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SALT LAKE CITY — Criminal charges were filed Tuesday against a former science teacher at North Sanpete High School accused of sending inappropriate texts to a student.
Bradford Bentley, 54, of Mt. Pleasant, is charged in 6th District Court with enticing a minor, a class A misdemeanor.
The investigation into Bentley began May 2 when a 16-year-old girl told the North Sanpete High School resource officer that Bentley was sending her text messages describing how he would have sex with her, according to search warrants. Bentley was fired from the school district later that month.
Sheriff's investigators are encouraging any potential additional victims to contact them at 435-835-2345.
The charges mark the fourth time a teacher has been charged in Utah in 2018 for inappropriate contact with a student.
- In April, Kyle Hill, 32, of Provo, who taught third grade at Endeavor Hall in West Valley City, was charged with sexually abusing a boy in his class.
- Also in April, Duane Behrmann, 51, a teacher at South Cache Middle School, was charged with enticing a 14-year-old girl he had groomed for several months by engaging in sexually explicit conversations with her, according to court documents.
- In February, Joseph Scott Harris, 57, a teacher at Logan High School, was charged with six counts of unlawful sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl.
In another case, former teacher Nathaniel James Park, 30, of Ogden, who taught in the Jordan School District, was charged in March with enticing a minor after allegedly trying to convince a person he thought was 13 to engage in sex, according to charging documents. The teen was really an undercover officer. A district spokesman said there was no evidence that any students in the district were harmed.
There is also an investigation still underway into a man who taught at both Davis High School and Kaysville Junior High School who resigned in March. Police are investigating whether the man sent sexually suggestive text messages to a 14-year-old girl.
