This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Bountiful obstetrician-gynecologist has been arrested and booked into Davis County jail on allegations related to child pornography.
Nathan Ward, 55, of Bountiful, was arrested Wednesday night by Davis County sheriff's deputies and jailed on suspicion of seven second-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Jail personnel confirmed Thursday that Ward had been released pending court proceedings after posting $100,000 bail.
The Davis County Attorney's Office was reviewing the case, but a probable cause statement — released late Thursday morning after heavy redactions to protect alleged victims — noted Ward's arrest came at the conclusion of an eight-month investigation by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The statement claims that investigators traced three child pornography images uploaded Nov. 24, 2016 through a Yahoo email account using the alias "clark_bueno" to a Lakeview Hospital computer, where Ward worked.
Investigators confronted Ward at the hospital in February of this year and he reportedly denied any connection to the email address. However, on May 30, responding to a court order, Yahoo confirmed that the email addresser had the same birth date as Ward, and matched an address in Idaho where Ward had lived in 2002.
Investigators also found six additional "IP" (internet protocol) addresses originating not only at Lakeview Hospital, but other medical facilities and Ward's current Bountiful residence. Yahoo also released 37 images associated with the account.
This included "seven child sexually exploitive images" as well as "images of family members, voyeuristic photos of underage females and a self[ie]," the probable cause statement claimed.
The same account was used for several online conversations "explicit in nature," in some cases providing phone numbers at both Ward's residence and Lakeview Hospital — and claims from Ward that he had raped 13- and a 15-year-old girls, in the latter case with the alleged consent of the victim's father.
No charges had been filed in those purported incidents, but detectives said their investigation is ongoing.
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