BOUNTIFUL — A charter school basketball coach is facing multiple counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, police said.
Stephen Paul Niedzwiecki, 33, of Bountiful, was booked on Monday in the Davis County Jail on eight counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault. He is being held on no bail. The Davis County Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case before filing formal charges in 2nd Distinct Court.
Assistant Bountiful Police Chief Ed Biehler said the parents of a 16-year-old girl recently became aware of a relationship between their daughter and Niedzwiecki.
Niedzwiecki had been a basketball coach and taught at Jefferson Academy in Kaysville where the girl attended school and played on the basketball team. He also tutored her in the summer of 2011. That is when the relationship began, when the girl was 14 years old.
None of the sexual activity happened at the school, Biehler said.
“They were at his house or at various places along the Wasatch Front,” Biehler said.
When the parents learned of the relationship they reported it to the police, as well as to the Division of Child and Family Services.Mark Peterson, a spokesman for the Office of Education, said Niedzwiecki taught at Jefferson Academy from 2010 to 2011. He was hired by Quest Academy in West Haven in July.
An email sent to parents from Lani Rounds, the principal at Quest Academy, said that Niedziecki was a secondary teacher and that the reason for his arrest did “not involve any student of Quest Academy nor did it happen at the school.”
The email also said that a background check had been completed on Niedziecki and he was cleared at the time of his hiring.
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