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SANDY — A registered sex offender has been arrested after police say he tried to visually record a boy in a bathroom stall while at church.
Zachary Wallin, 32, of Sandy, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Tuesday for investigation of voyeurism committed against a person under the age of 14, and violating the sex offender registry.
The investigation began on July 31 at a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 2535 Newcastle Drive (8890 South), when a boy in a bathroom stall "noticed a cellphone being held over the stall and it appeared to be recording their actions," according to a police booking affidavit.
Sandy Police Sgt. Greg Moffitt said Wednesday that detectives have been actively working the case since it was reported, but declined to go into detail about how they were able to identify Wallin as a suspect. When investigators interviewed Wallin, however, he "confessed to having a 'moment of weakness' and stated he was the one who was taking the photos inside the church bathroom," the affidavit states.
Wallin was convicted in 2015 of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, in 1st District Court. He was ordered to serve 210 days in the Cache County Jail followed by three years of probation, which he successfully completed in 2018, according to court records. Because of his conviction, Wallin is required to register with the Utah Sex Offender and Kidnap Registry.
