St. George fugitive is 'serial abuser' whose cases keep getting dismissed, prosecutor says

ST. GEORGE — A Washington County prosecutor is expressing frustration over multiple dismissed domestic violence cases against a St. George man connected to a missing person's report of a mother and her three children.

At the same time, domestic violence resource advocates are explaining why this can happen in such complicated and nuanced cases.

Tuesday morning, St. George police declared the mother and three children, who are 9, 5, and 2 years old, missing. The post said the children were last seen with David Gene Remley and were considered endangered.

The department stated there was an active protective order between Remley, and the mother and children.

By early afternoon, police said the mother and children were found safe in Nevada and that Remley was in police custody.

The Humboldt County, Nevada, jail roster was updated around the same time to include Remley as an inmate, arrested as a fugitive from justice in another state.

'Our hands are tied'

Remley is no stranger to jail and no stranger to Deputy Washington County Attorney Rick Erickson.

"At different points over the last few years — the last three years — I've had many cases with Mr. Remley," Erickson said.

According to court documents online, there are more than half a dozen cases against Remley with charges including assault, domestic violence and violation of protective order involving four different victims.

Some of the cases involve domestic violence in the presence of children.

Erickson explained Remley is, "an individual who is a serial — in my opinion — a serial abuser."

Some of the cases ended with Remley convicted of the charges and one case is ongoing.

But three domestic violence cases involving children that Erickson worked on were completely dismissed. Two of them involved the same victim in 2022. The other involved a separate victim and was just dismissed a little more than a week ago.

In all three cases, Erickson explained, the victims who were the prosecution's key witnesses did not appear in court and had stopped communicating with victim advocates.

"We have to have the witness there to actually move forward, or else the case generally gets dismissed," he said.

He said he understands it's a scary, intimidating process involving victims being prone to cross-examination and direct examination. Not to mention facing an alleged abuser.

But without the cooperation of victim witnesses, he said it's extremely difficult, "if not impossible" to proceed.

"Our hands are tied when it goes to that stage, and we don't have a victim there to proceed, to hold somebody accountable for what they've done," he said.

'Nothing to do with legal merit'

Utah Domestic Violence Coalition communications specialist Kimmi Wolf said she feels for prosecutors when they don't have a witness willing to move forward.

"It has to be so frustrating," she said. "They want to help. They want to effect change."

She couldn't speak to the specific cases involving Remley, but explained how in general, domestic violence victims may have many different reasons for not continuing on with a case against an alleged perpetrator.

"There's a number of factors that have nothing to do with the actual legal merit of the case," Wolf said. "They might not have the legal standing. Another victim might be very reticent — doesn't want anything to do with the legal remedy for their situation."

She said a victim may lose their housing stability without that other person, and often face losing half of the household income, or their sole household income. The victim may not have any other child care options either, she explained.

"Many victims are unwilling to take all of their risk, including the potential of being homeless on the street with their children, unless they know two and three and four steps ahead what their future is going to look like," Wolf said.

Wolf talked about how hard it is to fathom what it would be like to face their abuser in the public setting of a court, and air out personal history.

"We don't know what it's like to face someone who has personally assaulted us for years, has threatened us, is possibly threatening our children," she said. "So much of what happens in a domestic violence situation — it is threats, it's nuance, it's financial abuse, it is power and control — things that don't really make an impact in the judicial system."

'A support system that believes'

Wolf explained that it's important to allow victims and survivors the freedom and trust to make the decision for themselves on whether to move forward in a court case.

"We need to be able to, one, start by believing them," she said. "But moving forward at their pace — what they want to have happen."

She encouraged family, friends, co-workers, employers and community members to be respectful of a victim and their choices, but to be involved in a way that builds a strong foundation and gives a victim time to choose without pressure.

"The biggest source of support for someone contemplating what to do is having a support system that believes them," she said.

With Remley again behind bars on a protection order violation arrest warrant, Erickson expressed that this is another chance at justice.

"I think he's done this so many times," Erickson said. "I will do whatever I can that's in my power as a prosecutor to hold that individual accountable to the full extent of the law."

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