FARMINGTON, Utah — Utah women tell the KSL Investigators that one man has been traumatizing teens, girls and women around the state for more than a decade – leaving behind a trail of victims. They are concerned his behavior is escalating – and the law isn’t doing enough to stop him.

Chad Dee Flitton, 43, has been in and out of county courtrooms and jail cells, ordered to complete treatment and placed on probation repeatedly for allegedly stalking multiple young women.

His criminal record dates back more than ten years and includes drug offenses, theft, sexual battery, stalking and lewdness.

Prosecutors tell judges Flitton is a “danger” to the community, and yet time and time again, judges suspend large portions of Flitton’s jail sentences in exchange for court-ordered mental health and drug treatment – treatment the KSL Investigators have discovered he has repeatedly failed to obtain.

But no matter the punishment and whether he actually fulfills the requirements that go along with the punishment, Flitton’s trail of victims continues to grow.

Traumatized Teenagers

Two teenage girls are the most recent young women who say they were fearful when Flitton approached them inside Harmons Grocery at Station Park in Farmington on July 1.

Morgan and Sadie are both 15 years old. We are only addressing the girls by their first names in order to protect their identities. With the support of their parents, both of the young women wanted to share their story on-camera in an effort to make other young women aware of Flitton’s actions.

Last month, after spending the day together at Lagoon, the two friends went to Harmons for dinner. The teenagers said they ate in the upstairs café, while making videos and taking selfies on their cell phones. That’s when they say they noticed Flitton.

“Right when we looked over, that’s when he was watching us,” Morgan said.

“We were so scared,” Sadie added. “He walked up to us and was like, ‘You want to come hang out with me on the couches?’ And we’re like, ‘No, thanks.’ And he was like, ‘Are you sure?’ And he was like being really pushy about it.”

The girls say they decided to leave the café lounge to get away from Flitton. But the girls say he followed them down the stairs.

They said they ran to find help, and eventually hid behind a pillar outside a nearby store.

“He walked out of the store and was like pacing, walking back and forth,” Sadie recalled.

“I don’t know what we would have done if he did find us and like, see us,” Morgan said.

“Some people just think, ‘I need to be aware, but it’s not going to happen to me.’ That’s what I thought until that day,” Sadie added.

Just days after this incident, Flitton approached another teen girl at the same location. According to probation reports, on July 6, he told her he was a prophet and God wanted her to “engage in sexual conduct.”

Eight weeks later, there’s still no word on whether Flitton will face charges for what happened in Farmington. He did admit to the allegations in court, however, as part of a violation of his probation.

Because of that violation, Flitton is currently serving 90 days in the Davis County Jail. He is expected to be released in October.

“I’ve been nervous that we’ll see him again,” Sadie said.

“The fear of him getting out and finding us,” Morgan said, adding, “We just don’t want it to happen again to other girls.”

“I’m just glad we got out of the situation.” Tonight at 10p, Utah women tell our @KSLInvestigates team Chad Flitton has been terrorizing teen girls and women for decades, but despite punishments, his trail of victims continues to grow. @BrittanyGlasTV pic.twitter.com/2eWeYM61Xx — KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) August 26, 2019

Convicted on Sexual Battery

When she was 18 years old, Marlie Pali became the victim of sexual battery. The perpetrator, Chad Flitton, was convicted in that case.

At the time, Flitton was already in trouble for unlawfully providing shelter to a runaway teenage girl.

“It’s really heartbreaking to me that he was on probation when he did what he did to me. Because right there, it showed he wasn’t afraid to go out and do something, even on probation,” Pali told KSL Investigator Brittany Glas.

Until now, Pali has never spoken publicly about what happened to her more than four years ago.

On April 4, 2015, Flitton came to the Bridgerland Cosmetology School in Brigham City in search of a shave. Pali said it quickly became clear that the shave wasn’t Flitton’s primary objective in coming to the school that day.

She says Flitton started to grab her.

“At first, I thought it was just one of those accidental your hand slipped, so I switched to the other side, and it immediately got stronger. So I immediately left the shaving cream on his face, took the cape off and said, ‘You are done,’” said Pali.

Pali says Flitton asked her if they could go out back to pay. That’s when she quickly walked away.

Pali called police who tracked Flitton down using a phone number he left behind on a piece of paper for Pali.

Because Flitton already had his phone number written down prior to their encounter, Pali says she believes it is further evidence the crime was premeditated – that Flitton knows what he is doing and seeks after these interactions with young women.

“I definitely think he’s a predator. He knows his target. He’s constantly looking for the next one,” said Pali.

The young woman says the incident took away her sense of security.

“I think sometimes when people hear that all he did was grab my butt, they brush it off that it’s not a big thing. But emotionally, that’s something I will live with for the rest of my life,” she said. “I had to question myself, ‘Can I handle this career? Can I take on male clients? Am I going to be able to succeed because now I have this fear instilled in me of doing a service on a male client,’” she continued. “For the rest of my life I will deal with the emotional damage and the physical damage of being able to be comfortable around men.”

