UTAH COUNTY, Utah, Feb. 23, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A 41-year-old West Mountain man who police say forced an 18-year-old to remain in his home overnight Monday been charged with kidnapping and rape.
Charles Leippe was initially booked into jail on one first-degree felony count of aggravated kidnapping, according to Lt. Yvette M. Rice, of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
Detectives have now booked Leippe on additional charges, including two counts of first-degree felony rape, first-degree felony forcible sodomy, second-degree felony tampering with evidence, third-degree felony aggravated assault-domestic violence and class B misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Rice said deputies with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched at about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday on a report of a woman being held in a home in the West Mountain area, which is west of Payson.
Rice said the woman was dropped off at the home by a friend on Monday night. A series of texts between the woman and that friend then led the friend to call 911 after the woman indicated she needed help.
When deputies arrived at the home in the area of 8600 South and 5600 West, they tried to get someone to come to the door, but got no response, Rice said. Officials gathered information that led them to believe that the suspect and the victim were inside the home, and they made entry a little after 12:30 p.m.
The woman was found in the home severely injured, and was evaluated by medical personnel.
Leippe was also inside the home. He cooperated with deputies and was taken into custody, according to a Utah County Sheriff’s Office statement.
Later on Tuesday, after obtaining a warrant, UCSO detectives conducted a search of the home. On Wednesday, detectives interviewed the victim.
“We will not divulge exactly what the nature of the relationship was between Leippe and the victim except to say that he had, in the past, been in a position of special trust to the victim when she was a juvenile and that she had lived in his home,” said a statement released by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
“When she went there on Feb. 20 to pick up some personal belongings, Leippe would not let her leave. Later that evening Leippe gave alcohol to the victim to the point where she could not function to defend herself. At that point Leippe forced the victim to a bedroom where he removed her clothes, bound her hands and feet, and tied her to the headboard of a bed in that room.”
While the victim was bound on the bed, Leippe raped her at least two times, sodomized her, and choked her, the sheriff’s department statement said.
The victim told detectives that when deputies arrived and knocked repeatedly on the door, Leippe began to hide evidence. During the search of the home, detectives found evidence to support the victim’s assertion that she was bound, assaulted, and raped repeatedly. The victim sustained significant injuries from the rapes, assault, and from being bound for an extended period of time. When she was taken from the home by victim advocates she had difficulty walking.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.
