CEDAR CITY — A man accused of sexually assaulting a coworker in rural Iron County in the fall of 2021 recently was extradited from Idaho to face charges in connection with the incident.
Miguel Angel Leon Gomez, 27, was booked into Iron County Jail in Cedar City on June 22. He faces one count each of rape, forcible sodomy and object rape — all first-degree felonies — and one count of forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony.
According to the probable cause statement filed in 5th District Court by an Iron County Sheriff’s investigator on April 20, Gomez is accused of raping and sodomizing an adult female coworker early one morning inside a shed at their workplace in Paragonah sometime in late October or early November 2021.
According to the affidavit, the woman promptly reported the incident to supervisors, who then terminated Gomez’s employment. Gomez “immediately” moved out of state, but in January 2023, detectives were able to locate Gomez living in Jerome, Idaho.
“The Jerome City Police Department was contacted and a courtesy interview of Gomez was conducted,” the affidavit states.
Although Gomez reportedly claimed he and the woman had been in a relationship for approximately three or four months, he was unable to provide officers with her name, referring to her only as “guera,” which is Spanish slang for “white girl.”
“Gomez explained that in the early hours of the day on which he was confronted with these allegations, he and ‘guera’ had consensual sex,” the affidavit states.
Gomez, who remains held without bail in Iron County Jail as of June 30, made his initial court appearance June 27 before 5th District Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen. His next scheduled court date is a preliminary hearing and detention review July 11.
This report is based on statements from court documents and law enforcement officials and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.