SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Court of Appeals has reversed a sex offender’s conviction after they say prosecutors failed to notify him they’d charged him or were prosecuting him.
In to a 74-page document filed by the Utah Court of Appeals on Friday, Judge Ryan Harris said the appellant, Chad Hintze, wasn’t made aware of a charge against him for two years.
The charge, according to the documents, stemmed from an incident in June of 2016 in which Hintze and a teenage girl were eating and sitting on a park bench along the Jordan River Trail. Hintze and the girl were approached by three uniformed officers on bike patrol.
Hintze wasn’t permitted to be there because he was convicted of attempted unlawful sexual activity with a minor in 2011. He was required to register as a sex offender following that incident.
For the 2016 incident, Hintze was ultimately charged by the state with one count of violation by a sex offender of a protected area.
Judge Harris’ opinion in the documents goes on to say the state did not immediately file charges against Hintze.
In March of 2017, Hintze was charged with forcible sexual abuse, which is considered a second-degree felony. This incident happened in a separate and unrelated case. In August of 2017, Hintze was sentenced to a prison term of zero-to-five years based on that conviction.
“He should have spent separate times in jail for his two separate offenses,” said Danielle Ahn, a candidate for Salt Lake County District Attorney.
Instead, Ahn says, he was punished for just the incident that took place in 2017.
It’s something Ahn says is unacceptable.
“It’s an injustice to the defendant, it’s an injustice to the community and to the victim,” she said.
FOX 13 News sat down with Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill Monday afternoon. He said the 2016 case involving Hintze was filed in 2018, which is within the two-year statute of limitations.
“When this case was filed, he had apparently been gone to prison, so we filed the charges, we asked for a warrant,” said Gill.
Looking back on the case, Gill said Hintze was not served that warrant until the Board of Pardons was reviewing his case, while Hintze was housed in Kane Cou
Arrgg. I am SO tired of that BS statistic made up by RAINN. If the “assault goes unreported” then HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW IT EVEN HAPPENED?!! You can’t BECAUSE IT WENT UNREPORTED!
“The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network show that more than two out of every three sexual assaults go unreported,”
And how exactly do they show that? They’ve made the claim for years, but is there anything to support it?
Regarding this story, I fully agree with the UTCOA. There’s nothing new about DAs dragging their feet to prosecute certain crimes. In this case, it looks like they deliberately waited until the accused was about to be released on a different case before prosecuting a previous registry violation became so urgent.
The headline is misleading. This isn’t a case of prosecution error. This is a case of prosecutor malpractice. It’s a damn shame the court didn’t see it as such, though I bet they would have if the underlying charges were anything but sexual or registry offenses.
I can’t be in this guy’s side because he’s one of the reasons we are all stuck on registries for a single victim crime and so many people in the general public believe that we can’t control ourselves and continue to re-offend.
I still agree with the appellate court reasoning however I can’t and won’t defend his actions.
First we get No knock warrants.
This case evidences No knock indictments.
Consider these facts with what Mr. Snowdens’ original complaint was about the behavior of electronic surveillance saints and the storage of information data.
I’m confused by the DA’s comment regarding the presence violation. Who’s the victim here that this is an injustice that he wasn’t prosecuted for it?
“It’s an injustice to the defendant, it’s an injustice to the community and to the victim,” she said.
Its about vengeance and a well known scientist /engineer /author Bernardo Kastrup in conversation with spiritual teacher of mainly non duality Rupert Spira touch on that subject not being crime specific but on how the U.S justice system is become not just about punishment but how its become a system of vengeance which he does not agree with and explains why the segment is called If Non-Duality Is True, What Does It Mean for Us? its two parts and what i am talking about is in part 2 called vengeance and force it comes at 22:02 if interested and you dont want to listen to the whole thing
“It’s an injustice to the defendant, it’s an injustice to the community and to the victim,” said Danielle Ahn, a candidate for Salt Lake County District Attorney.
Wait? My reading suggests the victim, in the 2016 incident, was “a park bench along the Jordan River Trail.” 🤔🤨😒
Am I wrong?? 🙃