Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Paul Parker said Monday he doesn't doubt David James Gomez, 58, committed the abuse.

But Parker explained his prosecution was frustrated by the state's definition of sexual abuse of a "child," someone younger than 14 years of age; the time limits on prosecuting sex crime cases; and by Gomez's day planner records.

"It's not about whether or not it occurred. . . . It's the time frame," Parker told 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton during a hearing Monday.

Gomez, who was charged with three counts of sodomy on a child and three counts of child sexual abuse, was accused of abusing a boy on many occasions in 1989 and 1990 after the boy sought counseling from him at the age of 13. The alleged victim did not report the abuse until 2004.

By that time, a four-year legal deadline to prosecute Gomez for adult sex crimes had already passed. Gomez, who was an administrator for the Utah Department of Corrections, was instead charged under a 1991 law allowing child sex crime charges to be filed within four years of when an adult victim reports them, regardless of when they occurred.

Although the alleged victim in the case against Gomez says he can recall the events, he is less clear about the exact dates they occurred, according to court documents. Parker said in court he had hoped to use information from a witness who kept a journal entry to prove Gomez sexually abused the victim in the spring of 1989 before his 14th birthday.

But Gomez produced old day planner entries and correspondence that placed doubt on whether the abuse occurred during that time frame, Parker told the court Monday.

Lawmakers this year extended the deadline to file charges of rape from four to eight years after the alleged crime. But Parker said that extension would not have helped in this case, because the victim came forward about 14 years after the alleged abuse.

Only increasing the age of a child under Utah's child sex crime laws could have helped his case, Parker said.

For the alleged victim's family, who were present in court, Monday's hearing was a painful experience with justice denied. They said they were frustrated with the circumstances of the case and what the victim himself called state laws "that inadequately protect our children."

"Our family came forward with these allegations to protect other potential victims and to seek justice for past victims and their families," said the victim in a written statement. "Although the outcome did not meet our full expectations, we achieved partial satisfaction by alerting our community to the existence of this individual and raising awareness of others like him who live among us. The past 18 months of intense scrutiny and involvement of our entire family still pales in comparison to the lifelong damage a pedophile can cause."

A second victim also came forward to allege Gomez had repeatedly abused him as well, according to court documents. Gomez was never charged with the alleged crimes as that victim was clearly 14 when the events supposedly occurred and prosecution deadlines had already passed, the documents said.

Gomez's defense attorney, Mark Moffat, said the Gomez case is a rare one because criminal defenses involving time limits do not come along very often.

"The statutes of limitation are there for a reason," Moffat said. "They are there to provide some fairness and finality in people's lives. It becomes incredibly difficult for people to defend against criminal actions in cases where years have elapsed."

Gomez, the former director of Utah Correctional Industries at the Utah State Prison, was fired a year ago after the abuse charges were filed. It was unclear Monday whether Gomez could get his job back now that the charges have been dismissed.