“Day-to-day operations of the Special Victims Task Force do not include funding to regularly conduct detailed undercover operations such as these,” the UCSO said in a statement Thursday.
In February 2018, Homeland Security Investigations submitted a grant request to the Adobe Foundation in Lehi to help fund additional resources for the sheriff’s office to address the issue. The foundation has teams at Adobe Corporate Locations with employees who decide where grant funds should be focused in local communities.
The grants were approved, and through Operation Underground Railroad, the UCSO was able to fund equipment, training and operational expenses to conduct undercover human trafficking operations in Utah County. Operation Underground Railroad is an organization that fights to save children from human and sex trafficking.
The UCSO said they conducted an undercover operation in July 2018 using the training, equipment and funding from this grant, and as a result, they were able to identify a 16-year-old Utah County juvenile who was a victim of human trafficking. The UCSO said that the juvenile is now living with family and receiving services.
During the operation, deputies and officers with the Lehi Police Department placed an ad on social media, and 18 different people responded to the ad, reportedly arranging to meet with people they believed to be prostitutes. Of those 18 people, charges of prostitution, a class B misdemeanor, and patronizing a prostitute, a class A misdemeanor were brought. According to the UCSO, those who were charged with prostitution were cited and released, and those who were charged with patronizing a prostitute were arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office requested additional grant funding in January, which were approved.
Another undercover operation was conducted last week, and 23 additional people were either arrested or cited, bringing the total number of arrests from the operations to 41 individuals.
Two of those arrests were announced Wednesday.
David Moss, 51, of Lehi was booked into the Utah County Jail on suspicion of exploiting a prostitute, a third-degree felony and misdemeanor charges of sexual battery, patronizing a prostitute and two counts of lewdness.
Moss reportedly answered an ad for prostitutes, telling undercover officers that he would help “manage” them. When he met with undercover officers, he reportedly grabbed one’s hand and forced her to touch his genitals outside of his pants and then exposed himself to the officers.
Moss was an active bishop in a Lehi ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to church officials. He has since been released from that position.
Also arrested as part of the operation was Richard Michael Martin, 29, of Riverton. Martin was booked into the Utah County Jail on nine counts of enticing a minor over the internet, all second-degree felonies.
Martin reportedly talked online to an undercover officer who he thought was a mother of 12- and 6-year-old girls. According to the UCSO, Martin told the officer that he wanted the young girls to perform oral sex on him and that he wanted to have other sexual contact with the 6-year-old girl.
The UCSO said Thursday that much of the evidence in the cases was collected using equipment and training that came from the grants from the Adobe Foundation.
“The Adobe Foundation and the Employee Action Teams at Adobe were crucial elements in Utah County Sheriff’s Office and Lehi Police Department being able to take these small steps toward eliminating human trafficking in our communities,” the UCSO said in a statement.
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