Man found guilty of sexually abusing and raping a 13-year-old girl whom he met during his soccer training session
The 4th District Court in Provo is pictured on November 12th. A Utah County man was found guilty of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl he met at a Provo charter school while volunteering as a soccer coach and in the cafeteria. (Kristin Murphy, Desert News)
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PROVO – A Utah County man was convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl he met at a Provo charter school while volunteering as a soccer coach and working in the cafeteria.
After five days of trial, a jury on Monday ruled that Charles Tracy Camara, 44, was guilty of every charge against him, including two cases of serious sexual abuse of a child, three cases of child rape and five cases of child sodomy, all first degree crime.
Camara was a volunteer trainer for an unofficial soccer team and worked for a short time in the canteen of the Walden School of Liberal Arts. He met the victim at school and later got to know her and her family. Camara stopped working with the school in 2015.
The crimes occurred between July 2015 and July 2016. The victim testified that the abuse started slowly and later escalated. She talked about wondering if others in her age group were going through similar circumstances and expressed feeling alone and scared.
“I can’t process my trauma until it’s all over because if I do I have to go back to the stand and experience it all over again,” she said as she testified. “And it affects my relationship with men, women, the elderly, the young … I get terrible flashbacks, I’ve been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD.”
“It feels like Tracy is always there,” she continued. “It feels like I’ll never work this through and never get over it.”
Prosecutor Sandi Johnson argued that delayed reporting was normal in such cases, saying that there was enough information to substantiate the victim’s allegations, including phone location data that Camara placed on Alpine Loop where the victim claimed she was raped for the first time the specific date in September 2015.
Defense attorney Heidi Bogus introduced witnesses who knew Camara well and testified about his character and who had been near the victim and Camara during the alleged sexual abuse. Camara decided not to testify.
In the end, the jury deliberated for four hours before finding Camara guilty on all charges. He is due to be sentenced on December 20th.
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