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SANDY — A Sandy man was charged Friday with groping a woman who was out for a walk on Sandy Parkway.
Heriberto Perez Morales, 20, is charged in 3rd District Court with two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
On June 8, a woman told police she was "speed walking" on Sandy Parkway "as she has many times in the past," when she saw a man drive past her several times in a black Ford Mustang. The woman said the man eventually pulled into a parking lot of a closed business. When she passed him, he was sitting in the front passenger seat with the door open and attempted to speak to her, according to charging documents.
The woman, however, was wearing earbuds and could not hear him clearly. But she told police that once she took her earbuds out, she heard the man ask for her phone number.
The woman refused and the man "pulled out three $100 bills and offered to buy her phone number,'" police said. The woman declined again and the man asked her for directions to a business. The woman told him she did not know where it was located.
The man then went on to ask the woman if she was married, and she told him "yes," the charges state. The man apologized, and the woman put her earbuds back in and continued her walk.
Within a few seconds, the woman felt the man "tapping her on her left shoulder," and he again tried to buy her phone number, according to the charges. The woman again refused.
The man told her "that he had a 'fantasy" that he wanted to fulfill, and asked her "what she would do for $300," the court documents allege. The woman told police she said he "would have to take his fantasies elsewhere."
The man then started making "forceful demands for (the woman) to show him her intimate body parts," police said.
After the woman again declined, the man then reached into the woman's exercise top and began groping her breast with one hand and her genitals with the other, according to the charges. The woman said she quickly pulled away from him and began running away on Sandy Parkway. She then called 911 and provided a description of the man and his vehicle.
Several hours after the incident, police said they found a Mustang matching the description and the woman later identified Perez Morales in a photo lineup.
Investigators requested Perez Morales be held without bail. He is also being held on several justice court warrants and a hold with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to court documents.
Court records do not show any previous felony charges for Perez Morales.
