PAYSON, Utah, Feb. 17, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — A Provo man was booked into the Utah County Jail after a 15-year-old Payson girl identified as the man who abused her two years earlier.
Cordel Evan Jeffs, 20, is charged with rape of a child, a first-degree felony.
On Jan 29 of this year, Payson Police Department received information concerning a teen who reported she had been raped two years earlier by Jeffs.
“During the forensic interview, the female juvenile disclosed that while she was in 7th grade and either 13 or 14 years old” at the time of the abuse.
“The juvenile said at that time, she was ‘kinda dating’ an adult male whom she identified as Cordel Jeffs. The juvenile stated that she met Cordel through mutual friends and that at that time Cordel lied to her about his age and told her that he was 16 years old.
The teen said that one day she skipped school to meet Cordel at his parents’ Payson residence, and once there, she and Cordel went into a camping trailer near the residence.
“She stated that they sat on the bed and began talking. While talking, the juvenile reported that Cordel ‘forced himself on me.'”
The girl said Cordel removed her clothing “despite her telling him ‘no’ and to ‘stop.'” He then raped her, the girl told police, adding that “it hurt her really bad and she began to cry even harder.”
Afterward, Cordel did not speak to her, and she left the trailer and walked to a nearby park, the statement says.
Jeffs has been booked into the Utah County Jail on four previous occasions, on drug, theft and assault charges dating back to May of 2017.
He is being held in lieu of paying $25,000 cash-only bail.
