Defendant in Charlie Kirk's killing asks judge to disqualify prosecutors

PROVO, Utah (AP) — The Utah man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk returned to court Friday, as his attorneys sought to disqualify prosecutors because the daughter of a deputy county attorney involved in the case attended the rally where Kirk was shot.

Defense attorneys say the relationship represents a conflict of interest after prosecutors said they intend to seek the death penalty for Tyler Robinson.

Robinson, 22, is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 shooting of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, just a few miles north of the Provo courthouse. He has not yet entered a plea.

The director of a state council that trains prosecutors said he doubted the disqualification attempt would succeed, and he was unaware of any major case where attorneys had been disqualified for bias.

“I would bet against the defense winning this motion,” Utah Prosecution Council Director Robert Church told The Associated Press. “They’ve got to a show a substantial amount of prejudice and bias.”

The prosecutor’s 18-year-old daughter, who attended the event where Kirk was shot, later texted her father in the Utah County Attorney’s Office to describe the chaotic aftermath, according to court filings and testimony. She did not see the shooting but heard a loud pop, according to an affidavit submitted by prosecutors.

Robinson's attorneys say the close connection between the prosecution team and a person present for Kirk's killing “raises serious concerns about past and future prosecutorial decision-making,” according to court documents. They also argue that the “rush” to seek the death penalty is evidence of “strong emotional reactions” by the prosecution and merits disqualification of the entire team.

Defense attorney Richard Novak urged Judge Tony Graf on Friday to bring in the state attorney general’s office in place of Utah County prosecutors to address the alleged conflict of interest. Novak said it was problematic for county prosecutors to litigate on behalf of the state while defending their aptness to stay on the case.

Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray argued that Novak’s last-minute request was aimed at delaying the case against Robinson. His office has asked Graf to deny the disqualification request.

“This is ambush and another stalling tactic,” Gray said.

Several thousand people attended the outdoor rally where Kirk, a co-founder of Turning Point USA who helped mobilize young people to vote for President Donald Trump, was shot as he took audience questions.

The prosecutor's daughter, a student at Utah Valley University, texted a family group chat that day saying, “CHARLIE GOT SHOT.” Gray testified Friday that he was with his colleague when he received that text, and the colleague showed it to him.

In the weeks after the shooting, the young woman did not miss classes and reported no lasting trauma “aside from being scared at the time,” the affidavit said.

Gray emphasized that she was “neither a material witness nor a victim in the case” and that “nearly everything” she knows about Kirk's killing is mere hearsay.

“There is virtually no risk, let alone a significant risk, that it would arouse such emotions in any father-prosecutor as to render him unable to fairly prosecute the case,” he said in a court filing.

The deputy county attorney and his daughter are expected to testify Feb. 3.

If Utah County prosecutors were disqualified, the case would likely shift to prosecutors in a county with enough resources to handle a big case, such as Salt Lake City, or possibly the state attorney general’s office, said Church, the prosecution council director. Graf would have the final say, he said.

Friday's hearing was briefly interrupted when the defense raised concerns that close-up shots of Robinson livestreamed by a local television station could be analyzed by lip readers to see what he was discussing with his attorneys. That prompted Graf to order the camera operator not to film Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.

Prosecutors have said DNA evidence connects Robinson to the killing. Robinson also reportedly texted his romantic partner that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.”

At the school where the shooting took place, university president Astrid Tuminez announced Wednesday that she will be stepping down from her role after the semester ends in May.

The state university has been working to expand its police force and add security managers after it was criticized for a lack of key safety measures on the day of the shooting.

Prosecutors are expected to lay out their case against Robinson at a preliminary hearing scheduled to begin May 18.

This story has been updated to correct the name of Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Fourth District Court Judge Tony Graf presides over a hearing for Tyler Robinson in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray addresses the court during a hearing for Tyler Robinson in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)

Tyler Robinson, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, sits beside defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)

Tyler Robinson, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, sits beside defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)

FILE - A U.S. flag hangs at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Sept. 17, 2025, over the site where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn, File)

FILE - Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, appears during a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, Dec. 11, 2025. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Catholic priests in Rhode Island preyed on hundreds of children for decades, getting away with sexual abuse largely due to a system where bishops prioritized minimizing scandal as the diocese maintained a secret archive to conceal the revelation of more victims.

These findings were among the many sobering details released Wednesday as part of a multiyear investigation into the Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, led by Attorney General Peter Neronha.

The report was designed to spark a “full reckoning” of the abuse that had long remained elusive inside the smallest state in the U.S., home to the country’s largest Catholic population per capita, with nearly 40% of the state identifying as Catholic. Neronha, himself a Catholic, sided with the victims who have argued that not enough has yet been done to address the problem, more than two decades after it was widely exposed in the nearby Boston diocese.

