Weber County Sheriff's Office implements new policy after child sexual abuse case 'mishandled'

OGDEN — The Weber County Sheriff's Office said it has worked through a significant backlog of active cases and implemented a new case management policy after a child sexual abuse investigation was mishandled and did not meet the agency's standards.

The changes come after the KSL Investigates team found the agency had lost track of a sexual abuse case involving a young girl, leaving her family waiting more than two years without answers.

'Like it never happened'

In September 2023, Jordan said her young stepdaughter reported to the Weber County Sheriff's Office that a man sexually abused her when she was just 8 years old. The KSL Investigates team is not using Jordan's last name to protect her daughter's privacy.

Jordan told KSL she believed the case was being investigated until she learned last year that the agency couldn't locate a written case report.

"The detective never filed an actual report stating what happened," she said during an interview in November. "It was like it never happened."

Jordan described the revelation as "a gut punch and a stab in the back."

'A series of small errors'

Once the issue was discovered, the Weber County Sheriff's Office immediately assigned a new detective to reinvestigate the case.

The detective originally assigned to the case left the department for a new job last year. According to the chief deputy, the detective said he had written a report, but they couldn't find one.

And while the detective had told the family prosecutors would not be filing charges, the Weber County Attorney's Office said the case was never sent to it to be screened for charges.

"When this came to light, we understood that this was a mistake that we needed to correct," said Sgt. Jessica Jolley, who oversees the agency's investigations bureau.

Related:

Missing report in child sexual abuse case prompts audit at Weber County Sheriff's Office

Weber County officials answered questions about how the sheriff's office is moving forward after a KSL investigation highlighting a missing report in a child sexual abuse case.

Jolley said she reviewed hundreds of investigative files — including those handled by the original detective — to determine whether similar failures had occurred. She said she did not find another case like this one.

"This is not the standard of practice that we normally operate under, and this did not meet our standard for case investigation," Jolley said. "It is just a series of small errors that led to the case being mishandled."

Jolley said the case should have been labeled as a sex offense and was not. The assigned officer in the agency's case management system was also not listed as the detective. And she said while they have records of the interviews the detective conducted, they were never able to locate a written report.

'We have taken action'

As part of the response, the sheriff's office temporarily assigned two additional deputies to help work through a backlog of active cases.

"We went from having over 400 active cases to now we're just above 200," Jolley said.

In addition to addressing the backlog, the agency implemented a new written investigations case management policy. The policy outlines expectations for investigations and requires monthly check-ins between detectives and supervisors.

"They were already practices that we were holding our detectives to, but it wasn't in policy," Jolley said. "So, now that it is in policy, it's something that's actionable and we can start holding detectives accountable, hold the supervisors like myself accountable, to ensure that these things are getting done, it is being done timely and it is being done properly."

Jolley also said all criminal cases with evidence must be submitted to prosecutors for formal screening to determine whether charges should be filed.

"I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to fix it and go back and redo this investigation and do it properly," said Jolley. "We have taken action to change our policies and our procedures so that these things don't happen again in the future. And we are working hard to rebuild any trust that was lost with the public."

The case involving Jordan's daughter has been submitted to prosecutors, who are now evaluating whether charges will be filed.

Related topics