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SALT LAKE CITY — Less than a year after a man was placed on probation for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he met on social media, he is now facing accusations of possessing child pornography.
Arik James Jeppsen, 21, of Murray, was charged Monday in 3rd District Court with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
In 2019, Jeppsen, then 19, posed as a high school student on social media and friended a 12-year-old girl. He eventually convinced the girl to meet up. Jeppsen picked up the girl and took her to his house, where he raped her, according to prosecutors.
As part of a plea deal, Jeppsen pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. In February, Jeppsen was sentenced to four years of probation. He was also given a suspended one-to-15-year prison sentence. Jeppsen was ordered to complete sex offender therapy, register as a sex offender in Utah, and write a letter of apology to the girl.
But just one month later, Jeppsen was arrested and booked back into the Salt Lake County Jail after investigators found suspected child pornography on several laptops that were seized as part of the previous investigation. When questioned about the images found, Jeppsen "admitted that he used to have a 'problem' with child pornography but claimed that he did not have a problem with it anymore," according to charging documents filed on Monday.
Police found more than 500 suspected images of child pornography on Jeppsen's computer files, the charges state.
Then in September, seven months after his conviction, he was arrested again after agents from Adult Probation and Parole learned that Jeppsen redownloaded Snapchat on his phone the day he got out of jail, according to an AP&P violation report. Since his sentencing in February, Jeppsen had been messaging seven or eight girls under the age of 18 and viewing pornography two to three times a week, the report states.
In charging documents filed Monday, prosecutors note that he allegedly "went back online posing as a teen to talk to minor girls and tried to get them to send naked photographs."
Based on that and the discovery of suspected child pornography on his computers — even though he allegedly downloaded the images before his conviction a year ago — prosecutors have requested that Jeppsen remain in jail without bail pending trial.
