Riverdale man accused of sexually abusing 14-year-old family member, charges say
SOUTH OGDEN, Utah () — A Riverdale man has been charged with sexually abusing a minor family member after her father discovered explicit messages.
The 26-year-old man, who ABC4 is not identifying to protect the victim, has been charged with six felony counts of rape, two felony counts of forcible sodomy, two felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and one misdemeanor count of dealing in harmful material to a minor.
According to documents, the South Ogden Police Department was contacted by the father of a 14-year-old girl, who said that an uncle had been communicating with her through a mobile device. The father had taken her mobile device and discovered frequent communication through text messages, phone calls, and FaceTime.
The father discovered that the 26-year-old man had allegedly engaged in illegal sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old victim, at which point he contacted the police.
Riverdale man charged with sexually assaulting, giving alcohol to underage teen, documents say
During a forensic interview at the Children's Justice Center with the underage victim, she disclosed to police that she and the 26-year-old man had discussions related to sexual behavior and 'engaged in sexual acts.' The victim also told police that she considered the 26-year-old an uncle.
Officers reviewed the mobile device and found that explicit images had been exchanged between the 26-year-old and the underage victim. Police and the father used the mobile device to contact the uncle, and he confessed to the victim's father that he had sexual intercourse with the child victim.
The 26-year-old was taken into custody by the South Ogden Police Department. During an interview with police, he admitted to engaging in illegal sexual activity with the 14-year-old victim 'approximately six times between March and May 2025.' He also confirmed that he had sent and received explicit images through text.
He was booked into the Weber County Jail and is currently being held without bail. The 26-year-old man has an initial appearance in court on June 17.
Axelrod on RFK Jr.'s vaccine moves: 'Genuine catastrophe in the making'
Bodies hanged from highway overpass in Juarez
Three shows, including new season of 'The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch,' approved for Utah film incentives
Riverdale man accused of sexually abusing 14-year-old family member, charges say
House passes DOGE cuts
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
Raskin demands documents on Maxwell prison transfer, interview with Blanche
House Judiciary Democrats are launching a probe into the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell to a lower security prison, arguing the move creates 'the strong appearance that it is attempting to cover up the full extent of the relationship between President Trump and Mr. Epstein.' Maxwell, a close associate of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month and sat for hours of questions about the actions that led to her conviction on child sex trafficking charges. Shortly thereafter, she was transferred out of a Tallahassee, Fla., facility to another prison in Texas. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, said the new, lower security prison has 'greater freedom for inmates' and 'prior to this extraordinary transfer, [was] categorically off limits to sex offenders.' 'These actions raise substantial concerns that the administration may now be attempting to tamper with a crucial witness, conceal President Trump's relationship with convicted sex offenders, and coax Ms. Maxwell into providing false or misleading testimony in order to protect the President. The transfer also appears to violate both DOJ and Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policies,' Raskin wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and BOP Director William K. Marshall III. The letter demands a series of documents related to the transfer, as well as a transcript and recording of Maxwell's meeting with Blanche. The letter outlines the strict guidelines for prison transfers as well as the unusual speed at which Maxwell's was initiated. As a sex offender, Maxwell would typically be ineligible for a minimum-security federal prison camp like the one in Bryan, Texas, where she now lives, as such facilities offer 'access to the community.' The ban is seldom waived, something that Raskin said takes 'multiple levels of review that would ordinarily take months to complete,' typically requires new evidence, and inmates then usually have to wait months for an opening at such a facility. The facility where Maxwell is now held was listed as among the ' Best Jails in America to Serve Time.' 'Ms. Maxwell, however, appears to have short-circuited the entire review process and jumped the queue, receiving a place in Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan within a matter of days. Neither DOJ nor BOP has provided anything like a satisfactory explanation for providing Ms. Maxwell this uniquely favorable treatment,' Raskin wrote. Documents obtained by Allison Gill show some of Maxwell's BOP classifications, including that her sex offender status was waived by management to allow her to move to a lower security facility. Raskin demands a list of all administration officials who 'were aware of, were involved in, or approved' the transfer, as well as all documents and communications related to the matter. He also asks for 'any possible benefits to Ms. Maxwell, including transfers, changes to conditions of confinement, pardons, commutation, or changes to DOJ positions in ongoing matters.' Raskin noted that the transfer also came as Maxwell is under pressure to testify before Congress – with the House Oversight Committee issuing a subpoena for her testimony with the backing of both parties. 'There can be no question that your actions have served to send a clear message to Ms. Maxwell in the lead up to any testimony before Congress and the American public: this Administration can punish or reward her as it sees fit for its own purposes,' he wrote. Raskin likewise asks for a transcript and recording of Blanche's conversation with Maxwell, noting the unusual nature of having the No. 2 DOJ official interview an inmate, a task that typically falls to career prosecutors directly involved with the case. 