Charges of aggravated sexual abuse against a Salt Lake man were ordered dismissed for insufficient evidence Tuesday in 2nd District Court after review of a new videotaped interview with the victim.
Judge Douglas L Cornaby ordered the charge, a first-degree felony, against David R. Krogh, 40, of 3666 S. Caroline St., dismissed on a motion by prosecutor Brian Namba of the Davis County attorney's office.Defense attorney Walter Bugden asked that the charge be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be filed again.
Cornaby said a criminal case cannot be dismissed with prejudice without first going to trial but also said after personally viewing the videotaped interview and reviewing the evidence, he doesn't see any charges being filed without significant new evidence.
Krogh was charged April 6, 1987, with sexually abusing a young girl in 1986 in Centerville. He fled the state before being arrested and was picked up six months later in California, then extradited to Utah.
Krogh has a prior conviction for forcible sodomy of a child and was sentenced to 1 to 15 years in the state prison in December 1978, according to court records.
Bugden said at a pre-trial hearing his client feared, because of his prior conviction, that he was being set up for another conviction as a ploy in a domestic relations case and fled the state.
Because of his prior conviction, the charge against Krogh was elevated from simple sexual abuse to aggravated sexual abuse, a first-degree felony carrying a prison term of 5 years to life and a minimum mandatory term of 5, 10 or 15 years.