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| Nyman Funeral Home |
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| Lonnie Nyman |
A local funeral director was arrested Tuesday for exchanging nude photos with a Cache Valley youth and attempting to meet up with the boy for sex earlier this year — and a Logan attorney has been charged with obstruction of justice for not turning over evidence in her possession to investigators.
Lonnie Kent Nyman of Millville, 44, was charged in 1st District Court with sexual exploitation of a minor, dealing in material harmful to a minor, enticing a minor, tampering with a witness, and obstruction of justice.
He was booked into the Cache County Jail on Tuesday, and the Utah Attorney General’s Office has requested bail in the amount of $100,000.
“Lonnie Nyman poses a significant threat to the community, especially children,” the Utah Attorney General’s Office stated in court documents. “He enticed a child over the internet, received child pornography, and tried to convince his victim to lie to protect him while he destroyed evidence of the crime.”
Nyman, the owner of Nyman Funeral Home in Providence, was arrested six months after the Cache County Sheriff’s Office received a phone call from Logan attorney Tess Davis, who told investigators that one of her clients sent her electronic files that may contain child pornography.
While Davis made the initial report, officials say she balked when the time came to present the information to detectives.
According to a probable cause statement attached to her case, Davis reportedly told the detective that “the evidence was ‘protected by attorney-client privilege’ and advised she would not be turning it over.”
Davis then demanded that the detective quit trying to contact her or her client, the document states.
The Cache County Sheriff’s Office wrote a search warrant for Davis’ office, and she reportedly continued to put up a fight. Investigators say she finally copied eight files from her computer to a thumb drive but claimed she did not have possession of an iPad suspected to contain evidence.
Then, just a short time later, she allegedly admitted that she did in fact have the iPad and its password, and that was turned over to police as well.
When detectives reviewed the iPad and photos, they reportedly discovered video footage of Nyman engaged in various sex acts with unknown males who appeared to be from the ages of 15 to 20.
In the probable cause statement attached to Nyman’s case, officials say he used a social media app commonly employed to solicit sexual encounters to message the alleged under-aged victim in March. He allegedly traded nude photos with the youth and shared a pornographic video with the boy as well.
Nyman is also accused of arranging a meeting with the boy and making plans for sexual activity, but the boy reportedly became uncomfortable and left before anything took place, the probable cause statement said.
A few weeks later, after the videos were discovered, Nyman reportedly reached out to the boy to let him know the police may be contacted, and he asked the boy to lie on his behalf.
According to the Cache County Attorney’s Office, this case was turned over to the Utah Attorney General’s Office when it became clear that Davis was not going to cooperate in the investigation.
Court records indicate that Nyman has retained defense attorney Wayne Caldwell to represent him in court, although a court date has not been set at this time.
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