State v. Vazquez

CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedApril 2, 2026
DocketCase No. 20251586-CA
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Vazquez (State v. Vazquez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Vazquez, (Utah Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

2026 UT App 48

THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS

STATE OF UTAH, Appellee, v. FEDERICO APARICIO VAZQUEZ, Appellant.

Opinion No. 20251586-CA Filed April 2, 2026

Second District Court, Ogden Department The Honorable Craig Hall No. 251902470

Hakeem Ishola and Francisco Roman, Attorneys for Appellant Derek E. Brown and Michael Palumbo, Attorneys for Appellee

JUDGE AMY J. OLIVER authored this Opinion, in which JUDGES GREGORY K. ORME and DAVID N. MORTENSEN concurred.

OLIVER, Judge:

¶1 Federico Aparicio Vazquez was charged with four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child for alleged abuse of two of his grandchildren, Maria and Sophia. 1 At his initial bail hearing, the district court denied Vazquez bail, finding there was substantial evidence to support the charges and Vazquez would be a substantial danger to other individuals or the community if released. Vazquez argues on appeal that such findings were not supported by the evidence. We disagree and affirm.

1. Both children are referred to by pseudonyms. State v. Vazquez

BACKGROUND 2

¶2 This case began when Maria gave her mother (Mother) and father (Father) 3 a note that read, verbatim,

Hey mom and dad i wanted to tell you that when grandma is in her room or kitchen and granpa is in the Living room he sits next to me and [Sophia] and touches are private and and the upper part and me and [Sophia] are really uncomfortable and we are scared.

At the time of disclosure in 2024, Maria was nine and Sophia was eleven. The girls explained to their parents that Vazquez would begin “with back rubs, then progress[] to their chests and stomachs, and eventually down their pants and underwear.” Father confronted Vazquez, his own father, and the police were eventually called. When interviewed by police, Vazquez denied touching his granddaughters inappropriately but admitted “that he would rub [their] stomachs [and] backs, and hug them.” He

2. This case comes before us as a statutorily authorized interlocutory appeal of the district court’s denial of bail. See Utah Code § 77-20-209. “On interlocutory review, we recount the facts as alleged and in a light most favorable to the ruling below.” State v. Taylor, 2015 UT 42, ¶ 2 n.2, 349 P.3d 696. We rely on the information available to the district court at the time it issued its ruling. See generally Utah Code § 77-20-205(8)(a). Despite our recitation, we note Vazquez “retains the presumption of innocence that attaches prior to conviction.” State v. Cordova, 2023 UT App 99, n.1, 536 P.3d 666.

3. While Mother is Sophia’s stepmother and Father is Maria’s stepfather, we refer to them by “Mother” and “Father” for simplicity.

20251586-CA 2 2026 UT App 48 State v. Vazquez

claimed the girls “must have seen something on the internet or were seeking attention.”

¶3 Both girls were interviewed at the Children’s Justice Center (CJC) shortly after the disclosure. Maria explained the inappropriate touching would start with Vazquez touching her back and her stomach before he began touching her “under her underwear.” She indicated he used his palm and would go “all the way around and back on her ‘vajayjay.’” She specifically identified an instance “in the bathroom” where Vazquez “touched something inside her where she pees,” which she said was “really sensitive.” She said during the episodes of abuse, “her private [felt] tingly and uncomfortable” and she would sometimes apply Vaseline to help with the discomfort. Maria explained that Vazquez’s wife (Grandma) did not witness the abuse. Maria said that when she told Sophia about the abuse, Sophia said “it was happening to her too.”

¶4 In Sophia’s CJC interview, she explained the abuse had been occurring for about two years and Vazquez had “touched her many times on the couch while [Grandma] was in the other room.” She described two specific incidents in the interview. First, she disclosed an occasion when she was at Vazquez’s house watching television with her brother (Brother) in a bedroom. She said Vazquez came into the room and began rubbing her back “and then put his hands in her pants and rubbed her private part” with “one hand on her back and one hand under her panties.” She explained that after Vazquez left the room, she “locked the bedroom door.” She did not believe Brother had seen what Vazquez was doing. Brother later told her that “he saw [Vazquez] rubbing her back and breathing heavily.” The other occasion Sophia described took place in the living room while Grandma was in the kitchen. She said Vazquez “started to rub her private and chest, tried to kiss her with his tongue, put his mouth on her boob and rubbed her chest.” She reported that Vazquez gave her gifts of shoes, jewelry, and money but told her “not to tell

20251586-CA 3 2026 UT App 48 State v. Vazquez

[Grandma] about the money.” She described “feeling uncomfortable and unsafe” because of the abuse.

¶5 Brother was also interviewed at the CJC and corroborated the incident in the bedroom as described by Sophia. He was thirteen years old at the time of the interview, and described watching television in a bedroom with Sophia when Vazquez came in and began “hugging [Sophia], kissing her forehead and breathing hard.” Brother said he could see Vazquez “rubbing [Sophia’s] back under her shirt” out of the corner of his eye while watching television. And he observed Sophia lock the bedroom door after Vazquez left. He also said Vazquez “does not rub his back.” Texts between Brother and Sophia showed Sophia told Brother that Vazquez touched her “in [her] private and the upper part.”

¶6 Multiple people in the girls’ lives noted changes in their behavior. Maria’s teacher (Teacher) had contacted Mother indicating troubling behavior from Maria, including hiding under her desk, being unwilling to communicate about sad moods, and generally shutting down. Teacher indicated Maria “has done this before during the year but it has been a lot lately.” A subsequent interview of Teacher by police corroborated these concerns, with Teacher indicating Maria had gone from “being a ‘happy and smiley’ child that was spontaneous and full of life, to being subdued, participating less, and hiding in a hoodie.” Mother indicated that Maria “developed an attitude” and “became depressed,” and Father indicated that he noticed behavioral changes as well. Mother and Father had also noticed that Sophia had begun “wetting the bed and not wanting to sleep alone,” whereas before she had a more “independent attitude.”

¶7 Both girls received a medical examination as part of the investigation. Maria and Sophia recounted the alleged abuse in their medical examinations consistently with what was reported in their respective CJC interviews. Although neither girl showed

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physical signs of abuse or injury, the reports noted “that a normal genital exam does not rule out the possibility of sexual abuse or discount [the] disclosure” and, further, that the exams had been conducted “outside the timeframe for evidence collection.”

¶8 In 2023, one year prior to Maria and Sophia’s disclosure, the Utah Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) had opened an investigation concerning Vazquez’s eleven-year-old daughter (Daughter), who is intellectually disabled and mostly non-verbal. Daughter had drawn a picture of herself in bed with a man “on top of her,” and she had said “Papa” while pointing at her buttocks, belly button, and vagina and grabbing her breasts.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Vazquez, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-vazquez-utahctapp-2026.