Sex-abuse case expands

PROVO — A judge decided Thursday that a 38-year-old Orem man will be tried in court for what prosecutors are calling one of Utah County's most far-reaching child sex-abuse cases.

During a hearing Thursday in Provo's 4th District Court, several alleged victims testified Carl Jensen sexually abused them.

Although Jensen is charged with molesting seven children between 1990 and 1997, investigators say as many as two dozen child victims have told them the Orem man abused them, too.

Families of the children said Jensen may not have been prosecuted if the Utah County Child Sex Crime Task Force and Utah County Attorney's Office had not started investigating.

Some parents are angry at Orem's Department of Public Safety for reportedly failing to take seriously early complaints from eight alleged victims.

One mother, whose two teenage daughters testified Thursday, said she went to Orem police several years ago with allegations that Jensen had molested her children. "They just brushed me off and sent me away."

Orem attorney Chris Dexter, who represents many of the alleged victims, said his investigation revealed that Orem failed to act on eight complaints filed against Jensen.

"They just told the family to go and get some counseling," he said.

Orem Police Lt. Doug Edwards said all of the complaints received by the department were probed. Results were forwarded to the county attorney's office, "but for whatever reason, they were never prosecuted."

Edwards said the task force was able to prosecute Jensen because it had information gathered during Orem's investigation.

Edwards said the source of rumors about Orem's treatment of the case may stem from the disclosure of an Orem detective that he was Jensen's friend. The detective immediately recused himself from the investigation when the complaints were filed, Edwards said.

Deputy Utah County Attorney Mariane O'Bryant said complaints filed in 1990 and 1991 could not be prosecuted. Under Utah law, a sex crime must be prosecuted within four years of the alleged crime being reported to a law-enforcement agency.

But O'Bryant said there were still enough victims to file more than a dozen felony counts against Jensen.

Jensen faces 13 first and second-degree felony counts of sodomy upon a child, sex abuse of a child and aggravated sex abuse of a child.