Utah Teacher Engaged In Explicit Conversations With 13-Year-Old Girl, Sent Her Videos Of Himself Masturbating

A high school teacher in Utah was arrested Monday (April 27) for sexually enticing a 13-year-old girl on the internet.

The accused, identified as 37-year-0ld Jared Wayne Briggs, taught Maths at West Valley City high school. According to the probable cause statement, Deputy William Smith took part in an undercover operation in March this year in which he posed as a minor girl on an app called Whisper.

According to the statement, the man contacted the deputy and said he was a Math teacher. The man went on to contact the deputy several times in the next few days thinking it was the 13-year-old girl. The accused then asked the girl for photos of her innerwear and over the few days, the man sent videos of himself masturbating.

Following this, the deputy along with the other members of the FBI Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force obtained search warrants. This led them to Briggs. The accused was taken into custody from his home and brought to the Weber County Sheriff’s Office in Ogden. During interrogation, the accused confessed to the crime and said he was addicted to pornography.

He faces multiple charges including enticing a minor by internet or text and dealing in materials harmful to a minor. He was booked into the Weber County Jail on $30,000 bail.

Meanwhile, following the arrest, Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley said the accused, who was hired last fall, has been placed on administrative leave as the district was conducting an internal investigation into the incident.

In a similar incident in March, a teacher in Arizona was arrested for trying to lure a teen boy for sex. Kenneth Allen Echols chatted with an undercover investigator, who was posing as a 14-year-old, on Grindr. The 43-year-old teacher engaged in explicit conversations despite knowing that the person he was chatting with was a minor. The accused also invited the boy home. The two then decided to meet in a park where he was arrested. During interrogation, the teacher said he thought the undercover investigator was 18 years old. Investigation revealed that the accused engaged in explicit conversation with several other teenage boys.