Former Salt Lake City Fire Captain Convicted of Multiple Counts of Sexual Abuse
Today, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced that a Third District Court Jury found Christopher David Burk guilty of eight counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and one count of third-degree felony attempted forcible sexual abuse.
The defendant was originally charged on January 28, 2025, with six counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and one count of third-degree felony attempted forcible sexual abuse. These charges stemmed from allegations that on October 10, 2024, R.G. reported she was enrolled in an EMT class at Salt Lake Community College when her instructor, the defendant, asked if she wanted to stay behind to “review some things”. The defendant then took her to another classroom to show her how to “do assessments”. The defendant then sexually assaulted R.G. multiple times, under the auspice of teaching emergency response. R.G. was afraid to report the behavior because she was concerned about retaliation and that she would fail her course.
While detectives investigated the allegations, the college told police that they had a second victim, S.H., alleged that the defendant had sexually assaulted her multiple times as well. In one incident, she told investigators she went on a ride-along with the defendant in his position as a Captain with the Salt Lake City Fire Department when he sexually assaulted her. S.H. told investigators she did not report it because the defendant held a position of power and she was concerned reporting could affect her future and employment.
One of the victim-survivors told investigators that the trauma from the sexual assault caused her to drop out of the program, giving up her dream
On February 13, 2025, the SLCo DA’s office filed additional charges against the defendant for similar allegations from four additional females. At this time, the defendant was charged with an additional five counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and one count of third-degree felony attempted forcible sexual abuse.
On April 3, 2025, prosecutors removed one count of third-degree felony attempted forcible sexual abuse from the case against the defendant. However, added three counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse for additional allegations from one of the previous reporting victim-survivors, T.M.
On April 14, 2025, one more count of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse was filed against the defendant for a seventh victim-survivor. However, that charge was removed in an amended filing on May 1, 2025.
During the trial, one count of attempted forcible sexual assault was dismissed, with 14 counts remaining charged.
Today, a jury found the defendant guilty of eight counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and guilty of one count of third-degree felony attempted forcible sexual abuse. The jury found the defendant not guilty of five counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse.
“We appreciate the finding of guilt in the majority of the charges in this trial. This defendant abused his position of trust as an EMT teacher to assault multiple students in his class. Though we are disappointed that the jury did not find the defendant guilty on all counts, we appreciate their thoughtful consideration of the facts. Multiple victims came forward during the investigation and seven testified during the trial. We hope that all the victim-survivors in this case understand that the jury’s verdict does not diminish their experiences, nor the harm it brought to them,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. “We appreciate the dedication of our prosecutors to this case as the number of victim-survivors increased as more women came forward with allegations against the defendant. We thank our prosecutors Sam Comi and Doug Fiaui, as well as our social worker, Juli Miller, and our support staff for their dedication to this case and the victim-survivors they worked with throughout the criminal justice process. We appreciate the work of detectives at the Sandy City Police Department that carried out a thorough investigation that helped lead to these verdicts.”