The Tooele County Attorney’s Office prosecuted 33 child sexual abuse cases this year — an 18 percent increase from the number of cases prosecuted in 2007, according to Tooele County Attorney Doug Hogan. Meanwhile, the Tooele County Children’s Justice Center, which provides a safe haven for children to tell stories of abuse, conducted 151 interviews between January and September — a number that CJC director Carolyn Jensen suspected would grow to top years past. (The year-end total of child sexual abuse interviews conducted during 2008 was unavailable.) In 2007, 162 child sex abuse interviews were completed, with 130 in 2006, and 80 in 2005.
“There are a number of things that are affecting the increase in interviews,” said CJC director Carolyn Jensen back in September. “First off, there is more education in the schools, so kids are getting these messages at a younger age. Secondly, we are just getting more and more people in Tooele, which unfortunately means more bad people too. The third thing I see is we have had a lot of high-profile cases lately that have been printed in the newspaper.”
Jensen said child or teen victims see these stories and realize what’s been happening to them is similar to what has happened to others, which ignites communication with parents or other trusted individuals, and leads to an increase in interviews.
Hogan said he too doesn’t believe the increase in cases necessarily represents more crimes, but rather more crimes being reported.
“This stuff has always been out there,” Hogan said. “But we are prosecuting more because more cases are being turned in to authorities because there is a heightened awareness surrounding this type of crime. I don’t know that we have more [child sexual abuse incidents] going on, we are just catching more and prosecuting them.”
Child sex abuse cases this year included 51-year-old Royce Lee Moser, of Tooele, who was charged with raping his stepdaughter approximately 70 times over an eight-year period. The abuse was discovered by the victim’s mother in March. Moser was taken into custody shortly thereafter when he was caught trying to run over his wife and stepdaughter with a car.
Moser’s case has not yet been resolved, and he remains incarcerated with a $1 million bail.
In October, Peter Joseph Muehe was arrested after the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force alerted Tooele police that child pornography images were being downloaded at his Tooele home. Detectives later learned that nearly 50 of the images Muehe had on his computers were of Muehe in sexually explicit poses with his niece and granddaughter — ages 5 and 2. Further investigation revealed that some of the images had been taken while Muehe was living in Uintah County, which lead to charges being filed by the Uintah County Attorney’s Office as well. In total, Muehe now faces 19 felony charges.
Muehe’s case is also still being processed. He is being held on a $580,000 bond.
In early December, Stockton resident James Allen Kern, 34, pled guilty to sexually abusing his 12-year-old daughter between December 2007 and August 2008 at the family’s home when his wife and other children weren’t present. Kern could face up to 90 years in prison when sentenced on Jan. 27.
CJC victim advocate Kari Sorensen said seeing an increase in child sexual abuse cases is concerning, but if it means more victims are coming forward and telling stories that need to be told and getting the help they need, then she hopes the trend continues.
“We hate to see the numbers go up, but we are glad the kids are talking,” Sorensen said. “When we don’t see interviews that’s when we get worried because we know that the abuse is happening and we know that there are kids out there that aren’t telling anyone.”
Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com
Post a Comment