'These meetings were highly unusual for several reasons. Mr. Blanche, who until ten months ago served as Donald Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer, met with Ms. Maxwell and her attorney with no line prosecutors present. The meeting took place just days after DOJ leadership fired one of the chief career prosecutors on the Epstein matter,' Raskin wrote, a nod to the removal of Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, who previously worked on the Epstein prosecution. 'The need for this meeting was undercut by DOJ's recent contradictory statements that its thorough review of the Epstein files, which reportedly identified repeated references to the President, 'did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.'' Blanche previously said he would 'share additional information about what we learned [from Maxwell] at the appropriate time.' The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment, while BOP declined to comment on the substance of the letter. 'The Federal Bureau of Prisons responds directly to Members of Congress and their staff. Out of respect and deference to Members, we do not share our Congressional correspondence,' the agency said in a statement.


USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Congress must hear from Jeffrey Epstein's victims about Ghislaine Maxwell's role
Trump is openly mulling a pardon for a known liar who could benefit from spinning a favorable tale about him, while two Congress members are using their posts to give the women she victimized a voice. Lawyers for a convicted child sex trafficker got right to the point recently while seeking to prevent the public release of testimony from the grand jury that indicted her. "Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not," they wrote in an Aug. 5 legal brief, opposing the release of those records. That blunt and binary assessment – Epstein died from an apparent suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence – didn't have much to say about the other people involved in this metastasizing scandal in Donald Trump's second term as president: the victimized underage girls who are still seeking justice years later. Maxwell has been the center of attention – and, so far, a beneficiary of it – in this scandal. But in three weeks, we'll focus instead on some of those victims. Sounds like they have plenty to share about her. House Speaker Johnson wants Epstein files to just go away U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, have jointly announced that they will hold a Sept. 3 news conference at the U.S. Capitol to hear from those victims and their attorneys while pressing for passage of their bipartisan legislation to release what has become known as the "Epstein files." That bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, has 11 Republican and 33 Democratic cosponsors. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, found a vote on that bill so concerning in July that he sent the House members home early for the summer break to avoid it. Opinion: Epstein accomplice Maxwell angles for a Trump pardon. Would she lie to help him? "We're not going to play political games with this," Johnson said at a July 22 news conference while openly, publicly playing political games to snuff out a bipartisan move for transparency. Johnson's punt bought a little time for Trump, who used to hang out with Epstein and Maxwell and has been haunted of late by a 2002 New York magazine interview, in which he said Epstein was "a lot of fun to be with" and "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." All eyes now on Ghislaine Maxwell and possible pardon But this isn't going away, despite Trump's flailing efforts to quiet the controversy. And Massie and Khanna are platforming exactly who we need to hear from in this scandal – the victims – while Maxwell's turn in the congressional spotlight is still very much up in the air. She was subpoenaed in July to testify from behind bars this week for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. But that was postponed indefinitely, in part because Maxwell has an appeal for her conviction being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court and because she demanded congressional immunity, and the committee refused. That's a rare setback for Maxwell, who has used her infamy to rack up something of a winning streak as Trump struggles with the Epstein scandal. Maxwell, who was convicted of recruiting underage victims and coaching them to have sex with Epstein while sometimes joining in, got her way when a federal judge in New York on Aug. 11 declined to release that grand jury testimony. Two days of secretive interviews in July with a top Department of Justice official – who once served as Trump's private lawyer – won Maxwell a transfer from a women's prison in Florida to a much cushier federal camp in Texas. Her lawyers are now angling to win her a pardon from Trump, something he feels regularly obliged to note publicly that he is allowed to do. Opinion: Republicans in Congress head home to angry voters. So much for summer break. So Trump is openly mulling a pardon for a known liar who could benefit from spinning a favorable tale about him in this scandal. And Massie and Khanna are using their congressional posts to give voice to those Maxwell victimized for Epstein. Really, who are you rooting for here? If you find yourself on Team Maxwell, a growing chorus among many of Trump's most MAGA media supporters, you're going to bat for a woman who recruited and sexually abused children. That's ugly stuff, a perversion of political partisanship so profoundly grotesque that it has broken through and overcome that constant stream of chaos Trump has been deploying to distract America. This scandal won't dissipate in the summer heat, just because that's what Trump wants. American voters – Republicans, Democrats and independents – are calling for transparency. Congress must provide it. Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.


