Cedar City, Utah has a population of less than 30,000 souls, yet
it produced these six stories in the news in just this past month.
Some of these stories are brutal and disturbing as is the sheer
number of them.
Cedar City man sentenced in child sex abuse case
Bree Burkitt
A Cedar City man accused of sexually abusing an underage female was sentenced to a maximum life sentence in the Utah State Prison Tuesday.
Duane Lyon, 65, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child as part of a plea deal in November. He was initially facing 10 total counts, but nine were dropped as part of a plea deal.
Following the recommendations of Adult Probation and Parole, Judge Keith Barnes sentenced the man to a minimum of three years to life in prison. He must also pay up to $25,000 in restitution on behalf of the victim to the Utah Office for Victims of Crime.
Family members of the victim came forward to express the desire for a just, but merciful sentence for the 65-year-old, who suffers from numerous medical conditions, including a heart arrhythmia.
“I would never want the darkest moments to define me my whole life,” a family member of the victim said. “ . . Duane has made mistakes, but we’ve all made mistakes.”
Walking to the podium to speak appeared to be incredibly difficult for Lyon as he needed the help of the bailiffs to get out of his chair and relied heavily on a cane.
Bryan Jackson, Lyon’s attorney, argued during a change of plea hearing in November that any sentence could quickly become a death sentence if his multiple medical concerns were not properly dealt with by the staff at the Iron County Correctional Facility or the prison.
Other family members, including the parents of the victim, asserted that Lyon had already received enough mercy when nine of the charges were dropped per the plea deal. Mercy had also been shown when earlier accusations of sexual molestation against other alleged victims were dealt with through a diversion program.
“Mercy needs to be shown, but what he’s taken away from her (the victim) can never be replaced,” the mother of the victim said.
Her father expressed a similar sentiment, adding the assault has been especially difficult for his daughter.
“Her trust for men is completely gone,” he said. “It is going to take a long time to fully recover, if ever.”
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| Cedar City, UT |
Lyon’s responses in the pre-sentence investigation report indicated that he did not fully understand the gravity of his actions, according to Iron County Chief Deputy Attorney Troy Little.
But Lyon told Barnes he did feel remorse for the pain and trauma he caused his “little friend.”
“I took advantage of the situation and did poorly with it,” Lyon said. “I know that my mistakes have blown a hole through a lot of people and I’m sorry for that.”
Ultimately, whether his sentence lasts three years or the rest of his life will be up to the Utah Board of Pardons & Parole, Barnes said.
Lyon was arrested in September 2015 after he inappropriately touched an underage female “on several occasions” in the summer months of 2015, according to the statement of the defendant filed in the 5th District Court Tuesday.
The document also detailed that Lyon had a special position of trust in relation to the victim.
Another Cedar City man sentenced to 20 years on federal child porn charges
Bree Burkitt
A Cedar City man will spend 20 years in prison for producing child pornography following a sentencing in St. George’s federal court Tuesday.
Scott David Sullivan, 35, was arrested in March on 21 separate first-degree felony charges - two counts of rape of a child, four counts of sodomy on a child and five counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child – after naked images of children were found on a computer he used. He was also charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Sullivan will spend 20 years in a federal prison where he will be required to participate in a sex offender treatment program, according to the terms of his federal sentencing. He will placed on a lifetime supervised release in addition to being required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life once he is released in 2037, according to Matthew Bell, lead attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Monitoring hardware will be required on any electronic devices in his possession, and he will not be permitted to have any contact with any individuals under the age of 18 without adult supervision as approved by the U.S. Probation Office.
“It’s far beyond just being listed as a sex offender as he will be closely monitored for the rest of his life,” Bell said.
During the sentencing, LaMar Winward, Sullivan’s attorney, requested that the defendant be allowed to serve his time in a federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., because it was close to where members of his family currently live. The Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson also offers sex offender treatment programs, Bell explained.
State proceedings were put on hold while the case was prosecuted in federal court. Iron County Attorney Scott Garrett said the state charges will now be dismissed without prejudice due to the federal sentence.
The Cedar City man was arrested in March after a woman told Cedar City Police she had discovered numerous images of naked children on a laptop computer that she shared with Sullivan, according to the arresting documents filed in the state court.
Eleven of the photos depicted an adult male engaging in a variety of sexual acts with a 3-year-old girl, while a “young, naked girl” was pictured in approximately 10 images.
