Former Ada drug court counselor who sued over losing job now arrested on sex charges

A former Boise addictions therapist has been arrested and charged with more than two dozen felony counts after several women in Laramie, Wyo., accused him of sexual assault and blackmail.

Scott Alan Addison, 48, who formerly worked for the Ada County drug and veterans courts and for the Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victim Assistance, is charged with first-degree sexual assault, blackmail, attempted blackmail, felonious restraint and 20 counts of possession of child pornography.

Though he never faced similar charges in Idaho, public records turn up references to possible questionable conduct by Addison while he lived here. At the same time, he has sued previous Idaho employers in federal court, claiming he was discriminated against due to his gender and that a supervisor carried on a sexual relationship with him.

Addison, who is being held in the Albany County Detention Center in Laramie, was arraigned in court Tuesday morning. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial on Aug. 28, said Nuria Mathog, a Laramie Boomerang newspaper reporter who attended the hearing.

Police say they identified six women whom Addison assaulted and threatened. In some of the encounters, police said he posed as a woman, “Mary,” on social media, gained the women’s trust and then suggested they meet a man she knew. The woman said they were later forced into sexual encounters and that Addison threatened to share photos he had taken of them in compromising positions with their co-workers and relatives.

An 18-year-old woman said she went to Addison’s trailer home last September. After she followed Addison inside, he locked what the woman said were five to seven locks, a deadbolt and several chain locks. He took off the woman’s clothes, photographed her in the nude, then tied her hands behind her back and told her “he could make her do anything that he wanted,” according to a probable cause affidavit from Laramie Police Detective Joel Senior.

Addison got mad, the woman said, when she resisted his efforts to engage in a sex act. He punched her three times in the stomach while also screaming at her, then proceeded with such acts, the woman said. Afterward, he cut off the bindings and let her leave, telling her he would send out the photos he had taken earlier if she told anyone about the assault.

The woman told police she experienced cramping and other internal pain. She went for a medical examination, which showed injuries consistent with those reported to police, Senior wrote in his affidavit.

Police later found nude photos of the woman and other females on Addison’s cellphone. Many of the phone listings for Addison’s female contacts contained sexual references, Senior wrote.

The other women told similar stories.

One of the alleged victims was 17 when she first had sex with Addison, she told police. She told the detective that Addison knew her age when he first started talking to her.

Last October, Addison asked the girl through text messages to send him nude photos and videos of herself, police said. Those were the basis for the child pornography charges.

Police also found internet searches from Addison’s phone that related to sexual assaults and whether a person could be prosecuted for statutory rape if an underage woman said she was 21.

Lawsuits in Boise, charges in Bonners Ferry

While never charged with anything similar to the Wyoming case, it appears questions about Addison’s behavior cropped up in Idaho as well.

In 2014, he contacted a Boise woman Addison identified as a drug addict and told her he worked for the county and needed to meet with her at the woman’s apartment. Once there, he grabbed her leg and touched her breasts, the woman said.

The Ada County Sheriff’s Office investigated the woman’s claims but did not bring criminal charges. Ada County later fired Addison, citing the incident among its reasons, according to court documents in defense of an ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit brought by Addison.

It’s unclear why charges weren’t pursued. The Sheriff’s Office denied a request for records related to the incident, citing privacy and the possibility that new evidence could revive the investigation.

Boise police heard from Addison in late 2010 when he complained about a relative of a woman he met through a dating service, who apparently had paid for an online criminal background check on Addison and was concerned about the results. The relative, a man, told police he was concerned about the safety of the woman, whom Addison provided with an airline ticket to visit him over the New Year’s Day holiday in 2011.

The relative admitted leaving a phone message for Addison and calling his work to inquire about him. Police told him not to contact Addison again, according to records provided by the Boise Police Department.

Addison worked for the Ada County specialty courts as a drug and alcohol counselor from March 2010 until he was fired in June 2014.

In his lawsuit, filed the following year, Addison claims he was discriminated against because he was a man in an office that employed 21 women and four men. He claims he was given an inequitable workload, was assigned more “troublesome clients” than other counselors, and was excluded from team-building meetings and parties because of his sex.

He said his bosses also failed to accommodate his bipolar disorder, diagnosed in 1991. While treated with medication, it could be exacerbated in hostile or stressful situations, he said.

Attorneys for the county said it was diligent in accommodating his disorder and denied any wrongdoing. They have asked the judge to rule on the merits of the case and dismiss it without a trial.

Besides the incident that prompted the sheriff’s investigation, the county claims Addison made unwanted sexual advances toward women he worked with. One woman said he grabbed her feet in an employee break room. Another woman said he sent her a text commenting on her breasts and made comments that led her to believe he wanted a sexual relationship with her. She said she would leave her office when he entered to stop his sexual advances.

Addison settled a previous, similar lawsuit against the Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victim Assistance, where he worked from February 2007 to July 2007 as a grant and contract officer.

There, he accused a supervisor of carrying on a sexual relationship with him, then subjecting him to unfounded criticism about his work after he broke off the relationship. He was later fired.

In that lawsuit, he alleged gender discrimination, wrongful discharge and retaliation. The state settled in 2009, paying him $28,000, according to the Idaho Department of Administration. The supervisor is still employed with the council today.

This story was originally published March 28, 2017 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Former Ada drug court counselor who sued over losing job now arrested on sex charges."