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DRAPER — A longtime elementary school teacher in St. George who is currently serving four consecutive terms of up to life in prison is now facing additional charges.
Curtis William Payne, 64, of Santa Clara, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with 13 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and rape of a child, both first-degree felonies.
Payne had worked in the Washington County School District for more than three decades at Sunset Elementary School and as a choir teacher at Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School at the time of his arrest in 2018.
Five victims initially came forward between December 2017 and February 2018, alleging that Payne had groped them in various school settings and at Payne's home, police said. He pleaded no contest to four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child in 2019 and was sentenced to four consecutive terms of 15 years to life in the Utah State Prison.
In his latest charges, Payne is accused of sexually abusing a young girl multiple times between 2014 and 2017. In some of the incidents, the girl was threatened or actually cut with a knife, and in other incidents, Payne used a ventriloquist doll to abuse her, according to charging documents.
"(The girl) stated that Payne used his 'Chucky doll' and 'Danny doll' to touch her," the charges state. "Payne would use voices for the dolls and say things like, 'let me touch you,' 'let me hurt you,' 'come play with me,' and 'I'll kill you.'"
Payne also cut the girl on several areas of her body with a knife, according to the charges.
