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SALT LAKE CITY — A man who has made headlines for being arrested numerous times for inappropriate conduct against children in Salt Lake and Utah counties, including voyeurism and lewdness, was arrested again Tuesday, this time for alleged child pornography possession.
Jonathan Jareth Soberanis, 27, was arrested by members of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force and formally charged on Wednesday by the Utah Attorney General's Office in 3rd District Court with for investigation of 21 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. He was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail.
The crimes date back to August of 2020, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that two videos containing suspected child pornography were uploaded to undisclosed platforms, according to a police booking affidavit.
The account that the videos were sent from was linked back to Soberanis and task force agents served a search warrant on his account in October 2021, the affidavit states. In the account, investigators found a message sent to another user in which he requested the user add his private email account. "Hey add me on my private (electronic service provider) lol I have another one with private lol that you can see more x rated pics lol," the message states.
Agents also reviewed several other accounts associated with Soberanis and found additional videos and messages.
"I found that Jonathan primarily used one account to share (child pornography). He lied about his age on both accounts and said he was different teenage years old. In his chats, he often said he won't share any images of himself until they do. He also had multiple other emails with different variations of his name, or nicknames, linked to the accounts," the arresting officer wrote in the affidavit.
In February, Soberanis was arrested for investigation of voyeurism and accused of peering into the windows of two Lehi townhomes where children were inside.
After he was arrested and charged, Soberanis moved from Lehi to Salt Lake County, the Utah Attorney General's Office noted. The documents do not indicate where in the county he is living. Charging documents note that Soberanis "is currently employed at a local shopping mall" and investigators "were concerned about his access to children at his place of work."
The charges also note that he "is currently being investigated for another instance of sexual contact with a child in the restroom at his place of work."
On Tuesday, agents served a search warrant at his Salt Lake County residence and questioned Soberanis about what they had found in his online accounts.
"In observing his body language, he became more nervous, and his eyes became very wide," the affidavit states, adding that agents then searched his cellphone and found additional files of suspected child pornography.
According to investigators, Soberanis created accounts to use for communicating with family and friends, and separate private accounts to seek out child pornography.
"He had the knowledge to create multiple accounts with multiple (electronic service providers). He told several users that he wouldn't share pics without receiving them first. In one email he said, 'I'll share girl vidz for boy vidz.' He then proceeded to send (child porn) depicting female children," according to the affidavit.
Furthermore, investigators say Soberanis stated in his messages that he would edit some pictures so they looked good, "indicating that he was sophisticated enough to know how to edit image files."
Such characterizations could be particularly important to prosecutors in his current cases because previous criminal charges in three different cases were dropped against Soberanis after a judge determined that he was incompetent to stand trial.
Stephanie Davis, the mother of the boy at one of the Lehi townhomes that Soberanis is accused of peering into, told KSL.com in February that she believes Soberanis knew what he was doing when he allegedly traumatized her child and attempted to avoid being caught.
Soberanis has been arrested and charged several times over the past few years. But each of his charges has been dropped because he has been determined by the courts to be incompetent to stand trial with no chance of being restored.
In June, he was charged with voyeurism, lewdness involving a child and unlawful detention of a minor after he was accused of going into a bathroom stall at the Lehi Legacy Center, and exposing himself to a 5-year-old boy. The charges were dropped in August, however, after a judge determined that he was not competent to stand trial and was unable to be restored to competency.
Soberanis was charged in 2018 and 2019 in separate cases of lewdness involving a child, including a case of exposing himself to a 9-year-old boy who was in a restroom at the Shops at South Town in Sandy. But both cases were later dismissed after it was determined that he was not competent to stand trial.
He is scheduled to next appear in court on Monday in connection with this voyeurism charges from Lehi. Prosecutors have requested he remain in the Salt Lake County Jail on no bail pending his first court appearance on his new charges, calling him a "substantial danger to children in the community." If he is allowed to post bail, prosecutors have requested that Soberanis be required to wear a GPS ankle monitor and not enter any home or business that children are known to frequent.
