CHUBBUCK — A local youth church leader accused of sexually abusing five teenage boys while giving them massages at his Chubbuck home between January 2023 and June 2024 has accepted a plea agreement that could keep him from serving any time in prison and off of the Idaho sex offender registry.

Virgil Dean Larson, 47, accepted a plea deal in March with Bannock County prosecutors that involves dismissing six felony sexual abuse of a child under 16 charges filed against him in exchange for six felony counts of injury to a child, according to the agreement recently obtained by the Idaho State Journal.

Larson was set to take his case to trial on Tuesday had a deal not been struck, court records show.

Larson was charged in September 2024 following a Chubbuck police investigation launched that July, the Journal reported in 2024.

The investigation into Larson was launched when the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reported the allegations to Chubbuck Police on July 3, 2024, after the agency was contacted by the Kirton McConkie Law Firm in Lehi, Utah, which represents The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to a Chubbuck police report the Journal obtained in 2024.

The complaints alleged a church leader had potentially sexually abused three boys, the report says.

Officers received the initial reports on July 3, 2024, and informed the boys’ parents that forensic interviews at a local child advocacy center would need to be scheduled and the earliest available date after the Fourth of July holiday weekend was July 9, 2024, police said.

When the officer returned to work on July 9, 2024, Health and Welfare had reported there were three more additional juvenile victims and one more victim who was age 18, the report says.

A total of seven children participated in forensic interviews between July and August 2024, according to Chubbuck police. During the interviews, the children disclosed that Larson was the young men’s program leader for their church and would regularly contact them to play basketball at the church, the report says.

Five of those children disclosed to investigators that Larson touched them inappropriately during massages and cupping therapy sessions that were conducted at Larson’s home while the children were either nude or covered with a towel, police said.

Several parents told investigators they were aware of cupping therapy sessions but were unaware of the massages their children were receiving from Larson, police said.

According to court records, Larson initiated contact with the “buttocks and other intimate areas” of five boys between the ages of 12 and 15 between January 2023 and June 2024.

Police interviewed Larson at the Chubbuck Police Department in July, 2024, during which he told investigators about massage sessions he conducted with both adult clients and teenage boys, the Chubbuck police report says.

Larson told investigators parents were aware of the massages and that he believed parents understood their children would be receiving these massages nude even though he never specifically had those conversations with them, the report says.

Larson told officers these massages were not sexual to him, police said.

Chubbuck and Pocatello police officers executed a search warrant at Larson’s Chubbuck home on Sept. 17, 2024 and a warrant for his arrest was later issued, Chubbuck police said in a news release on Sept. 18, 2024.

Larson turned himself in to the Chubbuck Police Department on Sept. 17, 2024, and he was subsequently charged, arrested and booked inside the Bannock County Jail in Pocatello, the news release said.

After appearing in front of 6th District Magistrate Judge David Hooste for an arraignment hearing on Sept. 18, 2024, Larson’s bond was set at $25,000, which he posted in cash later that day and was released from jail.

Terms of the plea agreement Larson reached with Bannock County prosecutors through his Pocatello attorney Stratton Laggis on March 10 asks the court to impose an underlying unified prison term that parties are free to argue during a change of plea hearing set for July 6, court records show.

The plea agreement states both Laggis and prosecutors will recommend the judge suspend the prison term and instead impose a term of probation, with the state capped to recommend a probation term of no more than 30 years.

Though there is no requirement for Larson to register as a sex offender as part of pleading guilty to felony injury to a child charges, he did complete and sign an Idaho Department of Correction sex offender supervision agreement suggesting he may be required to comply with elements of the Idaho sex offender registration as part of probation because of the nature of the original charges.

Each of the five felony counts of sexual abuse of a child under 16 charges that Larson originally faced were punishable by up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. Alternatively, each of the felony injury to a child charges are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

The terms of the plea agreement are not binding, meaning the 6th District Judge handling the case, Robert C. Naftz is not required to impose the penalties Laggis or prosecutors recommend during the July 6 hearing. Naftz could instead impose the maximum 50-year prison term Larson faces.

Further, Naftz could reject the plea agreement entirely, at which point Larson would be allowed to withdraw his guilty pleas and take his case to trial though he would still be facing the five felony sexual abuse of a child under 16 charges and their much more severe penalties.

When reached for comment on this article, both Laggis and Bannock County Prosecutor Ian Johnson declined to comment citing the ongoing nature of the case.