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CEDAR CITY — A registered sex offender who was arrested just three weeks after being released from a halfway house has been sent back to prison for a term of five years to life.
Gerald Anthony Allen, 49, pleaded guilty to forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony. In exchange for his plea, a charge of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor, was dismissed.
Allen had only been living in Cedar City for two days before he was arrested and accused of sexually assaulting one of his roommates, a 19-year-old man in May of 2022.
The victim told police that he worked for the same company as Allen. He said Allen approached him to massage him after he had showered, and then touched him inappropriately.
Police called Allen a danger to the community because he had just been released from a halfway house 20 days earlier and displayed "predatory" behavior, an arrest report states.
"I (accept) responsibility but never in a million years wanted, planned or forced anyone to do anything they didn't want to," Allen said in a letter to the judge.
Allen previously served a sentence of one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison after being convicted of forcible sexual abuse in 1997. The prison sentence was originally suspended, but it was reinstated after Allen violated the probation terms.
Fifth District Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen sentenced Allen Aug. 15 and recommended that he be given opportunities for treatment and education while in prison.
