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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Armando Flores, a West Jordan man who served as a church leader years ago, is facing charges of raping a teen in his congregation.
- Flores allegedly abused the girl in 2002, exploiting his position of trust.
- Authorities have been unable to locate Flores, who is considered a flight risk.
WEST JORDAN — A West Jordan man was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting a teenage girl when he was a local church leader more than 20 years ago.
Armando Flores, 69, is charged in 3rd District Court with two counts of rape and object rape, first-degree felonies.
Flores was convicted of sexual battery in 2012 in another case that involved a 17-year-old girl from his congregation, charging documents state. He was sentenced to what worked out to be four months in jail and was placed on three years of probation.
The woman in the new case told police she was sexually assaulted by Flores between 2002 and 2004 when she was 14 years old.
She told investigators that her family had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Utah. “Flores was the local (branch) president and was quite prevalent in (the teen’s) life,” the charging documents state.
He is accused of sexually assaulting the teen at his residence, while teaching her to drive and after taking her away from school to a park.
The teen later wrote a letter to Flores “thanking him for the things he had done for her family, but confronted him on sexually assaulting her,” the charges state, adding that Flores told her that he “put her letter in a box where he keeps his ‘naughty treasures’ that he keeps hidden from his wife,” the charges say.
The charges were filed on Feb. 20 but kept under seal as police looked for him. His warrant was unsealed Tuesday so it could “be made available to all airports and border crossings,” as investigators have been unable to locate him and believe he is a flight risk.
“The youth in our community should be able to trust the adults in their lives. We are here to help them flourish as they grow into adulthood, not hurt them and take advantage of their trust. We appreciate the courage the victim-survivor had to come forward. We will provide her with all the support this office can offer,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said on Tuesday. “If you have been a victim of a crime or know someone who has, please report it so it can be investigated. Once it is investigated it can be prosecuted, and the offender can be held accountable. You don’t have to suffer in silence.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.