SLC School District Board Member resigns after child pornography arrest
Jun 5, 2021, 2:45 PM | Updated: 2:47 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City School District Board member Joel-Lehi Organista, age 29, resigned his position on Friday after court documents connecting him to child pornography were filed Friday morning.
In the documents, prosecutors disclosed evidence related to eleven charges leveled against Organista. The charges include object-rape of a child under the age of 14, and ten charges of child exploitation connected to a Dropbox account on his computer. Dropbox is a cloud storage application.
Prosecutors said they found child pornography in the form of photographs and video contained in the Dropbox account.
According to a report from KSL 5 TV reporter Alex Cabrero, Organista admitted that the Dropbox account was his. He also admitted downloading, viewing, and saving child pornography. He also reportedly used the Snapchat social media application to communicate with and solicit photographs from minor children.
Joel-Lehi Organista, a SLC School Board Member, resigned this afternoon. Court documents filed today show he’s facing 1 charge of object rape of a child and ten counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. We won’t get into graphic details, but we’ll have a story @KSL5TV at 10. pic.twitter.com/yhuiC2i6Xh
— Alex Cabrero (@KSL_AlexCabrero) June 5, 2021
Organista’s resignation was effective immediately.
Police arrested and booked Organista into the Salt Lake County Jail Tuesday on eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Organista was elected to the school board in November.
On Saturday afternoon he remained in the Salt Lake County jail.
Report any child sexual abuse concerns to law enforcement at 801-799-3000 and to the Division of Child and Family Services at 855-323-3237.
Related reading:
Salt Lake City School Board member faces child pornography accusations; board demands his resignation
