PROVO — A week before the Winter Olympics kicked off in 2002, a trio of Secret Service agents pulled their SUV up to a stoplight on Center Street in Provo and called out to three college girls in a neighboring car. The agents convinced the girls to meet up several times, then three days later plied them with booze before carrying out a pair of sex assaults in a downtown hotel.

The incident is recounted in detail via a series of lengthy police reports dating back to 2002. The Daily Herald obtained the reports from Provo city after filing an open records request for documents recently solicited by The Washington Post. Among other things, the reports reveal that the Secret Service’s troubles with agents’ sexual mishaps didn’t begin with the recent prostitution scandal involving President Obama’s bodyguards in Colombia.

The story narrated by the police reports begins Jan. 28, 2002. The Secret Service agents reportedly were in Provo in anticipation of the Olympics, and called out to three new Utah Valley State College students, asking “what there was to do in Provo.” The reports identify one of the agents as Daniel “Todd” Cranor, but the names of the other agents, as well as all the young women, have been redacted.

After the initial encounter on the street, the three agents went with the women to IHOP, then took them to a hotel room where they showed them badges, handcuffs and guns, among other things. The agents also reportedly said “they were looking for terrorists on the freeway.”

Two days later, the agents invited the women back to their hotel room for what became an alcohol-soaked party. The reports reveal that the agents gave the women whiskey, brandy, wine coolers, beer and finally started a drinking game. Then the party got physical.

“All three Secret Service agents in the room began flirting with the girls by giving them foot rubs, back rubs, etc.” the reports state.

After considerable drinking, as well as taunting by at least one agent, one of the girls passed out. The other girls later told police that she also began vomiting and “they had never seen anyone throw up so much for such a long period of time.”

Cranor reportedly then took the woman into a bathroom, removed her clothing and gave her a bath. The other women tried to get into the bathroom, the reports state, but Cranor blocked the door. When they protested, he reportedly claimed that his “Secret Service training taught him how to deal with these kinds of situations.”

Evidently, dealing with the situation involved sex. The girls later went to police, who interviewed Cranor. The interview occurred in Alabama in mid-February, after Cranor had been transferred out of Utah. According to the report, Cranor admitted during the interview that he had sex with the young woman, but claimed to believe it was consensual. However, in another interview, one of the unnamed agents said the woman was so drunk that “she could not have consented to sex” with Cranor because she couldn’t “answer questions, walk or even stand up.”

Cranor also seemed to acknowledge that what he did was wrong.

“He admitted knowing that was wrong and out of line and was embarrassed for the image that this was creating for the Secret Service,” the reports state.

The reports go on to say that while Cranor was bathing and allegedly assaulting one of the college students, a second agent was attacking a different woman. After everyone else left, the agent reportedly locked a woman — identified only as “victim 2” — in a hotel room. She protested and reminded him that he was married. He responded by ignoring her, kissing her, then finally pulling off her pants and began performing oral sex.

Terrified, the woman prayed that someone would come back for her, the reports state.

Eventually the other agents and the third college student did return. The agent jumped up, the reports reveal, and the woman ran to the bathroom to put on her clothes. The woman and “victim 2” then left, but returned later to pick up their friend who had passed out.

According to the police reports, the agents were transferred out of Utah when the girls notified authorities.

The Provo Police Department eventually referred three Secret Service agents to the prosecutor’s office for charges. A report recommended that Cranor face one count of forcible sexual abuse, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of supplying alcohol to a minor. Police recommended that a second agent face one count of forcible sodomy, one count of assault, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of supplying alcohol to a minor. For assisting the other two agents, the third agent was referred to prosecutors on one count of assault, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of supplying alcohol to a minor.

Provo Sgt. Mathew Siufanua — who was not involved with the investigation in 2002 — said Tuesday that the case eventually reached the Utah Attorney General’s office. However, according to court documents, prosecutors eventually only opted to charge Cranor with disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor. He was convicted in a bench trial and sentenced to 30 hours community service.

Siufanua did not know why Cranor was the only agent charged in the case, and prosecutors could not be reached Tuesday evening.

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