Investigators also executed a search warrant on Sullivan’s cell phone, although court documents do not indicate what images were actually found on the device. The investigator who obtained the phone stated in court papers that officers believed the phone had been used for child porn, and that co-workers who found Sullivan’s phone “stated they had viewed some very disgusting images on the phone while they were trying to determine ownership. A description was not given of these images.”
OMG
While Sullivan has no other known criminal history in Utah, he had previously served prison time in connection with the death of an infant in Arizona.
Sullivan and his former wife were charged in connection with the death of their 6-week-old daughter in 2008 in Tucson. The child was found severely malnourished and was “very thin to the point of skin and bones,” according to Pima County records. The baby weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces when she died – approximately 2 pounds less than her weight when she was born two weeks earlier.
Both parents gave conflicting accounts about how often they fed the baby, according to court documents. Sullivan’s wife told police that she had started starving her daughter 11 days after she was born. She did not provide a reason. They also admitted they did not seek medical assistance for the child when they noticed her condition, court filings indicated.
The wife was convicted of murder and Sullivan was convicted of reckless child abuse after a jury acquitted him of murder and intentional child abuse charges. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in a Tucson prison and was released in 2011.
This man should never be allowed to walk the streets ever again, closely monitored or otherwise.
In May, 2016, school bus driver Milford Haley was charged with sexual abuse of a child in Cedar City.
On December 6th, Haley plead not guilty to the charges.
In December 2016, an Enoch (5 miles up the road from Cedar City):
Enoch Police arrested a 20-year-old man Thursday on allegations that he sexually abused an underage female victim.
Theodore Calvin Wolf Fletcher is charged with one count each of rape of a child and aggravated sexual abuse of a minor – both first-degree felonies. He’s also facing a third-degree felony count of dealing harmful material to a minor in addition to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
He’s currently being held in the Iron County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bail.
According to the probable cause statement filed in the 5th District Court on Thursday, an alleged underage female victim told authorities during an interview at the Children’s Justice Center that Fletcher had “sexual contact” with her during an encounter over the summer.
In addition to the alleged assault, Fletcher also allegedly took naked photographs of the minor and made her watch pornography, the report said.
The Enoch man allegedly admitted to the assault during a police interview. Police said more than 50 images of pornographic materials depicting minors were found on sheets of paper and an iPod during a search of his home.
Another Cedar City man plea deals for rape
A Cedar City man is facing a minimum of six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of rape as part of a plea deal Tuesday.
John Gregory Adams, 33, initially faced three first-degree felony counts of rape, but two of the counts were dropped as part of the plea deal.
Shortly after he was arrested for the assaults in June, Adams was charged in a separate case with two additional misdemeanor counts of lewdness involving a child in addition to one first-degree felony count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
Following a thorough investigation and screening, defense attorney William Leigh and Iron County Chief Deputy Attorney Troy Little confirmed that the three charges in the second case will ultimately be dismissed without prejudice.
“The state doesn’t have evidence to go forward, so the charges will be dismissed,” Leigh said.
Adams was initially arrested in June after an adult female told Cedar City Police she had been a victim of repeated rapes “about once a week,” according to the probable cause statement filed in the case. The victim described multiple incidents that occurred over a number of years in different locations.
She provided police with a “full written disclosure of all the incidents” over a number of years that Adams had given her, the report detailed. He later admitted to writing the document during a police interview.
The additional accusations of lewdness involving a child and sexual abuse of a child were brought forward less than a month later after two alleged underage victims told authorities they had been inappropriately touched by Adams multiple times between June 2013 and August 2015.
During a police interview, Adams allegedly told investigators that he had previously viewed child pornography, the report said. He later denied the molestation accusations during another police interview.
Investigators later discovered a text messages in which Adams discussed one of the alleged incidents adding that he felt “sick about it,” court documents detailed.
Adams, who is currently being held in the Iron County Correctional Facility on $130,000 bail, is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 24.
14 y/o arrested in Cedar City for sodomizing 3 y/o
Bree Burkitt
A 14-year-old male has been charged with sodomizing a child following an investigation by the Cedar City Police Department.
The juvenile was charged with one first-degree felony count of sodomy on a child before being referred to juvenile court Tuesday. Due to his age, he was not officially booked into the Iron County Jail, according to CCPD Sgt. Jerry Womack.
Police believe the underage perpetrator allegedly assaulted the 3-year-old victim at a Cedar City home in early December, Womack said. The alleged victim did not live in the same home as the alleged juvenile offender at the time of the incident, but Womack added that they are related.
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