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SALT LAKE CITY — A man charged 2 ½ years ago with raping a 15-year-old girl he was allegedly selling drugs to now faces more criminal charges, including allegations of raping a second teen.
And Lee Ervin Heyen, 43, of West Valley City, says he wants to finally have his day in court.
"I did not wish to extend my trial. I'm innocent and have been sitting in jail now for three years," Heyen wrote in a letter submitted to the court on March 12. "I have family that needs me out there. And I feel like after eight postponements, this should have been in court two years ago on these new charges."
Heyen was first charged in October 2015 with four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and two counts of drug distribution. A 15-year-old girl, who was a friend of Heyen's teenage son, said Heyen "was her drug dealer who she spent a lot of time together smoking marijuana," the charges state. The girl told police that between May and July 2015, they had sex three times and she was forced to perform a sexual act once in a Walmart parking lot.
In February 2016 the charges were amended to three counts of rape, two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and one count of drug distribution.
Last month, the charges were amended again, this time reflecting a second alleged victim. A second girl, who said that when she was between 14 and 16 years old from 2014 to 2016, sold drugs for Heyen, according to court documents. Also during that time, Heyen raped her and "told her if she did not have sex with him he would harm her family," the charges state.
A third amended information was filed last week to correct some of the dates of the alleged offenses.
With his amended charges, Heyen now faces 14 felonies. They include seven counts of rape and two counts of forcible sodomy, first-degree felonies; plus two counts of unlawful sexually activity with a minor and three counts of drug distribution, third-degree felonies.
A trial scheduled in August 2016 was continued to January 2017, then June 2017, then October 2017 and January of this year. A four-day trial that was scheduled to start in May was recently rescheduled to June.
Heyen was also part of a white supremacist group that was federally indicted on racketeering charges. Twelve members of the Soldiers of Aryan Culture were indicted in 2003 with corrupt organization conspiracy and violent crime in aid of racketeering activity, according to court records.
He pleaded guilty to violence in aid of racketeering and assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to just under four years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised probation.
On Monday, he was sentenced to two more years in federal prison with credit given for time served, plus an additional year of supervised release for violating the conditions of his orignal supervised released, according to court records. He admitted drug allegations against him but denied the rape allegations pending in state court, federal court documents state.
