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DRAPER — A former high school ballroom dance coach in Utah was charged Monday with sexually abusing a student.
Ryley Conrad Connelley, 26, of Mason City, Iowa, is charged in 3rd District Court with two counts of rape, forcible sodomy and object rape, all first-degree felonies.
Between 2018 and 2019, Connelley was a 16-year-old girl's ballroom dancing coach at a Salt Lake County high school. Police say the two started exchanging private messages on Snapchat. Connelley also gave private lessons in Lehi. Connelley sexually assaulted the girl at the studio, and the two would also often meet up in a parking lot in Draper, where more abuse happened, according to charging documents.
"Connelly was fired from the high school due to accusations of inappropriate conduct with another student," the charges state.
When Draper police questioned Connelley about his involvement with the then-16-year-old girl, he "admitted that he had been in a sexual relationship with 'one of the students,'" the charges allege.
Court documents do not name the high school, but a spokesman for the Canyons School District confirmed that the district "terminated the employment of Ryley C. Connelly, who was working in the capacity of a ballroom dance adviser, on Jan. 9, 2019. He was terminated for violating Canyons District's policy governing appropriate student-employee relationships. He began his part-time employment with the district in July 2017."
