Salt Lake City School Board member arrested on eight counts of sexual exploitation

Salt Lake City, Utah — On Wednesday night, Salt Lake City School Board member Joél-Léhi Organista was arrested on eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor over his alleged ownership of child pornography.

According to the Police, Organista, 29, possessed pornographic images of children. One video reportedly depicted an adult male and five-year-old girl.

Investigators were led to Organista through a CyberTipLine report provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A Dropbox account owned by Organista and connected to his Salt Lake County address contained images and videos containing child pornography.

After he was arrested, Organista admitted to having downloaded, viewed and kept the child pornography in his Dropbox account. He also operated a Snapchat account where he chat with children who identified themselves between the ages of 12-17. On the social media platform, Organista allegedly asked the children for naked photos and for them to perform sexual acts.

“Joel Lehi Organista has access to young children in his current position of trust involving grades K-12,” an officer wrote in the affidavit. “Joel has shown that, through electronic means, that he frequently meets children online, solicits nude photographs from them, and has private online video conversations with them. Joel was born in Mexico and it is believed that he currently has family living in Mexico that could encourage him to flee.”

The Salt Lake City School District declined to comment on the arrest until more information is available.