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The state of Iowa has blocked a former mental health counselor’s efforts to return to the profession after serving a lengthy prison sentence on a child pornography charge.
The former counselor, David Ekman of Marshall County, had hoped to regain his license after his release from federal prison.
In February 2023, the Iowa Board of Behavioral Science charged Ekman with being convicted of an offense that directly related to the duties and responsibilities of the profession.
The underlying circumstances that gave rise to the charge have never been made public by the board. However, court records indicate that in February 2021, police investigated an allegation that Ekman sexually abused a 17-year-old girl whom he knew through a family relationship.
The victim alleged Ekman first initiated sex with her in the fall of 2020. She asserted that she and Ekman engaged in sexual acts on multiple occasions at his home and his office. She also provided police with detailed descriptions of Ekman’s genitals, and described an overnight trip to Minnesota during which Ekman allegedly gave her alcohol and had sex with her.
The alleged conduct occurred at a time when Ekman was working at the government-funded Substance Abuse Treatment Center of Central Iowa in Marshalltown. Court records indicate that in 2016, Ekman taught introduction to psychology at Des Moines Area Community College.
According to police, they searched Ekman’s phone and discovered a screenshot of a video depicting a sex act between Ekman and the girl. State records show the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services concluded Ekman was guilty of child abuse and his name was placed on the state’s central abuse registry.
In addition, Ekman was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.
Ekman eventually pleaded guilty to the charge of transportation of child pornography, and the two remaining charges were dismissed. In June 2022, he was sentenced to 240 months in prison and fined $5,768.
Eight months later, the Board of Behavioral Science filed its disciplinary charges against Ekman.
At a recent board hearing on the disciplinary charges against him, Ekman testified from prison through a videoconference call and argued — using “extremely crass and demeaning language,” the board said – that he was the target of the victim’s sexual advances. Ekman, the board later stated, “squarely placed the blame on the victim.”
In his testimony before the board, Ekman acknowledged his license to practice is currently inactive, and that he had a history of abusing alcohol and pain medication. He said his goal was to return to the field of substance abuse counseling once he is released from prison.
In deciding to permanently revoke Ekman’s license, the board stated that his “actions were reprehensible. (He) not only knew the victim was a child, but that she was particularly vulnerable because of her mental health diagnoses, past history of abuse, and intellectual capacity. His personal relationship with the victim and her family placed (him) in a position of power over her.”
The board added it had no doubt that Ekman “used his specialized training and knowledge as a licensed mental health counselor to select his victim and use her vulnerabilities to exploit and abuse her.”