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TREMONTON — A former veteran officer with the Tremonton Police Department was charged Thursday with 14 felonies for allegedly spying on a teenage girl and gathering nude photos of her.
Jeremy Rose, 37, an officer with the department for 12 years who was a sex abuse investigator and trained with SWAT, was charged with nine counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; two counts of voyeurism, a third-degree felony; and other charges.
Rose is accused of setting up fake email accounts from a nude modeling agency, and then encouraging a female teen acquaintance to submit photos of herself, according to a police affidavit filed in Box Elder County's 1st District Court. Prosecutors say Rose took thousands of voyeuristic pictures of the teenager, set up a hidden camera in her bedroom and put spy equipment on her cellphone "to view all of (her) cellphone calls, voicemail messages, incoming and outgoing texts, photos and Web searches."
Rose was first arrested 10 months ago. Because the Box Elder County attorney knew Rose, the case was investigated by the Utah Attorney General's Office.
Rose suggested to a then-15-year-old neighbor that she could make money by sending nude photos of herself to a particular website, according to investigators.
"Witnesses told agents that Rose always knew where (the victim) was, showed up to places where (the victim) was, knew what emails and texts (the victim) was sending and receiving, and seemed to know a lot about (the victim) and her friends and activities that he would have no way of knowing except by monitoring her somehow," the charging documents state.
In the spring of 2012, the girl said she received an email from a company soliciting her to model. Rose told the teen he knew people at the company and encouraged her to take the job, according to court documents. She sent photographs of herself at first to Rose, who allegedly told her he forwarded them to the company. She later sent pictures of herself directly to two email addresses of people whom she believed worked for the website.
Witnesses told agents that Rose always knew where (the victim) was, showed up to places where (the victim) was, knew what emails and texts (the victim) was sending and receiving, and seemed to know a lot about (the victim) and her friends and activities that he would have no way of knowing except by monitoring her somehow.
–Charging documents
"They told her she could make more money by wearing less clothing," the charges state.
After submitting more than 150 nude pictures, she told the company she was quitting at the urging of her boyfriend. But the "company" told her she could be sued for not fulfilling contractual obligations, even though the girl told them she was still 17, court documents state.
Prosecutors say Rose was the person receiving the photos and doing the email correspondence the entire time. Rose allegedly set up fake accounts meant to resemble a real company with the same name.
Once police became involved and started serving warrants, they found computers and cellphones belonging to Rose with nude or partially nude images of the teen and a camera that was placed under a dresser in her room, according to charging documents. Investigators said there had also been attempts to erase data on the computers.
"There are over 1,000 images of (the victim) that appear to be from one or more videos that were made into still images," the affidavit states. Many of the images were of the teen drying off after a shower, or catching her reflection in front of a full-length mirror.
Rose was also charged Thursday with communications fraud, a second-degree felony; obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony; dealing in materials harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony; and stalking, a class A misdemeanor.
Rose resigned from Tremonton police in July. In December, a "minor" took out a protective order against Rose. It is not clear from court records if she is the same teen from the criminal case.
An arrest warrant with a $145,000 bail was issued Thursday. Rose is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
