A former Saratoga Springs police officer accused of having sexual contact with a teen briefly posted a statement to Facebook on Tuesday, saying the boy had misrepresented himself online as being an adult.
The former officer, 46-year-old Aaron David Rosen, of South Jordan, was booked into the Utah County jail on Thursday after a 16-year-old boy’s father told police he came home to find the door locked and a stranger with his son in their house.
According to a probable cause statement, Rosen “jumped out of a second-story window to escape the child‘s father.” The father followed the stranger and provided police with a license plate number and a description of the man.
Tribune file photo In this 2008 photo, Aaron Rosen, then of the Saratoga Springs Police Department, speaks at a memorial service for fallen police officers at the Utah State Capitol.
In an interview with police, the teen said he'd met Rosen online, and that Rosen asked if they could meet in person. According to the probable cause statement, the teen told police that Rosen arrived at his home, began kissing him and touching him over his clothes, including his private area. Rosen was allegedly in the process of removing the teen’s clothes when the father arrived home, the teen told police.
During Rosen’s interview with police, he allegedly admitted to meeting the teen — though he said he did not know the boy was only 16 years old. He admitted to touching the boy over his clothes while they were ”making out,” the probable cause statement says.
Rosen told KUTV on Tuesday that he met the teen via Grindr, a dating app that requires users to be 18 or older.
In Rosen’s Facebook post — which had been deleted by Tuesday afternoon but was reported by KUTV — he wrote that he had been ”catfished” by the teen, who'd pretended to be a 23-year-old full-time college student who lived with roommates.
Rosen said in his post that the teen had reached out first and invited Rosen to his home while his so-called ”roommate” was at work. When the ”roommate” pulled up, the teen told Rosen he had to run and to “get out over the balcony.”
Rosen also said in the post that he had not admitted to sexual contact with the teen, as reported by the news media, and was ”eager to go to trial.”
Rosen did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
Rosen had not been formally charged as of Tuesday, but when he was booked Thursday, it was on suspicion of misdemeanor unlawful sexual contact with a minor. He posted bail and was released later that evening.
Rosen was demoted in 2011 after dropping his pants in front of a female co-worker and then displaying "conduct unbecoming of an officer."
He retired from the Saratoga Springs police department about a month ago.
