Utah County Attorney working to extradite teacher accused of abusing students

EAGLE MOUNTAIN — Details are emerging of the challenging road ahead to bring an Eagle Mountain teacher back to the U.S. to face charges. The teacher is accused of sexually abusing two of his students and is believed to have fled the country to Brazil.

Part of the challenge, the Utah County Attorney told KSL-TV, is they're familiar with trying to extradite suspects from Mexico, but they don't know where 39-year-old teacher Ricardo Prins is and have never worked with Brazil before. So, they believe it could be a long road ahead.

The charges against Prins are extensive, but one that prosecutors are committed to seeing through.

"It's sickening to me," Jeff Gray, Utah County Attorney, said.

Prins is accused of sexually abusing two of his teenage students at Rockwell Charter High School for the last four months, but as investigators began looking into it, they discovered Prins had already fled the country. The Utah County attorney has now started the process of bringing him back.

"We will be immediately taking the steps necessary to make that happen," he said.

Gray said they've now requested an arrest warrant, and next will contact the State Department to begin hunting him down, but doesn't know how long that will take.

"It isn't going to happen any time soon, as far as actually getting him here. How long that's going to be is really anyone's guess at this point," Gray said.

Despite the uncertainty, he wants parents at Rockwell to know he won't give up.

"I can only imagine as a parent what they're going through, their concerns," Gray said. "He preyed on two young girls. They were just teenagers. He's in a position of special trust to them, and he needs to be brought to justice."

The warrant the Utah County attorney is seeking could be signed by a judge as early as Thursday. That will kick start the process to begin finding Prins.

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