Warrant issued for former youth treatment staff member in southern Utah

An arrest warrant was issued Wednesday for a woman who police say showed explicit pictures to teenagers at youth treatment centers in southern Utah where she was employed.

An arrest warrant was issued Wednesday for a woman who police say showed explicit pictures to teenagers at youth treatment centers in southern Utah where she was employed. (Heliopix, Shutterstock)


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ST. GEORGE — An arrest warrant has been issued for a California woman accused of showing explicit pictures to girls at two youth treatment centers in southern Utah.

Sierra Nicole Morley, 20, of Riverside, California, was charged Wednesday in 5th District Court with three counts of dealing in harmful materials to a minor, a third-degree felony.

In May, a 15-year-old girl told a caseworker with the Division of Child and Family Services that while at an undisclosed youth treatment facility in St. George, Morley, a staff member, had shown her and some other clients a lewd picture of a man, according to charging documents. She later allegedly showed the teen and other clients additional explicit images on her phone, this time of a woman.

When police went to the treatment center, officers were told that Morley "was no longer allowed to work at the facility" and were given her contact information.

Detectives also learned that in July, at another treatment facility in the city of Washington, Morley had shown a 17-year-old explicit pictures of a woman on her phone, the charges state.

When police went to Morley's listed address, they learned that she had moved back to California. Officers were initially able to communicate with her through texting, but she soon cut off communication with police, according to the charges.

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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