Utah man accused of having sex with minor right after attending sex offender treatment

LOGAN – A Heber City man is facing 12 counts, including forcible sodomy, enticing a minor and dealing materials harmful to a minor after prosecutors say he re-victimized a teenage boy.

Arrest warrants show, earlier this year, Grant Johnson drove to Logan for sex offender treatment classes stemming from a case in 2017.  However, immediately after those appointments, he reportedly met his victim after they arranged the visits through Snapchat.  The warrant states Johnson and the boy would get high from vaping THC, then they would go into the back of his vehicle for sexual encounters.

Cache County Attorney James Swink says the victim was the same boy from the previous case.

“As we considered what charges to file, that was an aggravating factor, in our minds,” he says.

Documents state the victim told police about the encounters in May, claiming they happened at least once a month between January and April, immediately after Johnson’s appointments.  The documents also say Johnson asked the boy to send pornographic pictures.

When investigators asked Johnson about these claims, he reportedly admitted he met the boy at least four times and that he asked for the pictures.  He denied vaping THC with the victim.

Johnson could potentially get 15 years to life for these charges.  However, Swink says they have a lot of flexibility in what they can ask for, and they’re not sure if they warrant a life sentence, yet.

“The bigger question is, did we do everything we could to protect the victim in this case?  That’s where we’re going now.  We’re doing everything we can to protect the victim,” Swink says.