- Michael Kleiner, 32, a Utah teacher, faces charges of soliciting minors online.
- All three "minors" were undercover officers posing as teenage girls.
- Prosecutors seek to hold Kleiner without bail.
SALT LAKE CITY — A middle school teacher in southern Utah accused of soliciting a teen girl online is charged with soliciting two more girls. All three, however, were undercover officers, according to prosecutors.
Michael Kleiner, 32, of Ivins, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony; six counts of distributing harmful materials to a minor, a third-degree felony; and enticement of a minor, a class A misdemeanor.
On Friday, Kleiner was charged in 4th District Court with criminal solicitation of a minor, a first-degree felony; 10 counts of distributing harmful materials to a minor, a third-degree felony; and enticement of a minor, a class A misdemeanor.
Kleiner was an English as a second language teacher at Snow Canyon Middle School.
The investigation began in June when Kleiner made contact with an undercover police officer in Utah County posing online as a 17-year-old girl, according to charging documents. Over the course of several days, Kleiner sent messages to the undercover officer and "discussed his desire to engage in sexual intercourse," according to the charges. "Throughout the conversation, (the) suspect sent numerous sexual photos and recordings to (the officer)."
After he was arrested, investigators learned that Kleiner had also been talking online to another officer posing as a 15-year-old girl in West Jordan.
According to his latest charges, Kleiner engaged in conversations with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl over the course of several days "expressing his desire to engage in sexual acts," and also with another officer posing as a 15-year-old girl.
"Throughout the conversation, (Kleiner) sent numerous sexual photos and recordings" to the 15-year-old girl, the charges state. "Throughout the conversation, defendant Michael Kleiner told (the officer) his first name, where he lives, and that he is a teacher."
Kleiner never arrived for the planned meetings with the "girls," prompting investigators to go to his home in southern Utah to arrest him.
Prosecutors have requested that Kleiner be held in custody without the possibility of posting bail, noting that between the two cases, he "engaged in sexually explicit communications with at least three people he believed to be underage, as young as 13 years old. Throughout those chats, he engaged in sexually explicit conversation, he sent harmful material, he solicited the distribution of child sex abuse material, and he planned several times to meet up in person to engage in sexual activity with the minors."
