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A former Iron County school counselor has been sentenced to 30 days in jail after admitting he inappropriately touched seven woman and accessed pornography while on school grounds.
Samuel Naim El-Halta, 40, of Enoch, was charged last year in Cedar City's 5th District Court with seven counts of sexual battery and 10 counts of accessing pornography while on school property.
Last week, El-Halta — who counseled 7th and 8th graders at Cedar Middle School — pleaded guilty to all seven of the sexual battery counts and two of the pornography counts.
The charges are all class A misdemeanors, each punishable by up to one year in jail.
Judge Keith Barnes sentenced El-Halta to 30 days in jail — to be served in 48-hour increments at the Juab County jail. As part of 24-month probation, El-Halta must pay a $1,137 fine.
Police learned in November 2014 that El-Halta had accessed the porn, according to a Cedar City police news release.
El-Halta was fired the same month, said Jennifer Wood, director of secondary education for Iron County School District.
Investigators searched El-Halta's computer and found at least 10 pornographic images, according the police news release. During the investigation, seven women were also "identified as having been touched inappropriately by El-Halta," the release adds.
"The inappropriate touching was generally described as touching of breasts or buttocks over their clothing," according to the release. "These incidents occurred over the course of several months during El-Halta's routine encounters with the victims."
The encounters happened at the school, but none of the victims were students, and "there was no evidence presented that suggests any students were ever victimized by El-Halta," according to the release.
El-Halta had been with the school district for seven years, Wood said.