Woman charged after allegedly bringing children to home of convicted sex offender

DUBOIS — A woman was charged after repeatedly allowing children to be around a sex offender who was previously convicted of possessing child pornography, according to police.

Rachel Gale, 35, is charged with six counts of misdemeanor injury to a child.

Samuel Gale, 39, is a registered sex offender with multiple convictions for willfully possessing child sexually exploitative material. He has reportedly violated his probation for these convictions four times.

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According to court documents, on Jan. 26, Clark County Sheriff’s deputies were sent to a home after hearing reports that Samuel had been in contact with multiple children under the age of 18, which is a probation violation.

Deputies say that Rachel had been “bringing (the children) to see Samuel Gale at his home.” After arriving at the home, officers saw Rachel and Samuel with six children.

Samuel was detained, and Child Protective Services was notified to respond.

During a search of the home, deputies reportedly found several items that Samuel was not allowed to access during his probation, such as “laptop computers and desktop computers, USB storage devices, and a Starlink internet system.”

Deputies also reportedly found hydrocodone and oxycodone pills with a prescription, which were not labeled for Samuel. As part of his probation, Samuel is not allowed to be near controlled substances.

According to deputy reports, the home was “very disheveled with piles of belongings all over, only narrow passages between piles of stuff allowed for movement around the house.”

Deputies say there was also “exposed electrical wiring in multiple locations along the walls and ceiling,” and the “main heat source is a wood-burning stove with no barrier protection.”

During an interview with CPS, Rachel reportedly admitted to knowing about Samuel’s restrictions and “having similar conversations with law enforcement prior.” CPS then removed the children from the home due to them being “in immediate danger.”

Rachel was arrested and booked into the Clark County Jail. If convicted, she could face up to three years in prison and fines of at least $6,000.

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Samuel was also arrested and booked into the Bonneville County Jail with “several probation violations.”

Samuel’s convictions and criminal history

Samuel was first taken into custody in July 2018 on five counts of possessing sexually exploitative images of minors. After being released to pretrial services, Gale was found with more child pornography and was arrested again.

He was then charged with 10 more counts of possessing sexually exploitative images of minors.

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While he was waiting to be tried in the first case, investigators received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children concerning him. Dropbox alerted NCMEC that an account linked to Samuel had allegedly uploaded child pornography.

According to court documents, investigators found 293 videos and 868 pornographic images of children uploaded to his Dropbox account.

Investigators reviewed phone calls between Samuel and Rachel while he was in jail, showing that Samuel admitted to sexually touching a child relative of hers.

In another call, Samuel allegedly told Rachel he had been looking at child porn.

“Samual goes on to say that he has been doing better about not viewing it and would go a few months and would not view it and would ‘mess up’ and then go a couple of weeks without viewing it,” investigators noted in court documents.

According to documents, after he was released from jail, Samuel returned to live with Rachel and multiple children in their home.

In January 2020, Samuel was sentenced to a retained jurisdiction, or a rider, for his multiple convictions for willfully possessing child sexually exploitative material.

Samuel reportedly violated his probation twice in 2021, once in 2022, and once in 2024.

He is expected to appear for a probation violation admit/deny hearing on Feb. 10. If convicted, he could face his underlying sentence, three to 10 years in prison.