Ex-West Jordan officer pleads guilty to sex charges

SALT LAKE CITY — Just last week, Nelson Tuatagaloa stood before a judge and predicted in a confident voice that he was ready for his three-day jury trial to go forward.

But on Tuesday when the trial was supposed to begin, the former West Jordan police officer choked back tears as he admitted that he sexually mistreated a suicidal woman he was supposed to be taking to a hospital for a mental evaluation.

Tuatagaloa, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of custodial sexual relations, a third-degree felony, for engaging in sexual activity twice with the woman in his squad car in the parking lot of Jordan Valley Hospital. He was originally charged with two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.

He will be sentenced March 25.

Tuatagaloa was on duty Sept. 30, 2008, when he responded to a call regarding the woman, who was sitting in her car, distraught over family and personal problems, and threatening to kill herself. She had been drinking and had a gun in the car.

Tuatagaloa put her in the front of his squad car and took her to the hospital, according to court records, but eventually he took the handcuffs off, drove to a dark part of the hospital parking lot and twice engaged in sex acts with the woman without her consent.

Tuatagaloa later resigned from the department.

— Linda Thomson