Van driver charged with sexually abusing 2 girls, including teen with special needs - East Idaho News
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Van driver charged with sexually abusing 2 girls, including teen with special needs

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Editor’s note: This story has been updated with more details from court documents. Reader discretion is advised.

IDAHO FALLS — An Idaho Falls man has been charged with sexually abusing two teenagers, including a high school student with special needs whom he was assigned to drive to physical therapy as part of his employment.

Michael Carter, 29, is charged with lewd or lascivious acts with a minor child 16 or 17 years old, lewd conduct with a child under 16 and two counts of possessing sexually exploitative material.

In the first case, the victim’s sister approached a police resource officer at a local school on Sept. 4 concerning a number of strange text messages she found on her sister’s phone. Her 16-year-old sister functions around a third-grade level, according to court documents obtained by EastIdahoNews.com.

On her phone, Carter was listed under another name in the contact list. The phone also contained nude photos of the victim, and her family became worried that they had been sent to him.

The victim’s sister called the number and Carter, who claimed to be 22 years old, said he thought the victim was older, according to documents. He claimed to have met the victim on social media and gave a different name to the family.

The family learned the number belonged Carter, a driver for En Route Transportation. The company provides nonemergency medical transportation, and Carter took the victim to appointments when her family couldn’t.

When police spoke with the victim, she said Carter had sexual intercourse with her in the back of the transport van at Tautphaus Park. She claims Carter had sex with her three weeks in a row when he would drive her from physical therapy to her house.

“(The victim) said Mike used a condom each time they had intercourse. Mike told her he loved her and wanted to have a family with her when she graduated from high school,” according to court documents.

Police contacted En Route Transportation, who said Carter had been fired in early September. Company management also told police Carter would have known the victim was a minor as she had to be signed out each time he picked her up.

When Carter was contacted at his home, documents state he admitted to police he engaged in sexual activity with the victim one time at Tautphaus Park. He also gave police permission to search his phone and social media accounts.

Carter told officers 15 percent of the pornography he viewed was of girls between the ages of 15 and 16.

As investigators searched Carter’s phone, they discovered 21 naked photos and a video of what appeared to be a different teenage girl. Police learned that girl was a 16-year-old family member and Carter admitted to detectives that he had sex with her three to four times since she was 15.

“During the (police) interview…(the victim) told me that she has asked Michael to have sex with her so she could figure out if she had been raped when she was 12 years old,” court documents say. “She told me that Michael did not rape her and she asked him to do it.”

Carter was arrested and booked into the Bonneville County Jail on $100,000 bond. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Sept. 14.

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