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WEST VALLEY CITY — A West Valley man who police say has not been compliant with the terms of his probation after he was placed on the sex offender registry has been arrested after a series of events that include social media posts about abusing children.
Elvis Sabanagic, 30, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Tuesday for investigation of sexual exploitation of a minor and failing to register as a sex offender.
The investigation began a week ago when a West Valley police officer, who is also a member of Utah's Internet Crimes Against Children task force, received a complaint that Sabanagic had made a post on Facebook about wanting to have sex with children, according to a police booking affidavit.
In addition, "Elvis also posted numerous computer generated images of child-sized characters performing various sexual acts. Elvis also posted about watching children come and go from a nearby school," the affidavit states.
Police traced the Facebook account to Sabanagic and learned he was convicted of lewdness involving a child a year ago after he went skateboarding at a West Valley park wearing nothing but his shoes. He was sentenced to a couple of months in jail and placed on two years of probation. That conviction also required him to register with the Utah Sex Offender and Kidnap Registry, but Sabanagic was "noncompliant" as of Tuesday because he has failed to register since October, according to the affidavit.
When officers questioned Sabanagic, he "admitted to making the posts and to being sexually attracted to children but denied ever acting on these urges or possessing images or videos of real children being abused," the affidavit states.
On Tuesday, investigators returned to Sabanagic's residence with a search warrant and questioned him again. He admitted to being attracted to young girls and "also admitted to watching young girls at a park near his house and admitted that he was attracted to certain young girls out of a group," according to the affidavit.
Investigators also looked at a law enforcement database to further study Sabanagic's pattern of behavior and learned that in 2019 he exposed himself to a woman and told her was going to rape her, but the woman did not want to press charges, the arrest report states. Also in 2019, police were called to East High School where Sabanagic was "in the front office of the school recording people," according to the affidavit, and in 2018 at Valley Fair Mall, "Elvis was in the women's bathroom recording females in the restroom with his cellphone."
"This pattern of behavior with the statements he made (during his recent police interview) shows that Elvis is a danger to the public. I spoke with our Crisis Intervention Team who has worked with Elvis and attempted to get him in mental health court. They advised me that Elvis never showed for court and when they would go to his house, he would slam the door on them or not answer the door," the affidavit alleges.
