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John Jerviss said he didn't have sex with the 16-year-old girl. She said otherwise.
So Jerviss' attorney told him to plead guilty to three criminal charges. A second attorney had him take no-contest pleas that put him on probation for three years and cost him thousands of dollars.
The teenager now claims those statements were coerced — that a Tooele police detective who has since been terminated threatened her with jail if she didn't say she and Jerviss had sex.
Last week, a state judge in Tooele vacated 36-year-old Jerviss' convictions. That hasn't made everything better.
Jerviss lost his job and his business. He paid $3,500 in fines and for an ankle monitor and another $20,000 in attorney fees he has not yet been able to recoup. He declared bankruptcy, and his Tooele home is in foreclosure.
"I'm just waiting for the bank to tell me I have to leave," Jerviss said last week.
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Start of a relationship • Jerviss said he met the teenager at a Tooele restaurant where she worked and he frequented. The two were friendly and traded text messages, Jerviss said.
He puts the blame for his convictions on the detective, Jamie Gutierrez, saying she pressured the girl into saying there was sex between the two.
On Jan. 22, 2008, the father of the teenager told a Tooele police officer he believed his daughter was having an inappropriate relationship with Jerviss, according to a police report. That same day, Gutierrez interviewed the teenager at the police station.
She denied there was any sex, but police kept investigating. Documents show they found text messages sent to Jerviss by the teenager, whom The Tribune is not identifying because she was a juvenile at the time. The teenager also sent text messages to friends saying she and Jerviss had sex. She made similar claims aloud to friends and family, records state.
There was still no direct evidence of sex. Eight days after the first interview, Gutierrez brought the teenager back to the police station.
This time the teenager said she and Jerviss had sex. According to an affidavit from Gutierrez, the teenager said there was intercourse five or six times at Jerviss' home in Tooele and oral sex at a motel. She described Jerviss' bedroom and the linens.
"Before then it was my word against [Gutierrez's]," Jerviss said.
The teenager's statements gave police probable cause for a warrant to search Jerviss' house. Gutierrez wrote the bedroom layout and the linens matched the teenager's description. Police also found a motel receipt whose date matched the time frame given by the teenager.
When interviewed by police, documents show, Jerviss did not make any statements and asked for an attorney. He says he told his attorney there was no sex.
The teenager came to his home just one time, Jerviss said last week, and spent most of the time on his porch. When she went inside once to use the bathroom, Jerviss said, he stayed on the porch.
Jerviss said he once rented a motel room to get away from his loud roommate, and that night the girl came there. Jerviss said she had been drinking and didn't want her parents to know, so he let her stay in his motel room for several hours.
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Making tough choices • On March 20, 2008, Tooele County prosecutors charged Jerviss with three felony counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Jerviss' attorney, Stephen R. Cook, told him he needed to plead guilty.
Jerviss said Cook told him even if the teenager on the witness stand denied sex there was a "95-percent chance" Jerviss would be convicted.
"I had never been in trouble before," Jerviss said. "This was all new to me."
A deal was struck. Prosecutors reduced the charges to three misdemeanor counts of sexual battery and Jerviss entered his guilty pleas.
Reached by telephone this week, Cook said he had a vague memory of Jerviss' case.
"I have hundreds and hundreds of clients," Cook said. "Once a case is over, I forget about it."
Jerviss said he had second thoughts. Before sentencing, he changed lawyers, hiring Jon D. Williams Williams told him if he withdrew the guilty plea he could sit in jail two or three years while the case worked its way through the courts. Jerviss was already out on bail.
"I think he took the easy out," Jerviss said of Williams. "I think he wanted the $20,000."
Jerviss pleaded no contest to the misdemeanors. It's not the same as a guilty plea, but for the purposes of criminal law it has the same effect.
"Do you take the chance with a lawyer that doesn't back you up anymore," he said, "or do you try to salvage something of your life rather than ruin it completely?"
Williams declined to comment last week except to point out Jerviss had already pleaded guilty when he entered the case. Jerviss later sued Williams and lost, with a state court judge ruling the agreement signed by Jerviss says the attorney can't promise what the outcome will be and Jerviss agreed to the strategy change.
At sentencing, Jerviss received three years of probation, six months of home confinement and a $1,500 fine. For the confinement, Jerviss had to wear an ankle monitor. The monitor comes with a fee of about $11 a day. For six months, that added up to about $2,000.
When Jerviss was sentenced, the teenager wrote the judge a letter saying she wanted a relationship with Jerviss when she turned 18.
After the conviction, the trucking firm that employed Jerviss as a driver fired him. Jerviss also had a business hauling cars to and from auto auctions, but the probation meant Jerviss couldn't leave Utah. The business folded. Jerviss eventually found other work but was earning about half of what he did.
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Renewing the fight • He decided to challenge his conviction in the summer of 2009.
That's when the Tooele police chief fired Gutierrez and her husband, Lt. Jorge Cholico.
An investigation alleged Gutierrez committed a series of violations with alcohol, including drunken driving, drinking in public, giving alcohol to a minor and playing Twister drunk and in uniform. Cholico was accused of knowing about Gutierrez's behavior and participating with her in sexually harassing another couple.
With Gutierrez discredited, Jerviss hired a new attorney and filed a petition in state court to have his conviction vacated. The burden of proof was on Jerviss, and prosecutors still had victim testimony and corroborating evidence.
Jerviss couldn't contact the teenager while he was on probation, but when his probation ended 18 months early due to good behavior, he sent her an e-mail. Jerviss said he struck up a conversation to see if she would "come clean" about why she said there was sex.
Over a series of e-mails and texts, the teenager talked. Eventually, she said in a text message she was worried Gutierrez would send her to jail if she didn't tell her what she wanted to hear.
On Jan. 25, Jerviss' new attorney, Tyler Ayres, sent an e-mail to the teenager, who was now 18. There was an affidavit attached.
The affidavit said Gutierrez pressured the teenager into saying there was sex and she needed to cooperate so police wouldn't pursue criminal charges against the girl. Ayres asked if she would sign, notarize it and mail it to him. The teenager did so without suggesting any changes to the text.
Gutierrez could not be contacted for comment, but she told an investigator for Ayres that she believed there was sex between Jerviss and the teenager, according to that investigator's report.
On Feb. 24, Jerviss' case went back to court. The Tooele County Attorney's Office agreed to dismiss the criminal charges. A deputy county attorney apologized to Jerviss.
"I think it was the right thing to do," Tooele County Attorney Doug Hogan said of the dismissal.
In an interview, Hogan stopped short of saying he believed the teenager's latest story. He said there "might be ulterior motives" by the teenager and pointed out she has said she wants a relationship with Jerviss.
Hogan also said his office might have fought Jerviss' relief petition if Gutierrez was still employed and in good standing with Tooele police.
Ayres gives credit to Hogan's office.
Jerviss said he and the teenager haven't spoken in months. They have agreed they should move on. Jerviss said he made a mistake putting himself in a position where he could be accused of a crime.
"I know it looks bad, but I didn't do it," Jerviss said.