“He’s getting this slap on the hand and it’s not scaring him enough,” Marlie Pali told @KSL5TV. “He’s not afraid to keep going & I think he needs to be put away.” Pali was the victim of sexual battery at the hands of Chad Flitton. @KSLInvestigates The full investigation at 10:00. pic.twitter.com/CI6GGrxhem — Brittany Glas (@BrittanyGlasTV) August 27, 2019

Flitton was eventually charged in the incident with sexual battery – a class A misdemeanor. But it would be years before he’d face a sentence.

“I went through [nearly] three years of hell because I was determined that he needed to be locked up,” said Pali.

As she waited for justice, Pali said she felt helpless as she watched Flitton victimize others.

“It’s really heart wrenching to me to see on the news or on social media when his [mugshot] pops up. It tears at my heart to know that there’s another victim out there who is going through what I went through, or maybe even worse,” Pali explained. “They need to stop just giving him a slap on the hand, because the slap on the hand is not doing anything to him. He doesn’t care. It’s going to take a really big punishment for him to finally, maybe have a reality check. I don’t know if he ever will, but he needs to be locked up because he keeps doing things.”

For more than a decade, #Utah women tell the @KSLInvestigates team that one man has been terrorizing teens, girls and women across the state. Tomorrow at 10 p.m., KSL is going in depth with the case. @BrittanyGlasTV pic.twitter.com/L11hgLhzgN — KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) August 26, 2019

Trail of Victims

One year later and still out on bail, police reports indicate Flitton stopped a group of teen girls in Farr West to ask for directions and if they knew if there were any parties in the area. The girls told police they believed Flitton was following them for anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.

Flitton never faced charges for that incident or for two others in August 2016 in which a probation report states he was “soliciting several young females” outside a local gas station.

In February 2017, Flitton made his way to the Forever 21 clothing store at the Shops at South Town mall in Sandy where two teens reported finding him “looking underneath their stalls in the changing room while they were undressing,” according to a police report.

Flitton was charged with voyeurism and pleaded no contest. He has a sentencing hearing in that case on August 29.

Five months after that, in July 2017, Flitton was arrested again, this time for following Kimmi Smith’s 10-year-old daughter and her two friends into a Subway restaurant bathroom in Layton.

“It’s disgusting and he’s a creep, and he needs to be put away for it,” Smith told KSL at the time.

The girls said they noticed they were being followed by Flitton as they walked from the Smith’s on Fairfield Road to the Subway across the street. Smith said Flitton was recognized right away.

According to Layton City Prosecutor Steve Garside, Flitton had stalked one of the girls a few weeks prior.

“He doesn’t need to do this any other little kids,” the mother continued.

At the time of this arrest, Lt. Travis Lyman of the Layton Police Department told KSL he was concerned with Flitton’s behavior.

“It’s extremely alarming to us,” Lyman said. “Somebody who, after having been confronted and arrested for something like that, that has not been a deterrent apparently in any way to continuing that type of behavior.”

Flitton told police he followed the girls because “he felt empty” because he “could not see his own children anymore,” according to the probable cause statement. He added that he often follows people around on Fairfield Road.

That crime earned Flitton 45 days in the Davis County Jail and two years on probation.

But unfortunately, his trail of victims doesn’t end there.

A November 2018 probation violation report reveals Flitton was free for mere days when he found his next victim in Kaysville.

#LISTEN to Kaysville Police interviewing Chad Dee Flitton in Nov. 2018, after officers were called by Davis Tech Security to campus in reference to a suspicious individual asked to leave. Flitton tells police, “Hey, I’m chasing skirt no matter what.” @KSLInvestigates @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/R4WL1ChYdm — Brittany Glas (@BrittanyGlasTV) August 27, 2019

Surveillance video shows Flitton following a young woman from the Davis Applied Technical College parking lot into the cosmetology school on October 31. A Kaysville police report says he later admitted to “skirt watching” and “watching various women.”

He was convicted of attempted stalking.

In a separate incident in 2018, Flitton’s neighbor, Nikki Weekes, obtained a civil stalking injunction against him in an effort to protect her family after he allegedly came to her Layton home demanding to see her teenage daughter and had been standing outside the girl’s window at night.

“This sort of pattern, this boldness, these actions,” said Weekes, “we’ve all seen the movies. We’ve all read the books. We’ve watched the news stories. These things don’t end well.”

She says Flitton also showed up at the family’s church.

“What makes me the most afraid is that there’s so many different people that he’s stalking or watching or following or approaching. They’re isolated and in this isolation there’s this protection for him to continue to do things that are not appropriate,” Weekes said. “We often feel like the law is there to protect us and, in this situation, it feels like the law is protecting him.”

Implications of Utah’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative

Law enforcement acknowledges the frustration felt by victims and echoes their concerns.

Steve Garside, the deputy Layton City attorney, admits Flitton is on their radar.

