Bend man charged with exploiting Utah teen

Police have arrested a Bend man on a Utah warrant that accuses him of soliciting and receiving nude photographs from a teenage girl, according to a Utah newspaper.

Daniel Dean Divine, 30, was booked Monday into the Deschutes County Jail and was being held without bail Tuesday on the Utah warrant.

The Deseret News reports Divine is charged in Utah’s 8th District Court with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and one count of enticing a minor over the Internet, a Class A misdemeanor.

Divine sent an iPhone to a 13-year-old Utah girl and asked her to send him nude photos of herself, according to an affidavit used to obtain the arrest warrant.

“(The girl) stated she realized Daniel was older and wanted to have sex, so she took the photos just to keep him happy,” the affidavit stated. “(The girl) asked her mother to take the photos of her when she could not figure out how to make the camera on the iPhone work.”

Duchesne County sheriff’s detectives told the paper that the girl’s mother obliged her daughter’s request, taking three nude photos of the teen.

“(The mother) stated she asked (her daughter) if she was sure she wanted to send these photos to Daniel,” the affidavit stated.

The 35-year-old woman told investigators that Divine is a “very good friend of the family” and that her daughter and Divine planned to wait until the girl was 18 years old to engage in a sexual relationship.

Duchesne County prosecutors charged the girl’s mother in May with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. She is scheduled to be arraigned in 8th District Court on Aug. 23.

The Deseret News said it “does not typically report the identities of victims of sex crimes and therefore is not publishing the name of the mother to protect her daughter.”

The newspaper said Divine will remain in jail in Bend while he awaits extradition. His first court appearance in Utah has not yet been scheduled.