Man once accused of enticing child sues police, claims they had the wrong guy

SALT LAKE CITY — A southern Utah man once accused of trying to entice a child for sexual activity has filed a lawsuit against the police officers who investigated and arrested him following the dismissal of the criminal case against him.

In 2024, Joshua Sam, 30, of Washington city, was charged in 5th District Court with enticing a minor, a class A misdemeanor. On Oct. 19, 2025, the case was dismissed "in the interest of justice" following a motion filed by prosecutors.

According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court by Sam and his attorney, Robert Sykes, Sam was not the person who allegedly communicated with an undercover officer working a sting operation and posing as a teen girl.

In August 2023, two officers from the Enoch Police Department were participating in an online undercover sting organized by the Utah Attorney General's Office seeking child predators, according to the lawsuit. Investigators accused Sam of communicating with one of the officers on Omegle.

"The suspect enticed a minor with the intentions to meet and engage in sexual activity," according to police.

But according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the undercover officer "accepted, without confirmation or proof, that the person with whom he was having this internet conversation…was the plaintiff Joshua Sam."

The person police were talking to only identified himself as "Josh" with no last name. The undercover officer asked Sam for a picture in August of 2023 and again in October 2023. Sykes says the two pictures the officers received not only didn't match each other, but neither one was of Sam.

"Joshua Sam is an immigrant of Sri Lankan ancestry, with both parents being full-blooded Sri Lankans. The dark-skinned Joshua Sam looks nothing like the obvious white men in the photos sent by the texter or impersonator," the lawsuit states. "(Police) did nothing to investigate and confirm the identity of the texter as the actual Joshua Sam."

The officers involved in the sting never provided prosecutors with Sam's driver's license photo "because the photo on the license was so different from the photos sent by the impersonator that it suggested either that the impersonator was not Joshua Sam, or that more investigation as to the impersonator's identity was needed before filing the case," the lawsuit states.

Despite this, police went ahead and submitted their case for possible criminal charges.

The lawsuit further contends that the address police believed Sam lived at during the investigation was one that Sam hadn't lived in for four years, and that "Sam had not been on Omegle since his 10th or 11th grade of high school, about 10 years before these events."

The suit alleges the officers "gave no consideration to the very real possibility that the person purporting to be 'Joshua' in the various communications probably was not the same person as plaintiff Joshua Sam. These investigative records show (the officers) total lack of investigation to connect these purported crimes to plaintiff Joshua Sam.

"The filing of the charges against Joshua Sam significantly damaged his life; contributed to destroying his marriage, family, and financial livelihood; and damaged his reputation and standing in the community where he lived," the lawsuit continued.

Sykes says Sam's fourth amendment right protecting him against malicious prosecution was violated.

Sam is seeking unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

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