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MONTICELLO — More than a dozen felonies have been filed against a retired San Juan County sheriff's chief deputy accused of years of child sexual abuse.
Grayson W. Redd, 74, of Monticello, was charged Friday in 7th District Court with three counts of simulated rape of a child and three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, first-degree felonies; and eight counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
Prosecutors filed a motion for Redd's arrest warrant to be sealed until he was taken into custody, noting that he "is a prominent member of the rural county of San Juan. The defendant has deep family roots to San Juan County, is well-known among the locals, and is a retired chief deputy from the San Juan County Sheriff's Office. This is a case that the moment any information is made public, it will be instantly widespread across the news, both local and national."
Three boys who were "employed by Grayson Redd during the summer months" dating back to 2003 were abused, according to charging documents unsealed on Monday. The abuse happened over the course of a couple of years with each victim, the charges state, and the boys were primarily in their teens when the abuse occurred.
Redd retired from the sheriff's office in 2011.
"Due to the nature of this case, the position of the defendant in the community, and the prolonged duration of the charged behavior, the San Juan County Sheriff's Office and San Juan County Attorney's Office want to encourage anyone who may be a victim of Mr. Redd to contact San Juan County attorney victim advocate by email, kjensen@sanjuancounty.org or San Juan County Sheriff's Office, 435-587-2237, in order to be connected with any available resources for crime victims," the sheriff's office said in a statement over the weekend.
Grayson Redd is the father of Brian Redd, who is the executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections. Corrections spokesman Glen Mills gave a brief statement Monday, saying, "He and the family just heard about this and are trying to process what is happening."
Mills also added that the director "understands the criminal justice process and supports it moving forward."
