State v. Jones

2014 UT App 142, 330 P.3d 97, 763 Utah Adv. Rep. 53, 2014 WL 2770005, 2014 Utah App. LEXIS 145
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJune 19, 2014
DocketNo. 20120754-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2014 UT App 142 (State v. Jones) 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. Jones, 2014 UT App 142, 330 P.3d 97, 763 Utah Adv. Rep. 53, 2014 WL 2770005, 2014 Utah App. LEXIS 145 (Utah Ct. App. 2014).

Opinions

GREENWOOD, Senior Judge:

T1 The State appeals from the magistrate's dismissal of criminal charges against defendant Adam Howard Jones. The State charged Jones with one count of official neglect and misconduct, a class A misdemean- or, see Utah Code Ann. § 10-8-826 (Lexis-Nexis 2012); one count of official misconduct, a class B misdemeanor, see id. § 76-8-201; and one count of tampering with a witness, a third degree felony, see id. § 76-8-508(1). The magistrate dismissed all three counts after a preliminary hearing, determining that there was insufficient evidence to bind Jones over for trial on any of the three counts. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

T 2 At the time of the events giving rise to this case, Jones was the police chief of Ka-mas, Utah. Jones's brother, Travis, lived in Kamas with his girlfriend (Girlfriend). Jones knew that Travis had a history of alcohol abuse and resulting violent behavior and that Travis's alcohol abuse had led to incidents of domestic violence with Girlfriend. In the past, Girlfriend had called Jones for help with Travis when Travis was drunk, although these calls had previously occurred only when Jones was off duty. Some of these calls occurred as much as six years earlier, when Travis and Girlfriend lived in West Valley City. Girlfriend had not called Jones about problems with Travis for approximately one year.

T8 On February 15, 2011, Jones was on duty in his office. His shift was to end at 10:00 pm. At about 9:45 p.m., Girlfriend called Jones on his personal cell phone and asked him to come to the house that she [99]*99shared with Travis. Jones later told the State's investigator that he asked Girlfriend why she wanted him to come over, but she did not give him a reason, and that he assumed the call was about problems concerning her son. In any event, Jones immediately left his office, in uniform, and drove his police cruiser the four blocks to Travis's house.

T4 When Jones arrived at the house, he was met by a drunken Travis clad only in his underwear. Travis was calm, although inebriated. Travis pointed to seratch marks on his chest and told Jones, "[L]ook what [Girlfriend] did to me." Jones then located Girlfriend in the garage, where she told Jones, "[Travis] can't do this to me anymore," that Travis was "out of control," and that he had kicked her in the leg. Jones examined Girlfriend's leg but observed no injury or impairment in her ability to walk.

15 While Jones and Girlfriend were talking, Travis entered the garage and again accused Girlfriend of scratching his chest. Girlfriend told Jones that Travis had scratched himself and asked Jones to calm Travis down. Jones responded that he could not deal with Travis because the two were brothers and asked Girlfriend if she wanted to call the Summit County Sheriffs Office to file a report. She declined, telling Jones that she was not afraid of Travis. Jones then spoke with Travis alone, and Travis admitted that he had scratched himself in an effort to get Girlfriend arrested.

T6 Travis appeared to be on the verge of passing out, so Jones put him to bed and told the couple to stay away from each other. Jones also told them that if they wanted to make a police report they would have to call the sheriff's office because Jones could not become professionally involved in his own family matters. Jones left Travis's house after being there a total of fifteen to twenty minutes and clocked out from his shift a little after 10:00 p.m. Jones did not arrest or cite Travis, write a report about the incident, or give Girlfriend written notice of her rights as a domestic violence victim.

T7 A short time later, Jones observed on his home computer that sheriffs deputies had been dispatched to Travis's house. When the deputies arrived there, they found Girlfriend erying and obviously distraught, with injuries that included bruising on her leg. Girlfriend's ten-year-old son had also suffered injuries The deputies arrested Travis, who was loud, vulgar, and very aggressive. Deputies also learned that Jones had been at the house earlier. Jones monitored the situation on his police radio, but the details of what he may have heard are unknown. Later that night, Girlfriend called Jones again. Jones assumed that Girlfriend was calling about Travis and did not answer his phone.

T8 The next morning, Jones went to visit Travis in jail. Travis was in a holding cell near the booking counter, and the sheriff's deputy working at the counter overheard parts of their conversation. Jones told Travis that Jones had been at Travis's house the night before, that Travis was passed out in his bed while Jones was there, and that Travis needed to do something about his drinking. As Jones was leaving, he spoke with the deputy directly about the prior evening's events and repeated his statement that Travis was passed out while Jones was at the house. He also told the deputy that Girlfriend had indicated in the phone call that he needed to come over to "talk or take care of" Travis.

1 9 As a result of these incidents, the State charged Jones with official neglect and misconduct-or, in the alternative, the lesser offense of official misconduct-for his handling of the incident between Travis and Girlfriend on the night of February 15. The State's theory of misconduct under both counts was that Jones had failed to comply with the requirements imposed on law enforcement officers by Utah's Cohabitant Abuse Procedures Act, see Utah Code Ann. §§ 77-36-1 to -10 (LexisNexis 2012 & Supp. 2013). The State also charged Jones with witness tampering because of his statements to Travis during the jail visit the next morning, where he told Travis that he had been passed out during Jones's visit.

{10 At Jones's preliminary hearing, the State called only three witnesses. Craig Gibson, the State's investigator, testified about [100]*100his March 7, 2011 interview of Jones, a tran-seript of which was admitted into the record.2 Sheriff's Deputy Richard Jones described his response to the dispatch call from Travis's house on the night of February 15 after Jones had been there. And Sheriffs Deputy Trace Thomsen testified about statements that Jones made to both him and Travis at the jail on the morning of February 16.

{11 After the preliminary hearing, Jones filed a motion to dismiss, which the magistrate granted as to all three counts. In its dismissal order, the magistrate ruled that the State had failed to demonstrate probable cause to believe that Jones had committed any of the three charged crimes. As to the official neglect and misconduct charge, the magistrate ruled that Jones was only alleged to have violated his duty as a police officer, not as a municipal officer as required by Utah Code section 10-3-826, and that the appropriate misconduct charge was therefore official misconduct pursuant to section 76-8-201. As to the official misconduct charge, the magistrate ruled that Jones was under no obligation to comply with the duties imposed upon police officers responding to domestic violence incidents because he went to Travis and Girlfriend's house as a family member, Girlfriend's call did not mention domestic violence, and there was no altercation occurring when Jones arrived at the house.

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Related

State v. Jones
2016 UT 4 (Utah Supreme Court, 2016)
State v. Peterson
2015 UT App 129 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2014 UT App 142, 330 P.3d 97, 763 Utah Adv. Rep. 53, 2014 WL 2770005, 2014 Utah App. LEXIS 145, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jones-utahctapp-2014.