By Canadian Press

Sundance co-founder pleads guilty to 2nd count of sex abuse

May 2, 2019 | 3:05 PM

WEST JORDAN, Utah — A Utah filmmaker who co-founded the Sundance Film Festival and produced a movie whose lead actress won an Oscar in the mid-1980s has pleaded guilty to a second count of sexual abuse of a child in a deal with prosecutors.

Sterling Van Wagenen entered the plea during a hearing Thursday in a Salt Lake City suburb to complete a deal that calls for a prison sentence of at least six years.

Prosecutors say Van Wagenen touched a young girl on two occasions between 2013 and 2015. Both criminal counts involve the same victim.

The 71-year-old co-founded a Utah film festival with Robert Redford that came to be known as Sundance Film Festival but hasn’t been with the organization for more than two decades.

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Van Wagenen was a producer on the 1985 film “The Trip to Bountiful.”

The Associated Press