Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A man accused of being a serial voyeur who has been arrested numerous times for alleged crimes against children is now facing federal charges.
Late last week, a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned an indictment against Jonathan Jareth Soberanis, 27, accusing him of distribution of child pornography and transportation of child pornography for incidents that took place between August 2020 and March.
Soberanis has been arrested multiple times in Utah and Salt Lake counties and accused of crimes against children, including voyeurism, lewdness, exploitation and abuse. In most cases, the criminal charges were dismissed.
He 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. Both cases were later dismissed after it was determined that he was not competent to stand trial.
In June 2021, Soberanis 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 2021, however, after a judge determined that he was not competent to stand trial and was unable to be restored to competency.
That case was refiled in April, however, by the Utah Attorney General's Office which charged Soberanis with aggravated sexual abuse of a child, lewdness involving a child, two counts of assault on a police officer and assault by a prisoner. Last month, he was once again found by doctors to be not competent to stand trial, according to court records. The state requested an evidentiary hearing on Soberanis' competency, which began on Tuesday and is scheduled to be completed on Sept. 22.
Dr. Lindsey North, a forensic psychologist who conducted an evaluation of Soberanis, expressed concerns Tuesday about his ability to understand the court process and any potential sentence from the court. She said he has an established diagnosis of an intellectual disability.
Carl Hollan, assistant attorney general, asked North about the unusually high number of people who are determined incompetent to face charges in Utah, saying that about 70% of people evaluated are found incompetent in Utah and it is closer to 30% in other states. North confirmed the statistics and said it is something officials are working to address — but she said her statistics are closer to other states, finding about 30% incompetent and a majority of people competent. A second evaluator is expected to testify next week.
In February, Soberanis was arrested and accused of peering into the windows of two Lehi townhomes where children were inside. 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 and attempted to avoid being caught, thus showing that he knew what he was doing was wrong.
In March, Soberanis was arrested by members of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force and later charged in 3rd District Court with 21 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. In that case, his alleged 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.
Investigators say Soberanis had multiple online accounts and would lie about his age to others in an effort to get those people to share inappropriate photos with him.
That case was later dismissed and was refiled in 4th District Court, according to court records. Soberanis' competency in this case is being considered in the same hearings before 4th District Judge Sean Petersen on Tuesday and Sept. 22. With the grand jury indictment, however, it appears that case will now be taken up in federal court.
