A Cedar City man was arrested last Wednesday on Southern Utah University campus after he allegedly showed up to engage in sexual activity with whom he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Campus police arrested Jared Goudy Hatch, 30, on one count of attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony. On Wednesday, Hatch was booked into Iron County Jail shortly before midnight.
According to the probable cause statement, two men were working with an organization called Predator Poachers and contacted police and informed them to respond to the Bell Tower on SUU campus. The men from the organization had confronted Hatch at the location before they contacted law enforcement.
“Jared then admitted to SUU officers that he had been attempting to meet this female juvenile he knew was 13 years old for the purpose of performing sexual acts,” The arresting officer wrote in the probable cause affidavit. Hatch’s phone was also seized as evidence.
The affidavit continues, “The males from ‘Predator Poachers’ provided all applicable information to officers, including phone conversations, text exchanges, photos, and all other applicable information, including body camera footage of their initial contact with Jared.”
Hatch is being held at the Iron County Jail without bail as of Friday morning. A court date has not yet been set.
The organization Predator Poachers was founded by Alex Rosen in 2019 in Houston, Texas. They specialize in sting operations to catch alleged child predators. They say they have caught predators in all 50 states.
Author: Andrew Streeter
Photo courtesy of the Cedar City Police Department
Editor: Hannah Clove
news@suunews.net
