This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Four days after posting bail in one child sex abuse case involving a young girl, an Orem man allegedly molested another child.
Orem police Lt. Craig Martinez said Tuesday that 18-year-old Nicholas Simmonds was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail on suspicion of lewdness involving a child, a class A misdemeanor. He allegedly pulled down the panties of a 6-year-old neighbor girl.
Simmonds had been arrested on May 24 and jailed on suspicion of three second-degree felony counts of sex abuse of a child involving a different 6-year-old girl. Prosecutors allege he had taken the girl from her yard to a nearby secluded spot and fondled her several times through her clothing.
Bail on that arrest — since reinstated — was $20,000, which Simmonds had initially posted last Thursday.
Martinez said that upon release, Simmonds returned to his home and then on Monday, Orem officers were called to his neighborhood on the new allegation.
"Four days out of jail and he is suspected of victimizing another little girl. We arrested him again," Martinez said, adding that police decided to release information on the cases out of concern for public safety.
Because Simmonds has not yet been tried and convicted in the first case, and his second case is a misdemeanor, police are worried he likely will again be released — and return to the same neighborhood where he allegedly molested the girls.
"We just want the public to be aware," Martinez said.
Twitter: @remims