A member of Utah's most popular morning radio team was charged with lewdness involving a child after being arrested earlier this week for allegedly exposing himself to a 6-year-old girl.
Kenneth Simmons, 30, Kaysville, was charged with the class A misdemeanor Thursday morning in 3rd Circuit Court. The charges come three days after Simmons was arrested at the ZCMI store in the South Towne Mall in Sandy.Sandy Det. B.J. Small and Salt Lake County prosecutors reviewed a videotape of the incident taken by security cameras in ZCMI's toy department before filing the charges Thursday.
Simmons, who along with Richard Cano are KKAT's "Morning Guys," was arrested after a store employee watched a man expose his genitals in front of a 6-year-old girl who was reading books in the store.
The employee, Patricia Larsen, told police the man exposed his genitals and "stood in plain view of anyone who would have been around."
The 6-year-old had her back to the man and did not see him, a Sandy police report said, but the man walked toward the girl, stood two feet behind her and exposed his genitals again. The girl then turned and faced the man. The child walked away and Larsen detained the man, the report said.
After being read his Miranda rights, Simmons said the whole incident was a "misunderstanding" and that he was "rearranging himself" and did not intend to or know that he had exposed himself.
Simmons told the Deseret News he was just tucking in his shirt.
"It was probably not a wise thing to do that there . . . I'm definitely not guilty of that charge," he said the day after the arrest. Simmons was booked into jail and released minutes later to pretrial services, where he was ordered to check in daily and complete a psychological evaluation.
Simmons will be arraigned on the charges Jan. 19 in 3rd District Court. If convicted, Simmons faces up to a year in jail and up to $2,500 in fines. KKAT general manager said Simmons had voluntarily taken a leave of absence until the matter is resolved.
Simmons and Cano started working together as the "Morning Guys" in the fall of 1990. Cano is on vacation until Monday.