ST. GEORGE — A former employee of a southern Utah group home is accused of engaging in sexual relations with a teen boy.
Berenicse Irene Juarez, 19, of St. George, was arrested early Sunday and charged Monday in 5th District Court with kidnapping and two counts of sexual abuse of a child, second-degree felonies.
The investigation began Saturday night when an officer with the Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department found Juarez and a 17-year-old boy standing next to a car in a park after the park had closed, according to a police booking affidavit.
"It was later learned that the minor was a runaway from a local treatment center at a group home in St. George," the affidavit states. "Berenicse had been a staff member at the treatment center as a mentor for the juveniles and was assigned to the minors' group home."
Police then learned that Juarez had been fired from the group home last week for multiple reasons, including taking the teen boy out of the group home and engaging in sexual activity with him, according to the affidavit.
Juarez and the teen had made plans to "hang out" on the night they were discovered by police. The boy "jumped over the fence behind the group home, got into Berenicse's vehicle, and left," the affidavit states.
The name of the group home was not listed in the police booking document.