UPI
8 hours ago
- UPI
Texas files motion against O'Rourke in fight over redistricting maps
Texas on Tuesday filed a contempt motion against Beto O'Rourke, alleging he is violating a court order by continuing to fundraise for state legislators who fled the Lone Star State earlier this month. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Texas filed a motion for contempt Tuesday against Beto O'Rourke, accusing him of violating a temporary restraining order barring him from fundraising for Democratic lawmakers who fled the state earlier this month amid a deepening fight with Republicans over redistricting maps. In the motion, filed in the District Court for Tarrant County, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that O'Rourke -- a former U.S. House legislator and potential Democratic presidential candidate -- violated a court order that was handed down Friday by continuing to solicit donations for Texas Democrats through the Democratic Party's ActBlue fundraising arm, specifically at rallies in Fort Worth and Abilene that were held over the weekend and online. "Beto is about to find out that running your mouth and ignoring the rule of law has consequences in Texas," Paxton said on X. "It's time to lock him up." Democrats have come out in force since their Texas colleagues fled the state earlier this month to deny Republicans a quorum to pass redistricting maps that would give the GOP five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Critics and Democrats argue that the maps draw lines that dilute the voting power of Latino and Black people, while serving as a power grab by President Donald Trump through rigging the GOP representation in the House ahead of next year's midterm elections. Usually, redistricting occurs once a decade with the publishing of U.S. Census Bureau data. O'Rourke has been at the forefront of the effort to support Texas Democrats and a target of Paxton, who, on Friday, secured a temporary restraining order barring his fellow Texan from soliciting donations for nonpolitical purposes, including to fund "out-of-state travel, hotel or dining accommodations or services to unexcused Texas legislators during any special legislative session called by the Texas governor." The motion filed Tuesday centers mainly on social media posts by O'Rourke that encourage people to donate "to have the backs of our Texas Democrats in this fight," and the two rallies held over the weekend, specifically the Saturday event in Fort Worth, where Paxton in the motion quotes the Democrat as having said, "There are no refs in this game. [expletive] the rules," seemingly to suggest he was openly flouting the court order. O'Rourke responded to the lawsuit by accusing Paxton of purposefully misusing his words in a social media post, that included a clip from the rally the attorney general quoted him from. The clip shows O'Rourke speaking about encouraging all Democratic-led states to redraw their maps as Texas has to "maximize Democratic Party advantage" because "there are no refs in this game." In the Tuesday response, O'Rourke said Paxton was "lying to try to silence us." "We alerted the court that the AG's office blatantly lied in its filing," he said in a post on X. "We're seeking maximum sanctions in response to his abuse of office." If the court finds O'Rourke in violation of the temporary restraining order, it could fine him up to $500 and jail him for up to six months. The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for Aug. 19. The filing comes the same day the Texas Senate approved the controversial redistricting map 19-2 along party lines, with nine of the 11 Democrats walking out before the vote in protest.