OGDEN — The Weber County Sheriff’s Office said it has worked through a significant backlog of active cases and implemented a new case management policy after a child sexual abuse investigation was mishandled and did not meet the agency’s standards.

The changes come after the KSL Investigates team found the agency had lost track of a sexual abuse case involving a young girl, leaving her family waiting more than two years without answers.

‘Like it never happened’

In September 2023, Jordan said her young stepdaughter reported to the Weber County Sheriff’s Office that a man sexually abused her when she was just 8 years old. The KSL Investigates team is not using Jordan’s last name to protect her daughter’s privacy.

Jordan told KSL she believed the case was being investigated until she learned last year that the agency couldn’t locate a written case report.

“The detective never filed an actual report stating what happened,” she said during an interview in November. “It was like it never happened.”

Jordan described the revelation as “a gut punch and a stab in the back.”

‘A series of small errors’

Once the issue was discovered, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office immediately assigned a new detective to reinvestigate the case.

The detective originally assigned to the case left the department for a new job last year. According to the chief deputy, the detective said he had written a report, but they couldn’t find one.

And while the detective had told the family prosecutors would not be filing charges, the Weber County Attorney’s Office said the case was never sent to them to be screened for charges.

“When this came to light, we understood that this was a mistake that we needed to correct,” said Sgt. Jessica Jolley, who oversees the agency’s investigations bureau.

Jolley said she reviewed hundreds of investigative files — including those handled by the original detective — to determine whether similar failures had occurred. She said she did not find another case like this one.

“This is not the standard of practice that we normally operate under, and this did not meet our standard for case investigation,” Jolley said. “It is just a series of small errors that led to the case being mishandled.”

Jolley said the case should have been labeled as a sex offense and was not. The assigned officer in the agency’s case management system was also not listed as the detective. And she said while they have records of the interviews the detective conducted, they were never able to locate a written report.

‘We have taken action’

As part of the response, the sheriff’s office temporarily assigned two additional deputies to help work through a backlog of active cases.

“We went from having over 400 active cases to now we’re just above 200,” Jolley said.

In addition to addressing the backlog, the agency implemented a new written investigations case management policy. The policy outlines expectations for investigations and requires monthly check-ins between detectives and supervisors.

“They were already practices that we were holding our detectives to, but it wasn’t in policy,” Jolley said. “So, now that it is in policy, it’s something that’s actionable and we can start holding detectives accountable, hold the supervisors like myself accountable, to ensure that these things are getting done, it is being done timely and it is being done properly.”

Jolley also said all criminal cases with evidence must be submitted to prosecutors for formal screening to determine whether charges should be filed.

“I’m grateful that we had the opportunity to fix it and go back and redo this investigation and do it properly,” said Jolley. “We have taken action to change our policies and our procedures so that these things don’t happen again in the future. And we are working hard to rebuild any trust that was lost with the public.”

The case involving Jordan’s daughter has been submitted to prosecutors who are now evaluating whether charges will be filed.

If you have experienced sexual violence, you can access help and resources by calling Utah’s 24-hour Sexual Violence Help Line at 1-801-736-4356 (English) or 1-801-924-0860 (Spanish). You can also call the Rape Recovery Center office line during office hours at 801-467-7282 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for free, confidential counseling.

Child abuse resources:

Utah Domestic Violence Coalition operates a confidential statewide, 24-hour domestic abuse hotline at 1-800-897-LINK (5465). Resources are also available online: udvc.org. The statewide child abuse and neglect hotline is 1-855-323-DCFS (3237).

Help with Children

Those who feel stressed out with a child, who need a break or who feel like they need counseling or training can reach out to one of the following agencies:

The Family Support Center has 15 locations throughout the state and offers a free crisis nursery for parents who have to keep appointments or who are stressed out. They also offer counseling and family mentoring. Call 801-955-9110 or visit familysupportcenter.org/contact.php for more information.
Prevent Child Abuse Utah provides home visiting in Weber, Davis, and Box Elder counties. Parent Educators provide support, education, and activities for families with young children. Their statewide education team offers diverse trainings on protective factors, digital safety, bullying, and child sex trafficking. They are available for in-person or virtual trainings and offer free online courses for the community at pcautah.org.
The Office of Home Visiting works with local agencies to provide home visits to pregnant women and young families who would like to know more about being parents. Home visitors are trained and can provide information about breastfeeding, developmental milestones, toilet training, nutrition, mental health, home safety, child development, and much more. Find out more at homevisiting.utah.gov.
The Safe Haven law allows birth parents in Utah to safely and anonymously give up custody of their newborn child at any hospital in the state, with no legal consequences and no questions asked. The child’s mother can drop off the child, or the mother can ask someone else to do it for her. The newborns should be dropped off at hospitals that are open 24 hours a day. Newborns given up in this manner will be cared for by the hospital staff, and the Utah Division of Child and Family Services will find a home for the child. For more information, visit utahsafehaven.org or call the 24-hour hotline at 866-458-0058.

CSAM Prevention Resources and Victim Recovery:

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides support to children who are victims of child sexual exploitation through emotional peer support for families, content removal of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and help getting connected to therapists and attorneys. The NCMEC also provides a CyberTipline where CSAM can be reported. Visit https://www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/csam-resources for more information.
The Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force hosts a hub of resources for parents and offers local help to cases involving child sexual exploitation.
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) provides a guide of safety measures to take in order to prevent children from being targeted in CSAM cases.
Thorn nonprofit organization creates products and programs that combat child sexual abuse at scale. It provides resources for families to help them identify the possible ways children can be exploited online, giving them proper terminology and statistics to keep them educated. For more information, visit https://www.thorn.org/research/child-sexual-abuse-material-csam/
Utah Domestic Violence Coalition operates a confidential statewide, 24-hour domestic abuse hotline at 1-800-897-LINK (5465). Resources are also available online: udvc.org. The statewide child abuse and neglect hotline is 1-855-323-DCFS (3237).

A family reported child sexual abuse two years ago. Now a Utah sheriff’s office can’t find the case report

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Weber County Sheriff’s Office implements new policy after child sexual abuse case 'mishandled' - KSLTV.com