WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Oct. 23, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A West Valley City man has be charged on suspicion of 10 felony counts of abuse of a child related to incidents that allegedly occurred as long ago as 2012.
A warrant was issued Wednesday for Tyler Augustin Jex, 29, who faces the following first-degree felony charges:
- Rape of a child
- Two counts of sodomy on a child
- Seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child
A probable cause statement filed by an officer of the Unified Police Department says that in May of 2013, a 10-year-old student at the Jean Massieu School of the Deaf, of Salt Lake City, told her mother and that Jex, a teacher’s aide, had been touching her inappropriately for about a month.
The girl said it had happened in a girls’ bathroom in the school. Jex also had been directing her to touch him, the child said.
“Additionally, (the child) said that Tyler had threatened her, saying he would go to her teacher and her principal and get her in a lot of trouble if she told anyone,” the statement says.
An 11-year-old student also reported in July that when she was 10, Jex had touched her breasts when her fourth grade teacher was out of the room.
The probable cause statement also says that in 2019, a mother called UPD saying her daughter reported being molested by Jex. The girl said that when she was 11, Jex pulled her into the boy’s restroom where he allegedly molested, then raped her.
She “… asked Tyler why he would rape her, and she said he told her he wanted to get people pregnant,” the probable cause statement says. “Tyler gave (her) $50 or $60 and she asked him why, and he told her it was because she had sex with him. (She) said she threw the money away because it wasn’t her money.”
The girl said that when she saw Jex at her ward in this year, “… he told her he wanted to touch her,” the statement says. The girl also said that at a school prom earlier this year, Jex grabbed her, and her dress ripped. She brought the dress to show detectives.
School records obtained by subpoena showed that Jex worked at the school between Jan. 6, 2012 and June 6, 2013.
As of 11 p.m. Wednesday, Jex had not been booked into the Salt Lake County Jail.
Court paperwork indicates when Jex is taken into custody, his bail will be set at $500,000.
Jex also has a pretrial conference set for Thursday in a case alleging that in 2015, he offered to give a child, then 15, a Playstation 4 in exchange for sex. She said no, the probable cause statement says.
The case was filed Nov. 16 of 2018, and Jex has pleaded not guilty to aggravated exploitation of a prostitute, a second-degree felony. Jex has pleaded not guilty. Multiple steps in that court case have been delayed.
