Utah’s Department of Corrections confirmed to the KSL Investigators it failed to provide details about an assault case to the parole board, which could have kept a convicted rapist now accused of reoffending behind bars.
Three months after a KSL investigation revealed a failure to fully investigate reports of rape against a single suspect, two cases re-opened by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office have led to first-degree felony rape charges.
“Listen up,” Rayley Wadsworth pleaded with social media users in a video filmed inside a stationary car last month. “If you’re in Utah, or a woman in Utah, please listen for just a second.”
Utah’s low sexual assault prosecution rates leave many survivors feeling discouraged and dismissed. The KSL Investigators dig into why experts say Utah can do better.
Reports of sexual assault against an accused serial predator have piled up over the last decade, with most of them going nowhere: Cases closed, rejected, and forgotten. The KSL Investigators found a troubling trail of failures by law enforcement to fully investigate.
Despite admitted anger issues and a recent history of assault, Utah’s Board of Pardons and Parole released a convicted rapist back into the community last month. Now, he is charged with aggravated rape in an attack on a Taylorsville woman he communicated with while in prison.
A convicted Utah rapist is back in custody, the suspect in an aggravated rape in Taylorsville, just 49 days after being released from the Utah State Prison where he served 24 years for rape and burglary.
Authorities arrested Joshua Homer, 26, a day after a KSL TV investigation detailed his crimes against women and what critics say is a lack of accountability for those offenses. A judge has granted a request to keep him behind bars as he faces allegations of violating his probation.
A KSL investigation into Joshua Homer’s past revealed crimes against women spanning the last decade, but sentences amounting to less than a month in jail. Wednesday, the KSL Investigators learned Homer is back behind bars. The question now is how long he'll stay there.
Feeling let down by Utah’s justice system, several women took to the internet to spread warnings about an accused serial predator. The KSL Investigators spent months digging into his past and found a series of crimes against women and girls spanning the last decade, but sentences amounting to less than a month behind bars.
Just a fraction of reported sexual assaults are prosecuted in Utah. As KSL Investigators discovered, poor tracking and reporting throughout the state's criminal justice system makes it difficult to know the true scope of the problem.
