Sean Holstege

The Republic | azcentral.com

The allegation raised in a Pinal County sheriff's sex-assault report is clear: An East Valley Planned Parenthood clinic failed to report evidence of teen rape.

If Planned Parenthood workers had reported the alleged assault in December, it could have jump-started a sheriff's investigation into 18-year-old Tyler Kost months before the Poston Butte High School student is alleged to have assaulted other teens at the school, court documents say.

Reporting such assaults is required for Planned Parenthood, and a sheriff's spokesman said investigators had shared the alleged failure to report with Planned Parenthood administrators and Arizona Department of Health Services officials.

But neither state officials nor Planned Parenthood administrators have any record of sheriff's deputies passing along the allegation.

The allegation surfaced from a parent of one of 13 girls who Pinal County Sheriff's Office investigators said was sexually assaulted by Kost.

Last week, Kost was booked into jail on suspicion of multiple counts of sexual assault. Investigators say his string of sexual assaults, harassment and threats began in 2011 and carried on through last month.

But last fall, a parent of one teenage girl who claimed Kost impregnated her during one attack, told police that Planned Parenthood failed to report the matter. The claim surfaced in police reports submitted to justify keeping Kost in jail pending trial.

"The counselor intentionally miscoded the assault as a consensual encounter," Pinal Sheriff's officials quoted the parent as reporting. "The counselor told them they did not want the hassle of having to report the assault to law enforcement, as they were a mandatory reporter."

State law requires certain caregivers, including clinicians, to report evidence of abuse.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Pat Ramirez said deputies contacted Planned Parenthood and the Arizona Department of Health Services after they learned of the claim.

In a statement, Planned Parenthood Arizona said the organization only learned of the potential breach from reporters last week.

"We immediately contacted the Pinal County Sheriff's Office to get more information," the Planned Parenthood statement said. "We have directed all of our health center managers and clinical supervisors to reiterate our strict policy for reporting any illegal activity. We have zero tolerance for staff failing to meet our standards and policies."

A state Health Services spokeswoman also said the agency had not received any report from Pinal County about the allegations against Planned Parenthood.

Health Services spokeswoman Laura Oxley said the agency had had no communication about the matter.

Asked to clarify, Ramirez said one of the sheriff's criminal investigations supervisors e-mailed a Health Services official on Tuesday afternoon, though Oxley said late Tuesday that Pinal County investigators had still not contacted the state agency.

The pregnant teenager reportedly visited the clinic on Dec. 31 and again four days later.

Kost is accused of attacking other girls this year.

According to investigative records filed in court, Kost targeted girls at Poston Butte High School, which he attended, in the San Tan Valley area.