ST. GEORGE — A parolee recently released from prison on a felony child abuse conviction is back in jail on one of multiple parole violations filed by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole in November.
A Hurricane man, 40-year-old Kevin Alan Grogan, was arrested last week on a warrant issued by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole involving a 2019 conviction for abusing a child who was under the age of 5 at the time.
When the case was filed on Jan. 13, 2017, Grogan was originally charged with third-degree felony child abuse, but two weeks later, the charge was changed to a second-degree felony, according to charging documents amended to reflect the enhancement.
Washington County Attorney Zachary Weiland, who was the lead prosecutor in the case, told St. George News the case involved the serious abuse of a preschooler who was living with her mother and her mother’s ex-husband, Grogan, at their home in Hurricane. Grogan is not the child’s biological parent, Weiland added.
On or around Jan. 10, 2017, the child was brought to the hospital with severe injuries that physicians found were consistent with the child being beaten, Weiland said, which is when the Hurricane Police Department became involved.
Shortly thereafter, the girl was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital where she was treated for multiple internal injuries, as well as other wounds, he said. It was when prosecutors learned of the extent of the injuries that the charge was enhanced to a second-degree felony, and the defendant made an initial appearance in court on the amended charge in February 2017.
Weiland said the defendant beat and tortured the child so severely that he nearly beat her to death, further defining it as one of the worst child abuse cases he has ever prosecuted. He also said the case has had a tremendous impact on him, so much so, that the details of the incident and images of the photos still linger in his mind.
It was the child’s grandmother who traveled to Utah from her home in California to attend every hearing, he said, adding it was also this grandmother who served as a voice for her granddaughter to make sure justice would be served.
Within six weeks of the case being filed, according to court records, Grogan failed to appear for a roll call hearing held March 14, 2017, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Several days later, officers responded to a residence in Hurricane and spoke to the child’s mother regarding the warrant, which is when she reportedly confirmed that Grogan was inside of the home.
Grogan then came out of one of the back bedrooms and was arrested and transported to jail on the warrant. He was released later that same day after posting a bond.
Later that same year on Sept. 22, a pretrial protective order was signed by District Judge Eric Ludlow, prohibiting the defendant from having any contact with the youngster.
A series of hearings continued over the next 12 months, one of which took place on Oct. 2, 2018, when the defendant failed to appear and a second warrant was issued for his arrest. He was taken into custody as soon as he showed up at the probation office and was booked into jail shortly thereafter.
The case continued going through the courts as several of Grogan’s other cases were being resolved, including a 2016 weapons case that Grogan was on active probation for when the felony child abuse case was filed.
A second case was filed in 2018, while Grogan was still on pretrial release on the child abuse case, which involved 11 dangerous weapons and drug charges.
A series of probation violations, warrants and arrests followed as one probation violation report after another was filed by Adult Probation and Parole agents on the two unrelated felony cases.
In a violation report filed on Oct. 4, 2018, less than two months into the most recent probation term, agents stated that Grogan was performing very poorly and was “not suitable for probation.” They then asked for a no-bail warrant for him to appear in court.
Another Adult Probation and Parole violation report filed less than two weeks later was 13 pages long and listed 42 violations ranging from failing to permit home visits by probation agents to multiple violations for leaving the state without permission, in addition to the numerous weapons and drug violations.
One violation listed on the report was connected to the felony child abuse case and alleged that Grogan was being untruthful and failed to report the 2017 arrest in Hurricane. In a later report filed by Adult Probation and Parole, the agent requested that the original prison sentences, previously suspended in Grogan’s prior convictions, be imposed.
On Oct. 30, 2018, the court lifted the stay of execution in a total of three felony cases, and the defendant was sentenced to serve his original sentence of 0-5 years in prison on both the felony drug charges, as well as 1-15 years on the second-degree felony weapons charge. The judge also ordered that all prison sentences run concurrently. Within days of the hearing, the defendant was transported to Utah State Prison to begin serving out his sentence while the child abuse case continued moving through the courts.
The following year on Oct. 14, 2019, Grogan was transported from Draper to St. George to attend a hearing where he pleaded guilty to the second-degree felony child abuse charge. He was sentenced to serve 1-15 years in Utah State Prison, a term that was also ordered to run simultaneously with the three other terms the defendant was already serving.
If Grogan was to serve all 15 years of the sentence, then his prospective release date would have been Aug. 4, 2034, according to Utah Board of Pardons and Parole records.
Instead, Grogan’s first parole hearing was held less than three months after he was sentenced to prison, and on Jan. 7, 2020, the Board of Pardons and Parole issued a decision to grant Grogan parole in December of that same year. The following month, a special review hearing was held and the board decided on the earlier release date of May 12, 2020, which is when Grogan was paroled from prison – less than eight months after he was convicted of a crime that nearly took a young child’s life.
Nine months after his release, the first of three warrants was issued by the Board of Pardons and Parole, followed by two more parole dates and several periods of incarceration. The most recent parole entry shows that Grogan was released on parole on Oct. 19, 2021. One month later, the board issued another warrant for Grogan’s arrest – the fourth filed within 18 months of the defendant’s initial parole release, which was the warrant that led to his arrest in Hurricane last week.
The defendant is currently listed on Utah Department of Correction’s offender search as an inmate housed at the Washington County Jail, where he remains on a parole board hold.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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