A Payson police officer is under criminal investigation for allegedly having a sexual affair with a student at the school where he worked.
A recently unsealed search warrant affidavit says Glen Carlson, 46, had a sexual relationship with a student at Payson High School, where he worked as a school resource officer.
The warrant, which was executed April 27, says there is evidence to charge Carlson with rape of a minor by an adult in a position of trust. Charges have not been filed.
An internal investigation was opened April 16 by Sgt. Noemi Sandoval, and Pleasant Grove police opened a criminal investigation the next day.
Efforts to reach Carlson were unsuccessful.
Sandoval confirmed Wednesday that the investigation is ongoing and that Carlson was placed on administrative leave immediately after the conduct was reported. She did not know whether it was paid leave.
Because the investigation is in progress, Sandoval declined to comment further.
The affidavit states that Sandoval was contacted by the 17-year-old victim’s mother, who had recently talked with her daughter about sex. She said the girl told her she had sex with her boyfriend, but the mother wasn’t aware that she had one.
The victim then told her mother that she had sex with Carlson, and that they love each other. The girl said Carlson doesn’t love his wife, and that once she turns 18, she will be able to be with Carlson. The affidavit says the relationship had been going on for a year.
The victim asked her mother to not say anything, but after the woman conferred with her husband, she contacted Sandoval, about 10 days after her daughter reported the affair.
In an interview with Sandoval, the victim denied the allegations.
Sgt. Shawn Nielson of Pleasant Grove police headed up the criminal investigation. Payson Police Chief Brad Bishop told him that on Feb. 11, Carlson asked to meet with him.
Carlson told Bishop that in the process of investigating an assault between two high school girls, the affidavit states, one of them asked Carlson whether he was going to face charges for his relationship with the victim.
Carlson told Bishop he did not have an inappropriate relationship with the victim, but that she gravitated toward him and saw him as a person who offered support. He said he had given her rides to and from school occasionally but had not notified dispatch, which department policy requires. He said he had no physical contact with the teen.
There was a rumor he had filmed the victim and her friend wrestling while they were handcuffed in his office, he told Bishop, but that rumor was not true, he said.
As Nielson investigated the allegations, the affidavit states, he learned that Payson High School Principal RaShel Shepherd had noticed that the victim was often in Carlson’s office.
Sandoval talked to Santaquin police Officer Mark Bell, a Utah County deputy, who said he saw Carlson in his car at a Walmart with a teen girl a couple of times.
Bell also said he had recently seen Carlson’s car at a diner in Santaquin. Shortly after seeing the car, Bell got a call from Carlson, asking for help at the diner.
The victim, who worked there, had called Carlson about a suspicious man, he told Bell. Carlson asked Bell to help get the man to leave, which he did.
The next evening, Bell told Sandoval, he was driving in Santaquin when a man darted across the street in front of his car and ran toward a car parked at the diner in the same location where the victim told Bell she parks her car. The man was Carlson. Bell said he did not see whether Carlson got in the car.
Santaquin Cpl. Mike Wall told Sandoval that on Jan. 16, he saw a Payson police car parked near the Santaquin Library. He pulled up to chat when he noticed Carlson was in the car, all the lights off, with what looked like a teen girl.
The girl was the one who is linked to Carlson. Wall told Sandoval the victim and Carlson were acting nervous, and he felt he shouldn’t leave them. The victim eventually left, saying she had to go back to work. Carlson told Wall she was an informant.
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