In a sit-down interview with Garside, KSL Investigator Brittany Glas said, “I think your average Utahn out there would think that if I have an offender who has not fulfilled treatment, as required, if I have an offender who violates probation a number of times, there has to be more of a significant penalty, you’d think that would be the case.”

“It’s not,” Garside replied, adding that’s due in part to the philosophy behind and application of Utah’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative, or JRI, which was passed in 2015.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said.

Related link: Utah’s Inmate Surge: Why Utah’s Prison Population Is Rising

The JRI legislation limited jail-time for misdemeanor offenses and put an emphasis on treatment over incarceration.

Garside says JRI may not be helping the situation here because Flitton continues to violate probation on strictly misdemeanor offenses.

Flitton has only been convicted of one felony, when he violated a protection order 2010.

“There’s a different matrix that we have to use with that,” Garside said. “[It] used to be that when we had repeat offenders like this, we’d say, ‘You are on zero tolerance probation.’ In other words, if you violate probation again, you’ll go back to jail and serve the remainder of the time. That has fallen into disfavor with the advent of JRI.”

JRI focuses on reducing criminal behavior and improving public safety. One of the initiative’s goals to reduce recidivism is to, “Incorporate validated risk and needs assessment tools that inform treatment and supervision practices.” That’s according to a brochure published by the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.

Flitton’s probation officers report a 73% jump in his risk assessment in the last two years.

In July 2018, one Adult Probation and Parole agent wrote concerning Flitton, “The defendant now appears to be in a downward spiral.” In a different probation report four months later, another agent

wrote, “Mr. Flitton continues to show risky and dangerous behavior,” and referred to Flitton as a “public safety risk.”

In February 2019, agents noted, “Mr. Flitton has shown no efforts or willingness to complete probation,” and that, “Mr. Flitton continues to follow women making them feel unsafe.”

Despite those recommendations and rising risk assessment, judges around the state have suspended 75 percent of Flitton’s jail sentences in favor of ordering Flitton to find treatment.

In the last three years, Flitton has been sentenced to more than 2,000 days in jail. In all, he’s spent just over 500 days behind bars.

And of the court ordered treatment he’s been sentenced to complete, Utah courts and AP&P report the last time Flitton completed any treatment was in 2015.

Flitton was ordered to get treatment in April, July, and August 2018 and then again in March and July of this year.

Flitton completed a psychosexual evaluation after pleading guilty to lewdness in 2007. He was ordered to obtain a second one after a stalking conviction in November 2017. However, court records do not show that he’s ever gotten it.

In February 2018, Flitton did complete a mental health evaluation, but no treatment was recommended. At that point, AP&P and the judge then recommended Flitton complete the Drug Offender Reform Act, or DORA, program.

Most recently in July, a Layton judge told Flitton he would give him “one more chance.” During the same court hearing, prosecutors fired back and told the judge, “[Flitton’s] had options for treatment before and it’s never worked. He continues to harass young girls.”

“Unless [Flitton] elects to make a change, I’m confident we will see him again,” Garside said.

KSL Investigates has reached out to multiple attorneys who have represented Flitton for an interview or comment for this story. Those who responded declined. Because Flitton is currently serving jail time, we have been unable to reach him for a possible interview to contribute to our coverage.

Married to Chad Flitton

Perhaps the loudest voice fighting for justice in the cases against Flitton may be his ex-wife and the mother of five of his children, April Giauque. Giauque was married to Flitton for 10 years.

“I know the violence he can do,” she said. “Why my voice is coming out now is – I’m ready to stand and just stop this. More people cannot be subjected to this.”

Giauque says she left the state with their children in 2015 fearing for their safety, but she still keeps an eye on her ex-husband’s actions.

“He is sick. He needs help,” the woman explained.

Giauque has watched as time and time again, Flitton has been picked up for crimes that come close, but never qualify as a felony.

“They always just come right to the line and then he slips away and doesn’t get put away. It’s really frustrating,” she said.

Also frustrating, Giauque says, is the fact that he’s failed to obtain court-ordered treatment.

“Why isn’t there a follow up for him to be able to complete that? If he’s got probation and things like that, that are supposed to follow through with him, why aren’t they?” asked Giauque.

She says it puts Flitton at risk, along with the public.

“I’m talking about a risk of him doing even further damage and losing all hope of ever trying to get healthy again,” Giauque added. “He’s at the line where it’s going to cross over again, and people are really going to be hurt and not just scared and terrorized.”

Giauque wants other people to know that by coming forward – by speaking out and demanding justice – they can turn Flitton’s trail of victims into a tribe of victors.

“Stand up and say, ‘I’m not going to allow my friend or my daughter, or my sister, to go through this.’ We can’t just be quiet anymore because there’s too many people that are still getting hurt and victimized,” she said. “We have to show communities what’s happening. We have to say that’s enough. It’s enough. We are serious. We’re fed up, so we’re standing up.”

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