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Richard Jenks Jr., a former member of the Ute Indian Tribe's Executive and Legislative Council, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on child sexual abuse charges.
The four-count indictment was unsealed late Thursday in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court. Jenks, 58, originally had been charged in Fort Duchesne-based Ute Tribal Court last October. The allegations stemmed from sexual encounters with a girl, purportedly under age 12 when the contacts began in 2009.
The abuse, allegedly including intercourse, continued into 2014, prosecutors claim.
Specifically, Jenks — who was first elected to the tribal council in 2003 and ended his most recent term in 2013 — has been indicted on two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and two counts of sexual abuse of a minor while within the boundaries of eastern Utah's Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
During his initial appearance on Thursday, U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Brooke C. Wells ordered Jenks, who has pleaded not guilty, to be held in federal custody until he can be placed in a Salt Lake-area halfway house pending trial, tentatively set for April 24.
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