A 40-year-old man is facing a total of 19 felony counts in Tooele and Uintah counties related to the alleged sexual abuse of children.

In 3rd District Court in Tooele, Peter Joseph Muehe is charged with one count of rape of a child, one count of aggravated sex abuse of a child and 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. In 8th District Court in Vernal, Muehe is charged with three counts of sex abuse of a child and three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

According to court records, a Tooele police officer working with the Utah Attorney General's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force found evidence that Muehe had downloaded or distributed images of child pornography using his Internet address.

The officer met with Muehe on Oct. 15 and received consent to run a scan of his computer. The scan allegedly located images of child pornography.

After obtaining a warrant to search the computer, the officer said he found multiple images of child pornography, including at least 50 photographs of Muehe with three children in Uintah County.

"In some of the photographs Peter Muehe was fully dressed," Uintah County sheriff's deputy Stephanie Cox wrote in a probable cause statement. "As the photographs progressed, Peter Muehe took off his pants."

Cox, who also works with the Internet crimes task force, wrote that Muehe undressed at least one child in the photos and held her in a manner that exposed her genitals to the camera.

"Peter was not wearing pants in these photographs," the deputy wrote.

Uintah County sheriff's investigators were able to identify the three children in the photos as relatives of Muehe's. It is unclear whether those same children are also the alleged victims in the Tooele County case.

The cases in Tooele and Uintah counties are not the first time Muehe has been accused of sexually abusing children.

In November 1994, he was charged in Salt Lake's 3rd District Court with first-degree felony sex abuse of a child. The case was later dismissed.

Two years later, Muehe was charged with five first-degree felony counts of rape of a child and one second-degree felony count of sex abuse of a child. That case was dismissed as well after a judge found there was no probable cause to support the charges.

Muehe remains in the Tooele County Jail on $580,000 bail.

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E-mail: geoff@ubstandard.com