LaVerkin PD arrest 20-year-old on felony sexual offenses against a child

UPDATE – Feb. 14, 2013 –  Case dismissed against LaVerkin man charged with sexual offenses against a child

LAVERKIN – A 20-year-old man was arrested yesterday by LaVerkin City Police Department on two first degree felony charges, one for rape of a child and the other for sodomy of a child.

The incident on which the charges are based was basically a consensual encounter, Laverkin Police Chief Lloyd Watkins said, except that the victim is under-age and cannot give consent. The girl, younger than 13, was not forced, he said.

“That’s a big age spread,” Watkins said.

Watkins said the matter came to the Department’s attention after the girl talked about it to a neighbor, the neighbor talked to LaVerkin Police, and the police then talked with the girl.

“She didn’t really want to tell us,” Watkins said, but she did and told them the person and whereabouts of her offender.

The two first met when the girl and a friend apparently went walking along the road about midnight one night. They saw and met the 20-year-old down by some city buildings near LaVerkin Elementary School. Watkins said that a few days later they began a Facebook conversation, which led to them hanging out together and eventually the young man went with the girl to her home while nobody was there and the relations occurred.

LaVerkin does have a curfew law and Watkins said it is enforced when violations come to the officers’ attention.

The girl lives with her dad, Watkins said. “I don’t believe there is a mother in the picture.”

Among other things, Baldwin was arrested on drug charges two years ago, Watkins said, and had prior drug charges as a juvenile.

“He’s had some extensive involvement with law enforcement,” Watkins said, “but none of it involved sexual offenses.”

Baldwin is expected to be charged by the Washington County Attorney within 48 hours. If convicted he will be a registered sex offender.

Note: Persons arrested are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @JoyceKuzmanic

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

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9 Comments

  • San February 13, 2013 at 7:12 pm

    The first booking photo of him was obviously taken at a school and he was wearing/holding a name card in front of his chest…the way a special needs child is photographed for bus transportation. It was replaced within a few hours. I tend to think this young man has other issues. It seems like a complicated situation.

  • Cathy myers February 14, 2013 at 7:40 am

    Strange how the article does not say it was …, a 20 year old adult who admitted to having sex with a person he knew was a minor. Protect the name of the girl but not his for goodness sake. I live in LaVerkin and if you know him then you know he is a drug addict and now a rapist, yet his name is kept out of the article.

    Editor’s ellipsis.

    • Avatar photo Joyce Kuzmanic February 14, 2013 at 8:25 am

      Good question, Cathy. We do not name victims who are minors. We tend to hold back names on persons arrested on egregious crimes that will brand them for life – at least until the arrest passes muster with the prosecuting office filing charges, and in some cases until a court approves the action to proceed.
      ST. GEORGE NEWS | STGnews.com
      Joyce Kuzmanic
      Editor-in-Chief

      • Annettie Cannavale February 14, 2013 at 10:28 am

        This must be the small-town mentality. I’ve never before seen a newspaper withhold the name of an arrested person. It makes the story feel somewhat incomplete, to me.

        • illuminati February 14, 2013 at 11:54 am

          …as with most items posted by Ms. Kuzmanic and her ilk, you are allowed a portion of the story… Your assignment, Ms. Cannavale, is to uncover the mystery of “Baldwin,” (apparently an alias assigned by Toby The Wonder Dog) as this Editor-in-Chief claims,

          “We tend to hold back names on persons arrested on aggregious crimes that will brand them for life – at least until the arrest passes muster with the prosecuting office filing charges, and in some cases until a court approves the action to proceed.” (Spelling and grammar by J. Kuzmanic)

          Confused? Welcome to Conservative Concrete Fundamental Absurdism.

  • Samm February 14, 2013 at 11:45 am

    THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH UTAH. We think we’re teaching our girls to be sweet, well mannered and forgiving, but in reality we’re teaching them to be submissive and ‘sorry’ for things they should not be sorry for. I cannot believe Watkins said it was “basically consensual”. There is a reason the law states an actual legal age of consent. If a child isn’t legally able to consent, THERE IS NO CONSENT. Period.

    Watkins, I urge you to recant and change your statement.

    Goodness Utah, pull yourself together already.

  • JE February 14, 2013 at 4:54 pm

    Consensual sex seems to be okay for 12 year olds when it involves polygamist old men.

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