Utah man accused of soliciting nudes from teens now faces rape charges

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SALT LAKE CITY — A man already charged in two cases of allegedly soliciting nude photos from teen girls on social media is now accused of more serious crimes involving a third victim.

David Tulaga, 23, of Herriman, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with three counts of rape and three counts of object rape, first-degree felonies; aggravated assault and three counts of forcible sexual abuse, second-degree felonies; and three counts of aggravated kidnapping, a third-degree felony.

Tulaga was charged in December in two cases of sexual exploitation of a minor. In those incidents, police say Tulaga, who targeted minors to buy nicotine pens and marijuana from him, contacted two girls, ages 15 and 16, on Snapchat and coerced them into sending nude photos.

In his new charges, Tulaga is accused of contacting a 16-year-old girl on Snapchat that he had never met and asking her to "hang out" with him while also offering her nicotine products, according to charging documents.

Tulaga allegedly dropped off the products but the girl told him she could not hang out. An hour later, the charges say Tulaga contacted the girl again and told her he was coming to pick her up and that if she did not go "there would be consequences." Tulaga told the girl that "if she didn't want to be his girlfriend he would kill her family," according to the charges.

Tulaga forced the girl to stay at his apartment three times over a four-day period in June and sexually assaulted her, the charges state. On one occasion he did not allow the girl to leave for four hours, according to the charges.

Prosecutors have requested Tulaga be held in jail with no bail for the new charges.

The next court hearings for Tulaga's other cases are scheduled for Tuesday.

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Pat Reavy interned with KSL NewsRadio in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL NewsRadio, Deseret News or KSL.com since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.
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