GCHS substitute teacher charged with raping two teenage students
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Trace Wells
The Grand County Attorney’s office on Tuesday charged a local substitute teacher and assistant high school coach with multiple felony counts, including the rape of two teenage girls.
Trace D. Wells, 24, has been charged with two counts of rape and two counts of object rape, both first-degree felonies. He is also charged with two counts each of sexual exploitation of a minor, and enticing a minor over the Internet, and one count of forcible sexual abuse, all second-degree felonies.
The crimes allegedly occurred between April 1 and June 30 and involved two Grand County High School students, ages 15 and 16, according to documents filed in Moab’s 7th District Court by W. Brent Langston, an Emery County deputy attorney who is prosecuting the case for Grand County.
One of the alleged rapes occurred on either May 24 or May 25, and the other allegedly occurred on or about June 20, according to court documents. The forcible sexual abuse allegedly occurred on May 24 or May 25, and the alleged sexual exploitation occurred on or about May 22, court documents show. Wells allegedly used the Internet or text messages to entice one of the teenage girls between May 1 and June 15, and the other between April 1 and June 30, according to information filed with the court.
Wells served as an assistant coach and substitute teacher at Grand County High School in Moab since 2005, while he was still a college student, and was a student teacher at Grand County Middle School from Aug. 13, 2009 to Feb. 16, 2010, said Grand County School District secretary Becky McCormick.
“He is no longer an employee of the school district,” said school district superintendent Margaret Hopkin.
Court records show that Wells pleaded guilty in March 2007 to attempting to supply alcohol to minors. Charges related to that incident, which occurred in 2006, were adjudicated in Cedar City, Utah, where Wells was a college student at the time.
The Grand County School District fingerprinted Wells and conducted a background check on him in 2005, when he first began substitute teaching and coaching, and that check “came back clean,” Hopkin said.
“We had not received any information from his university or the police that there were any other charges later,” Hopkin said, adding that the school district is conducting a full investigation into the matter.
Because some sheriff’s department officials are related to the Wells family, the Utah County Sheriff’s Department was called in to assist with the investigation, said Sgt. Kim Neal of the Grand County Sheriff’s Office.
“There were too many conflicts there,” Neal said. “We wanted to have an unbiased agency come in and do the investigation.”
Wells was booked into the Grand County jail on Monday, July 12, following a monthlong investigation, and he remains in custody. He appeared in 7th District Court on Tuesday afternoon, July 13. At the request of Wells’ attorney, Earl Xais, Judge Lyle Anderson scheduled a preliminary hearing for Aug. 18 at 10 a.m.
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comments (2)
« badnewsbear wrote on Saturday, Jul 17 at 12:43 AM »
As I pondered and googled. Yes, it was your High School with a Teacher/Coach. And yes, that didn't turn out so good. I wonder however, it got alot less attention than this case. I wonder if it's because the ratio was a woman/girl, versus a man/girl sort of thing. It seems the men get the heat really put on them and rightfully so it they are quilty! but then why is it not the same for the same thing exactly, only the sex of the perputrator is not that of a man? Gee, does make a person stop and thing about it anyway's. Any one else see any connection? It really does matter doesn't it?
« badnewsbear wrote on Saturday, Jul 17 at 12:33 AM »
It seems there is a problem in the High School here in Moab. It seems to me there was another case here not to long ago involving a coach with a student. And that student ended up dying? because of the emotional abuse she suffered in the school and out and about in the communtity afterwards? Lets hope this isn't the case here, and the school takes precautions to help prevent this sort of thing in the future. Support the children this time. Give them the counseling they need, and perhaps home tutor them? or something else. Let's not have another suicide on the hands of the community because the children spoke up and said what had happened. Yes, Mr. Wells is innocent until proven guilty. But the girls will suffer the consequences in any event...PROTECT THE CHILDREN!
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