Alleged sexual assault case involving Roy detectives now in attorney general’s hands

SNOWBIRD — An alleged sexual assault at Snowbird Ski Resort in May involving detectives from the Roy Police Department will now be investigated by the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

The incident appears to have occurred during a Children’s Justice Symposium — an annual conference for law enforcement, medical and health professionals, Children’s Justice Center workers and others serving child crime victims.

A woman reported that she had been sexually assaulted during the conference at The Lodge at Snowbird in an area with a hot tub, sauna and pool.

The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office announced July 14 that it would not be filing charges against the four Roy police detectives because it was unable to prove the officers “knew or should have known that (the victim) could not consent to the activity appearing to be sexual in nature in the hot tub video. … Moreover, there is insufficient evidence that activity of a sexual nature continued in the locker rooms or sauna, or while (the victim) was unconscious.”

After that announcement, the Salt Lake County sheriff’s detective who was the lead investigator in the case received a request from the alleged victim to contact the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

“I explained (that) I had a sensitive case involving a state employee and police officers. I told him the victim had requested his office to review her case for possible prosecution,” the detective wrote in his supplemental case report.

Redacted reports

Through a public records request, KSL.com obtained 149 pages of reports and supplemental reports written by the sheriff’s office during its investigation into the alleged assault. Many of the pages are heavily redacted because of the ongoing investigation by the attorney general’s office, including “statements made by the victim, witnesses, first responders, and medical staff” as well as “the identity and description of evidence collected, analyzed, and evidentiary test results,” according to Salt Lake County records administrators.

“Although the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office declined prosecution, this case has been submitted to the Utah Attorney General’s Office for screening and potential prosecution,” the administrators added.

According to the parts of the reports that are not redacted, just before 12:30 a.m. on May 16, “deputies responded to an intoxicated person call at the Snowbird Medical Center located at the Snowbird Ski Resort. Unified Fire Authority arrived first and (said) they were transporting the intoxicated person to Alta View Hospital by ambulance and that the female patient reported to have been sexually assaulted.

“The crew said that they had found her partially clothed body in a bathroom. She appeared intoxicated, vomited on herself and was struggling to communicate,” according to the reports.

Responding deputies later learned that “Snowbird Public Safety (officers) had responded to reports of a female in distress, highly intoxicated and immobile lying on the floor of the men’s bathroom” at the The Lodge at Snowbird, one of the supplemental reports states.

Another police report says a sheriff’s detective who went to the hospital to talk to the woman found her in a room “crying and (she) would scream very loud as if she was in intense pain. (She) was also repeatedly reaching for different parts of her body and crying as if in pain. She reached for her back, hips, and pelvic area repeatedly while screaming, ‘It hurts’ and, ‘I don’t know why it hurts.’ I began to ask questions about what happened that night. When she tried to speak with me, her speech was very slurred and mumbled; it was quite difficult to understand her. I asked her if she had had anything to drink that night. She kept holding up one finger and stating she only had one drink.

“I asked if something had happened to her that night, and she said ‘yes,’ but she wasn’t sure what happened. I asked if she was sexually assaulted, and she said ‘yes’ (but) was not able to say how she was assaulted or by who,” the report states.

The detective also talked to a friend of the woman who was at Snowbird with her and followed the ambulance to the hospital.

“She explained that she and (the woman) work together for the Division of Child and Family Services. … She said that they had gone to Snowbird together for a symposium, which was put on by the Children’s Justice Center they work with. The symposium was a large conference with employees from various agencies such as police department detectives, DCFS case workers, and victims’ advocates who were all still at Snowbird,” the reports states.

Woman ‘can’t handle her alcohol,’ officer allegedly says

Four Roy police detectives were identified as possible suspects. The investigation centered around the men’s bathroom on the first floor of The Lodge and the adjacent hot tub, sauna and a pool.

When Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputies asked the Roy officers to fill out witness statements, one officer “was confrontational about our presence and about my request to fill out a statement. He said that he would ‘tell me what happened, but he wasn’t going to put it on paper’ and he would ‘explain it to my bodycam,'” even though the deputy was not wearing one, according to the deputy’s report.

“He said he didn’t want his name or statement going into an official report. I told him it was too late for that and that I would be putting his name in the report anyway, so he might as well just fill out a statement. He begrudgingly agreed and took a statement (and) asked for my clipboard before saying that this whole thing was (expletive) and he can’t believe that this is all because a woman ‘can’t handle her alcohol.’

“(He) made a point to mention multiple times that they are detectives from Roy Police Department and that ‘this is what we do for a living,’ presumably referring to our sexual assault investigation,” the report continues. “(He) continued to make remarks about the victim not being able to control herself and handle her alcohol, and that he doesn’t (want) his name going into a case and that it would probably get back to his administration.”

Another witness — a woman who was in the sauna with the officers just before the alleged incident — was asked by investigators “if she got any weird feelings or vibes from any of them before or as she left, and she said she didn’t.”

According to the district attorney’s letter declining to file criminal charges, “the declination to file this case should not be construed as our office doubting the veracity of (the victim’s) claims,” but rather the state’s high burden of showing proof beyond reasonable doubt.

The four Roy officers were placed on administrative leave. One of those officers was cleared shortly after the incident, according to the Roy Police Department, but the three others remained on administrative leave as of last week pending an internal investigation.