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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Highway Patrol said Friday that a memo discussing questionable arrests by UHP trooper Lisa Steed should never have been made public, and that the allegations made therein of a UHP cover-up were unfounded.
Major Michael S. Rapich, assistant superintendent of the UHP, said at a press conference Friday that a memo leaked to the media regarding DUI arrests Steed allegedly made under suspicious circumstances was a private interoffice document and had not been included in personnel files made available to the public for that reason.
"Internal communications related to employees' performance are private," he said, adding that "how that record got released and how it made it into circulation — we're not aware of how that happened and it's something we're actively looking into."
The memo, written by Sgt. Rob Nixon, Steed's supervisor, was written to a section commander after Nixon reviewed 20 of Steed's DUI arrests.
Nixon said in the memo that in seven of the 20 cases, only metabolites were present in the drivers' bloodstreams. Metabolites are the remnants of drugs — regardless of legality — found in the bloodstream.
Four of the drivers had no drugs in their system.
When questioned about the implication in the memo that officers at UHP had known about Steed's questionable arrests, Rapich said allegations of a UHP cover-up of the information were completely unfounded.
Related:
UHP pulls Steed off streets over 2nd DUI case
For the second time in a week, a decorated Utah Highway Patrol trooper's credibility has been found lacking, leading to the dismissal of criminal charges against someone she investigated."The accusation that those concerns were made aware of to a section commander and that they were covered up — were not addressed — are completely not true," Rapich said.
Two cases of concern that were the result of Steed's arrests were thrown out of court in April after the trooper's credibility was found to be lacking. After the second incident, Steed was pulled off the streets pending an investigation into the matter.
Steed had been issued a letter of reprimand in Nov. 2010 for failing to wear an external microphone during a videotaped DUI-related traffic stop. Steed testified she had told supervisors it was because she had made the suspect take a breathalyzer test before administering field sobriety tests, which is against UHP policy.
Nixon testified at the time that Steed had told him she did not know why she had removed her microphone.
Rapich said an investigation into Steed's DUI arrests is ongoing and declined to comment on the situation until a final decision has been made.
