Bountiful doctor accused of child porn possession

DAVIS COUNTY – A popular doctor in Bountiful is suspended from his job at Lakeview Hospital and was booked on seven counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

The investigation into Nathan Ward started after investigators with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force got a tip from Yahoo, Inc., saying there were sexually explicit images of children on a Yahoo Messenger account.  There were 37 images submitted from Yahoo, and some of them were labeled in the probable cause statement as “exploitive.”  “These investigations contain so much sensitive information,” says Davis County Sheriff’s Sergeant DeeAnn Servey.

She adds that one of their detectives is also on the ICAC task force.  “He’s been investigating for several months, and was finally able to put together enough evidence to solidify the seven [counts] of sexual exploitation of a minor,” she says.

The PC statement also describes conversations Ward reportedly had online. It says Ward implied that other images were shared through the Dropbox file sharing service.  Ward also reportedly claimed he had desires of raping someone, and that he had actually said during online conversations that he had raped a 15 year-old and a 13 year-old.

Servey says Ward was arrested, without incident, at his clinic, and the evidence gathered so far matches the criteria needed to book someone for sexual exploitation of a minor.  She says, “The person has to knowingly possess, produce or possess with the intent to distribute.”

He has since bonded out of jail

News of his arrest caused a lot of different reactions on social media.  Some of his patients say they’re deeply disturbed at his alleged actions, while other say they stand by him.  One woman posted, “”He is a great man, you don’t know the facts.”