibits them from treating medical issues. Sexual touching during hypnotherapy is considered unethical by both the National Hypnotherapy Society and the International Board of Hypnotherapy.

Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Edward Carr argued in a recent court hearing that Draney used “suggestive techniques” in hypnotherapy to lure men into vulnerable states.

“Thereby overpowering their will, and coercing them into sexual acts without their consent,” Carr argued. “He uses hypnotherapy to gain the trust of his victims, and then exploits that trust to control them.”

Draney has not entered a plea to the charges. His defense attorney, Nick Falcone, argued in a later hearing that any sexual contact with his clients was consensual — and noted that several of the alleged victims came back and paid for more appointments.

“If these men felt they were not getting legitimate healing,” Falcone argued, “then find a different hypnotherapist.”

The defense attorney said he saw a hypnotherapist to deal with stress while studying for the bar exam and asserted that if that hypnotherapist made him uncomfortable, he would have left and chalked it up to a “wacky thing happened to me.”

“Not these men,” he said. “They went back.”

‘There was an obvious pattern’

Researchers have found that men are less likely than women to disclose sexual abuse — including to police. Despite this barrier to reporting, police and court records say nine men have contacted police in the two cities where Draney had a practice — Salt Lake City and West Jordan.

One of the most recent reports came from a client who told West Jordan police in 2025 that Draney cupped his testicles during two appointments last June. Draney told him he had tumors and that he was using “healing energy” while touching him, the client reported.

Later that month, the client recorded the confrontation with Draney. Court records say that in the recording, Draney can be heard saying: “If I were perverted, I could practice sexual therapy and get all the action I wanted.”

The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name alleged victims of sexual abuse.

That client’s wife, who The Tribune agreed to not name to protect her husband’s privacy, said in an interview that she encouraged him to contact police about a month after these June appointments, when she saw online posts from others describing similar experiences with Draney.

She also had two hypnotherapy sessions with Draney, she said, and felt uncomfortable with the details he shared about his personal life. She said he spoke about how he hated his mother and his ex-wife, and used racial slurs to describe minority groups.

“He ended up telling me that he has the police in his back pocket and is cahoots with the mayor,” she said, adding that Draney told her “he can just make anything disappear.”

The woman said she feels angry that Salt Lake City police didn’t do more with the earlier reports.

“Salt Lake City Police Department, I do feel completely let people down,” she said. “There was an obvious pattern.”

Unlicensed hypnotherapists like Draney operate in a “gray area,” said Salt Lake City police Sgt. Greg Wilking, where no regulations prohibit consensual touching between adults during sessions. When a hypnotherapist says that touching is part of their care and a client is faced with consenting under that assertion, it can be challenging for police to determine if the contact is a crime, he said.

There were also issues, he said, with alleged victims cooperating with the investigation after they initially made the report.

“I feel for the victims that they feel let down by this,” Wilking said. “We don’t want that.”

Two of the men who went to police about Draney later died by suicide, prosecutors have said. One was found in his own car outside Draney’s home.

An unlicensed profession

Wilking said officers referred cases to the Division of Professional Licensing, known as DOPL, twice — in 2014 and 2021. The state agency is responsible for licensing and disciplining health care, construction and other skilled trades.

“Obviously [the referrals] didn’t have the teeth” to stop Draney from practicing, the sergeant acknowledged.

Utah law specifically exempts hypnotherapy from DOPL oversight, saying those who induce a hypnotic state in a client for “the purpose of increasing motivation or altering lifestyles or habits, such as eating or smoking” do not need to be licensed. But hypnotherapists are forbidden from treating mental health conditions, or holding themselves out as a mental health therapist.

If a hypnotherapist crosses the line into what only a therapist can do, DOPL can cite them with what’s known as unauthorized practice. Citations obtained through a records request show that DOPL has cited Draney twice.

In 2014, DOPL fined Draney $500 for advertising that he could treat mental health conditions.

He was fined $2,000 in June — a month after he was criminally charged — again connected to his online advertisements that said he could help release past traumas and do psychological testing. That fine came in connection to a complaint filed by another former client in September 2025, who wrote that they were worried that Draney not only was practicing psychotherapy, but offering to train others.

“Something must be done to stop his business,” they wrote, “as he uses it to prey on vulnerable, traumatized people seeking help and he uses it to TRAIN other professionals in things they have no license to do.”

Licensing officials said that they have investigated a handful of hypnotherapists over the last decade, but declined to comment specifically on the citations issued to Draney. When asked if they believe hypnotherapists should be licensed, they responded that it was the Legislature’s job to decide what professions required their oversight.

“DOPL has not formally evaluated hypnotherapy, nor has the Division taken a position on its regulation,” they wrote. “Only lawmakers can determine whether to study a profession or evaluate potential public impact.”

The licensing division doesn’t release complaints unless they result in disciplinary action — so it’s not publicly known how many other complaints licensors received about Draney that they didn’t take action on.

There was at least one. According to an email shared with The Tribune, a therapist reported Draney to DOPL last January. That therapist expressed concern that Draney was potentially harmful, and said one of their current clients had shared that the hypnotherapist spoke to them about sexual topics unrelated to any treatment.

A licensing investigator responded to the email saying that hypnotherapy was an “exempted practice” in Utah and licensers couldn’t do anything.

She encouraged the therapist to contact police if they felt Draney was doing anything illegal.