Gavel. Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash
LOGAN — A 41-year-old Smithfield man, awaiting sentencing for raping and sexually abusing two girls, is now facing new allegations of sexually abusing another child years ago. Joshua Coti Lippold remains in the Cache County Jail since being arrested September 2022.
Lippold was charged Tuesday, March 26, with one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a 1st degree felony. He is scheduled to be arraigned April 17 in Ogden’s 2nd District Court.
According to charging documents, Ogden City Police officers reopened an old case after a child at the Ogden Children’s Justice Center told interviewers she was forced to sleep in the same bed as Lippold, where he sexually abused her during a sleepover at his house in August of 2019. The girl’s father told police he remembered her coming home and telling him she “felt really weird” and “something wasn’t right,” but shut down when pressed for more details.
On November 20, Lippold accepted a plea agreement in Logan’s 1st District Court. He pleaded guilty to rape of a child and aggravated sexual abuse of a child, both first-degree felonies.
In September of 2022, Smithfield City Police officers received a child abuse report from the Division of Child and Family Services. The report detailed how a 12-year-old girl had disclosed to her mother that she had been molested by Lippold, a family relative.
A forensic interview was later conducted at a Children’s Justice Center. During the interview, the victim described how Lippold had been molesting her over the last four years at his Smithfield home.
The girl told law enforcement how Lippold started touching her inappropriately after making her sign her name in an “old fashioned book that was mahogany in color.” The defendant told the girl he then possessed her soul and told her not to tell anyone.
Police officers later obtained a search warrant for Lippold’s home. Inside they found a large marijuana grow, which resulted in members of the Cache Rich Drug Task Force being called to assist. Police also found a dark red colored book, titled Da Vinci’s Demons that the victim said she had signed.
While executing the search warrant, law enforcement interviewed several other children. A 12-year-old girl disclosed that she also had been sexually assaulted numerous times over the last two years. Lippold had told the child that he’d lose his job if she told anyone.
Another child talked about the book Lippold had. He believed that people who signed it gave the suspect their souls.
Lippold is scheduled to be sentenced on that case April 8 and could face up to life in prison. The sentencing has been postponed while the defendant undergoes a psycho-sexual evaluation.