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PAYSON — A Payson police officer is under investigation for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old student at the school where he was assigned.
Payson police confirmed Wednesday the 46-year-old officer is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation by another agency. The officer had not been arrested or charged as of Wednesday.
On April 17, the Pleasant Grove Police Department was asked to conduct an investigation into the officer following an internal investigation by Payson police, according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed in 4th District Court. The case was handed off to Pleasant Grove after Payson's internal affairs investigation "had recently revealed a sexual relationship between (the officer), who was assigned to Payson High School as a school resource officer, and a 17-year-old female student," the warrant states.
"Chief (Brad) Bishop told me this relationship has possibly been going on for the past year," the investigating officer wrote in the warrant. "(The resource officer) was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this criminal investigation."
Payson's internal affairs investigation began Feb. 14, the warrant states. At that time, the officer was reassigned out of the school to work as a patrol officer.
When the initial report was taken by a Payson police officer, who spoke to the girl and her mother, the teen said she had had "sex with the boyfriend," but her mother said she didn't think she had a boyfriend, the affidavit states. The daughter then said "that she knows she loves the person she had sex with."
The girl then told her mother "she had kissed" the officer "and then had sex with him," the warrant states. She also said that "she loves" the officer and "when she turns 18 they will be able to be together."
The mother told police she did not know how long the relationship had allegedly been going on, but noted that her daughter's grades began to decline in November or December.
Rumors of the alleged relationship had apparently already spread among other students.
The officer being investigated contacted Bishop, his chief, in February. He said that while he was investigating an assault involving two other girls at the school, the officer informed the girls that the case would be reviewed for possible criminal charges.
That's when one of the girls asked, "Are you going to face charges also?" the affidavit states. When the officer asked why he would face charges, the girl said "for having an inappropriate relationship" with the 17-year-old girl.
The officer "assured (Bishop) there was nothing going on between him and (the girl)," according to the warrant. "(He) also explained to Chief Bishop that (the girl) gravitates toward him and sees him as someone to lean on for support and someone to talk to."
The officer said the girl "seems to find her way to his office" frequently, and he admitted giving her rides to and from school and texting her about rides, the warrant states. When the chief asked the officer if he notified dispatchers about the rides per department policy, he allegedly said he had not.
The officer also told his chief that the school principal had taken notice of how frequent the girl was in his office, and that the principal asked the officer to inform the girl that "she is not to be in his office," according to the affidavit.
The officer also told his chief about a "rumor that he had taken video of (the girl) and her friend wrestling around in his office with handcuffs, but the rumor was not true and he never took a video of them. (The officer) advised Chief Bishop he has only tried to be a support person for (the girl) and she has never asked him for anything other than being a friend to her," investigators wrote in the warrant.
But the court document also says that by April, rumors about the officer, and sightings of him with the girl, started to come to light.
Although the girl denied any inappropriate relationship when interviewed in February, the warrant says rumors of the officer and the girl had reached teachers at Salem High School, who gave officers at the Salem Police Department more allegations to investigate.
The warrant discloses an incident where the officer happened to be at the girl's work in Santaquin wearing plain clothes, but with his police patrol car, to investigate a suspicious man. A Santaquin officer called to the scene noted that it was odd that the girl would call the Payson officer rather than dispatch, the warrant states.
The very next day, the same Santaquin officer spotted the officer at the girl's work again, according to the affidavit. The officer was headed to the area where the girl typically parked her car.
While talking with a Utah County sheriff's deputy about the encounter, the deputy told the Santaquin officer that "she had talked to other Payson City police officers and he was told there were a couple officers from Payson who had seen (the officer) in the Payson Walmart parking lot with a juvenile female (on) a couple different occasions," the warrant says.
As the investigation continued, police learned that another Santaquin officer reported spotting a Payson police patrol car parked at the Santaquin library one night.
"As he pulled up next to the vehicle, he noticed (the officer) in the driver's seat and a female in the passenger seat. Corporal Wall asked (the officer) if that was his daughter. (The officer) stated it was not his daughter," according to the warrant, which also noted (that the officer) and the young female with him appeared very nervous."
Pleasant Grove Police Chief Mike Smith confirmed his department is investigating but declined to provide details.
