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LEHI — A Utah County man who police say was caught stealing children's socks at a West Jordan trampoline park was later found to have child sex abuse material on his electronic devices.
Rolland Edward Brown, 63, was charged Tuesday in 4th District Court with eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; and witness tamping, a third-degree felony.
On July 24 of last year, police were called to the Rush Funplex, 7323 S. Jordan Landing Boulevard, on a report of a man "sniffing little girls' socks, taking the little girls' socks into the bathroom with him and stealing the little girls' socks," according to charging documents.
"Along with the socks being stolen, Rolland was seen … taking multiple pictures of the children playing at the Rush Funplex," a police booking affidavit adds.
After identifying the man as Brown, police served a search warrant at his Lehi home in September and seized his electronic devices, the charges state.
"Because (his) devices were encrypted, accessing the data on the devices was a time-consuming process," according to the charges.
When law enforcers finally gained access to several of the devices in January, they found multiple files of child sex abuse material.
"Also on the device(s) are multiple photos of various children, seemingly strangers, ranging from 3 years old to teenagers trying on shoes at different shoe stores," charging documents state.
Investigators also learned after they served a search warrant, Brown told his wife "to lie to the court about receiving a copy of the search warrant" and "instructed her to lie so that he could fight the charges."
