PROVO — Criminal allegations against a Provo "proctor parent" have swelled to include 10 felony charges and possibly more.
Samuel David Seager, 33, was arrested Sunday on a $50,000 cash-only warrant from the Utah Attorney General's Office for 10 charges of sexual exploitation of a minor, based on pornographic videos found on his computer involving children.
The exploitation charges were filed Jan. 11 by the Utah Attorney General's Office, but they hadn't been able to locate him, thus the warrant, said Provo Police Capt. Cliff Argyle.
Once Seager was booked into jail, Provo detective Mark Peterson added allegations of forcible sex abuse and sexual abuse of a child to Seager's booking list.
In December, Peterson got information from the Division of Child and Family Services that parents were concerned about their 17-year-old daughter.
She revealed to officials that she had been sexually abused by their next-door neighbor, Seager, for five years beginning when she was 11, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in 4th District Court.
Multiple times a week, while at her house and his, Seager would allegedly touch the girl's genitals and make her touch his, according to the affidavit.
She also said he took nude photos of her and that he "told her not to tell anyone and gave her stuffed animals, flowers and collectible dolls for not telling," according to the affidavit.
During a bail hearing Tuesday morning via video screen in 4th District Court, Seager denied initiating contact with the victim via e-mail; he said he only responded to her e-mails.
He also said he tried to contact law enforcement to figure out what was going on and that he had "every desire to get this solved."
It was while Peterson was doing a background check on Seager that he ran across Seager's arrest in November 2006.
That's when the Utah Attorney General's Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force found pornographic videos of children on the Web and linked them to Seager's computer, according to a statement of probable cause filed in 4th District Court.
During a search at his Provo home at the time of the 2006 arrest, police found Seager, his computer and several teenage boys who told police they were foster children.
Two employees of the Division of Child and Family Services were at the home as well, conducting a monthly home visit on the children, according to the statement of probable cause. The boys were taken out of the home and into state custody.
Seager was arrested that day after declining to talk about the videos on his computer.
Lengthy forensic testing — finished in October 2007 — found 40 videos on the hard drive depicting children being raped by adults, according to the statement. That led to the charges filed Jan. 11.
At this point, the two cases are unrelated, but Provo officials will be reviewing evidence collected by the Attorney General's Office, Argyle said.
Police are also still investigating the possibility of more victims.
"I think anytime you have somebody who's willing to victimize children, they're not going to be concerned about how many victims they have," Argyle said. "It's taken a little while to get him into custody; there's a very distinct possibility there could be other victims."
Seager was not a foster parent but a "proctor parent" through Youth Health Associates, a group that works through the state.
He wasn't individually licensed through the state but had to complete background checks and training through YHA. Messages left for YHA were not returned Tuesday.
Seager has an open case with Child Protective Services that has been open since December 2007, said Liz Sollis, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services.
The open case means they work with law enforcement to coordinate interviews with, and provide any necessary services to, the alleged victim and their family.
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com