ST. GEORGE — Police have arrested a man they allege had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old runaway from a center for troubled teens.
Police said the girl was allowed to leave the Cinnamon Hills youth crisis center to visit her family earlier this month and ran away from them. She contacted a 25-year-old staff member of the center, officers said.
"They were friends and she called him and they went and had a sexual encounter that afternoon," St. George Police Sgt. Craig Harding said Thursday.
The girl was returned to her parents several hours later. During their investigation, police said the girl disclosed the sexual encounter. Harding said the man then corroborated it. The man was booked into the Purgatory Jail on investigation of unlawful sexual conduct by a person in a position of trust.
Police said there is no evidence the two had a sexual relationship while the girl was at the center.