ST. GEORGE — A seventh man has been arrested in connection with a multiagency law enforcement operation in Southern Utah involving men allegedly conspiring to commit child rape.
In addition to the arrest of six other men, 46-year-old Eugene Alvarado Jr., of Sunnyvale, California, was arrested Monday afternoon on two first-degree felony counts of attempted child rape, two second-degree felony counts of attempted aggravated kidnapping and two third-degree felony counts of dealing harmful materials to minor.
Alvarado traveled from California to Southern Utah Monday to meet two 13-year-old girls, Parowan Police Chief Ken Carpenter said in an updated statement, adding:
He convinced them to run away from their home and he was going to take them back to California.
Alvarado also allegedly talked about having sexual intercourse with the 13-year-old girls and used the internet to send the confidential informants pornographic images, police said.
Alvarado was taken in to custody without incident and was booked in to the Iron County jail.
Six other men were arrested as part of the child sex sting, including St. George Army recruiter Jason Livermore, 30, and Floyd Jennings, 71, both of St. George; James Garrelts, 53, of Cedar City; Trevor Bodily, 31, of Clearfield; Carlos Valenzuela Nunez, 30, of Enterprise; and Phillip Gerstner, 30, of Jerome, Idaho.
The men traveled to the area after separately responding to an ad placed on “websites known to produce child trafficking activities and child predators,” authorities said Sunday. The men were each arrested after arriving at an undisclosed location in northern Iron County to meet 13-year-old girls with whom they had allegedly arranged to have sex.
Read more: 6 men arrested in Southern Utah on conspiracy to commit child rape charges
“In a joint operation using a confidential informant an ad was placed on various social media websites. The ad had a picture of two young females with a phone number and a link to other sites,” Carpenter said in a statement, noting:
The suspects contacted the number and exchanged several phone conversations or text messages with the CI. In the conversations the CI made it clear they would be having sex with one or more 13-year-old children. The suspects agreed to the terms for location, time and payment and requested one or both 13-year-old girls.
Livermore was arrested Thursday and charged with two first-degree felony counts of criminal solicitation involving conspiracy to commit child rape and forcible sodomy and a second-degree felony count of enticing a minor by internet.
Jennings, Garrelts and Bodily were arrested and booked into jail on two first-degree felony counts each of conspiracy to commit child rape, according to police. Bodily also was booked on a misdemeanor count of failing to stop at the command of a peace officer.
Nunez and Gerstner were arrested and booked on one first-degree felony count each of conspiracy to commit child rape, according to police.
The joint criminal operation was conducted by the Parowan Police Department, Iron County Sheriff’s Office, Iron County Attorney’s Office, Iron-Garfield-Beaver Narcotics Task Force, Homeland Security Investigation, Utah Highway Patrol and Veterans for Child Rescue.
Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.
How many of these men were churchgoing LDS men?
You’re the Prophet Bob you should know that
I’m not sure a group like this can ever recover from this level of stupidity.
Lured into a trap by cops, most likely in their 30s-50s, pretending to be a pair of promiscuous little 13 years olds.
I’d be curious to know if the luring and making of arrangements done in these chats was done by the ‘hypothetical 13 year olds’ themselves or if it was done by some sort of hypothetical pimp or other hypothetical exploiter. If it was the latter it would make this group a far more predatory bunch of characters. But I would bet that that isn’t the case with all of them, or even of any of them.
I don’t want to seem like I’m defending this group of clowns, because at the very least they are guilty of being perverts and trying to actualize a fantasy of contact w/ young teens. I only say this bc I was reminiscing about the times I was around that age– 13 or so. We all remember “those girls” at that age; you guys know what I mean. I don’t like to use the ‘s word’, but that’s exactly what they were.
That’s why I have to wonder slightly to what extent this was predatory compared to what extent they may have been “lured”. Maybe this is just me being optimistic and hoping people’s nature isn’t as bad as what the cops and media would have us believe. It would be interesting to know the details of how these clowns were lured in to such a trap. You want to hope that people are better than this, is what i’m saying.
People aren’t better than this, that’s the problem. On some level I agree with where you’re going – this is, somewhat, entrapment. But I’m more inclined to feel some sympathy for those who sell drugs to the police department’s apparently endless supply of “confidential informants” than I am for these pedophiles.
I mean, with drugs, it is certainly possible to maintain that hey, maybe the person wouldn’t have been selling drugs if you weren’t buying. Maybe if it weren’t for the confidential informant drug market, some of these people would turn over a new leaf on their own at some point. I’m sure this has happened before – drug dealer quits selling drugs, decides to go straight, but then is lured back into the business because he can’t resist the money being offered by some undercover cop. Not saying it happens a lot, just saying, it’s happened, somewhere.
But with child sex predators, it’s a different story. If a man is willing to have sex with an imaginary 13-year-old girl, he is certainly willing to have sex with a real one, and there doesn’t appear to be a cure for this sickness. So this is how we clean up society from these people – yes, it’s a trap; but it’s a trap that prevents what MIGHT happen from one of these perverts. As opposed to the drug dealer scenario, where the worst-case scenario is simply that the person continues to sell drugs, the worst-case scenario from one of these low-lifes is pretty awful.
I had a friend who at one time worked at one of these “troubled youth homes” or whatever it is they’re called. This one was for girls. They’d tell me about some of their experiences and stories they’d hear after getting to know “the children”. I’ll tell you, the levels of promiscuity among some of these young teens is enough to make about anyone squirm, at least that’s what I got out of it from hearing about it 3rd hand. In no way is the behavior of this group of perverts acceptable, but I do wonder what type of things these cops, posing as 13 year old girls, said to these perverts to lure them in, some of them driving 100s of miles.
That’s why i’m curious if the scenario was the ‘hypothetical 13 year olds’ being pimped, trafficked, exploited, etc. OR if the scenario was the ‘hypothetical 13 year olds’ prostituting themselves. It may not matter all that much, but that type of thing was included in the stories my friend told me– 13-16 year olds actually making money from “sexual favors”, and doing it by their own initiative. Its crazy to think, but I guess it happens.
It is interesting to consider what it must take for a sexually-normal law enforcement officer to engage in these online chats with pedophiles. I can scarcely imagine myself trying to convince someone I’m actually a 13-year-old girl. What’s the angle? Talk about my Justin Bieber record collection? Complain about school and parents?
I figure there’s some psychology and science to it. They’ve probably studied how real 13-year-old girls behave and have volumes of convincing repertoire with which to carry on the conversations. But how they introduce the sex/prostitution thing into the chat is beyond me. Maybe they don’t have to, maybe the pedophiles will bring it up. Makes me slightly nauseous thinking about it, but I give credit to the police.
They successfully carry out these stings all the time, and that’s a lot fewer pedophiles on our streets.
I suppose if it gets child molesters off the streets, whatever works
These perverts just seem to come out of the woodwork– a 71 year old mormon business owner, a married LDS guy with kids from Idaho, an army recruiter. Don’t know what the worlds coming to.
There should be a law that allows parents to shoot and kill people ,that try to lure their children. That samevlaw should include immunity for any patent to kill a person who rapes, molested, or kidnaps,their children…just sayin’ I do see alot of flaws and bloodshed in my comment butt you know what I mean, what father wouldn’t want these people ,dead for trying to lure,their 13 year old daughter- crime of passion?
You better lock these people up for their own good
I better add mother. And say mother and father before I get called a sexist lol
sexist !
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