“Not until now has there been a comprehensive review of this painful chapter in our state’s history, with a view toward offering transparency, accountability, and systemic reforms that will, I hope, lessen the likelihood of future child sexual abuse, not just within the Diocese of Providence, but in our community as a whole,” Neronha wrote in the report.

The investigation found that 75 Catholic clergy molested more than 300 victims since 1950, but officials stressed that the number of victimized children and abusive priests is likely much higher.

The diocesan records, described as “damning” in the report, revealed that the diocese often transferred accused priests to new assignments without thoroughly investigating complaints or contacting law enforcement.

This includes the Diocese of Providence opening a “spiritual retreat-style facility” in the early 1950s, where several accused priests were sent for treatmentwith the goal of returning to work. This practice evolved into sending accused priests to more formal “treatment centers” after determining clergy abuse may be a mental health problem.

The report said the diocese’s “overreliance and misplaced faith” in the treatment centers was at best “absurdly pollyannaish.”

By the 1990s, accused priests were sometimes placed on sabbatical leave.

For example, the report says priest Robert Carpentier was accused in 1992 of sexual abuse by the family of a 13-year-old victim. Carpentier confirmed the abuse took place in the 1970s and resigned.

Carpentier was sent to a treatment center in Connecticut and eventually went on sabbatical at Boston College. He remained on a “leave of absence” until his official retirement in 2006 and received support from the diocese until he died in 2012.

Overall, the majority of cases involving accused priests avoided accountability from both law enforcement and the diocese.

Neronha said his office has charged four current and former priests for sexual abuse they allegedly committed while serving in the diocese between 2020 and 2022. Three of those priests are still awaiting trial. The fourth priest died after being deemed incompetent to stand trial in 2022.

In total, only 20, or about 26% of the clergy identified in the report, ever faced criminal charges, and just 14 clergy were convicted. A dozen accused clergy were laicized or dismissed from the clerical state.

One survivor in the report shared that he was groomed before he was sexually abused by Monsignor John Allard, who served at Immaculate Conception Church in Cranston in 1981.

The survivor, who is not named in the report, said Allard gave him attention and physical affection between seventh and eighth grade. By ninth grade, Allard brought the young teenager to the priest’s bed, took off the victim’s clothing and began fondling his penis.

“He never asked me for a hug, he never asked me if I wanted a hug, his comment to me was always, ‘You need a hug,’ and that’s something that I can hear him saying very clearly to this very day,” the survivor told officials in 2013.

While a review board deemed the victim’s abuse credible, then-Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin intervened, asking the Vatican’s powerful doctrine office to allow Allard to retire without being removed from the priesthood. The Vatican agreed.

Sometimes, even those tasked with reviewing abuse cases were also abusers. In 2021, priest Francis Santilli received a child sexual abuse complaint after serving on Rhode Island’s diocese review board. Santilli stepped down, but remained in active ministry even after receiving additional abuse complaints in 2014 and 2021. Santilli wouldn’t be removed until 2022.

“Only the Diocese can explain why this plainly necessary action took so long,” the report says.

Neronha first launched the investigation in 2019, nearly a year after a Pennsylvania grand jury report found more than 1,000 children had been abused by an estimated 300 priests in that state since the 1940s. The 2018 report is considered one of the broadest inquiries into child sexual abuse in U.S. history.

However, unlike Pennsylvania, Rhode Island law doesn’t allow grand jury reports to become public — a hurdle that Neronha has long fought to change.

Instead, Neronha had to enter into an agreement with the diocese to access hundreds of thousands of records of abuse that spanned decades.

While Neronha said the church cooperated, handing over 70 years of what became known as the “secret archive,” or files containing internal investigations, civil settlement records of sexual abuse cases, treatment costs and more.

Yet Neronha says the arrangement “was not without important limits, or without delays.”

“It repeatedly refused my team’s requests for interviews of Diocesan personnel responsible for overseeing the Diocese’s investigations and response to child sexual abuse allegations,” Neronha wrote about the diocese.

Furthermore, an unknown number of victims likely died before coming forward, while some church records have been lost or even destroyed surrounding possible abusive priests. It’s also common for child sexual abuse victims to take decades before coming forward with their stories.

St. Mary's Church is seen Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Cranston, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, which serves as the home church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, is seen Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, which serves as the home church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, is seen Tuesday Feb. 24, 2026, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is displayed outside St. Mary's Church, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Cranston, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

FILE - Attorney General Peter Neronha gives a victory speech after winning a second term, during an election-night gathering of Rhode Island Democratic candidates and supporters on Nov. 8, 2022, in Providence, R.I. . (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell, File)