ST. GEORGE — The middle school counselor arrested in Mesquite last week has been returned to Washington County to face two first-degree felony charges filed Tuesday in 5th District Court in St. George.
The defendant, 54-year-old David Scott Curtis, has been charged with one first-degree felony count each of rape and forcible sodomy in a case filed Tuesday by the Washington County Attorney’s Office.
The case was filed following a report alleging the sexual crimes committed against a child, according to charging documents filed in support of the arrest.
During a forensic interview, investigators learned the defendant had sexually assaulted a child starting when the youngster was under the age of 10 — abuse that reportedly took place multiple times for several years until shortly before the suspect’s Mesquite arrest on an unrelated case, the report states.
Curtis, who was living in Littlefield, Arizona, was arrested March 21 at Charles A. Hughes Middle School in Mesquite, which is where was employed as a school counselor. He was then booked into the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early Tuesday morning, Curtis was extradited back to Utah and was booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility on the first-degree felony charges. He is being held without bail, based on safety concerns for the victims, “as there have been multiple victims,” detectives noted in the request.
Investigators also noted that similar incidents involving the defendant have been reported “in multiple states” and it is likely there are “other victims as well.”
The defendant has retained Christopher Salcido, who filed an appearance in the case on Tuesday.
The investigation is ongoing, Mitchell said during the interview last week, and asked that anyone who may have witnessed crimes involving Curtis to contact St. George Police Detective Zackary Bate at 435-627-4319 or by email at [email protected].
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders 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, 2024, all rights reserved.