Constable, wife charged with altering report

Constable, wife charged with altering report


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SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake County constable and his wife have been charged with altering a police report to downplay an officer's use of force.

Silvan Warnick, 55, and his wife, Alanna Warnick, 53, both were charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony.

Silvan Warnick told his employee to remove information from police documents, and when the employee wouldn't, he had his wife do it, the charges state. Silvan Warnick also is facing a third-degree felony charge of tampering with a witness.

The charges stem from an Aug. 24 incident at the South Salt Lake Justice Court where a man fled from the courtroom after a judge ordered him to jail. A court bailiff took off in pursuit of the man and ultimately caught up to him, placed his baton under the man's arm and threatened to spray him with pepper spray.

A second officer then arrived and handcuffed the man. The court bailiff looked away briefly and then turned back to see the officer holding the man with his face down on the seat of the officer's truck.


We are not going to show them our errors.

–- Silvan Warnick, constable


The bailiff later wrote a report about the incident and detailed the actions taken by him and the police officer. Silvan Warnick, the bailiff's boss, then told the man to eliminate anything in the report about the use of force, the charges state.

At a training session soon afterward, the bailiff recorded Warnick telling those at a training session, "We are not going to show them our errors" and also instructed those at the session to leave some information out of incident reports, according to the charges.

The bailiff went to the Warnicks' home later to talk about the report he was being pressured to change. Silvan Warnick told the bailiff he took some things out before turning in the report to the Utah Attorney General's Office "just to keep you out of hot water, keep us out of hot water," the charges state.

Silvan Warnick said he told his wife to take things out of the report — "the stuff that's not there" — and allegedly told the bailiff that he didn't recall things as they actually happened.

He offered to turn in the original report and the amended one, but said doing so would "open you up to a lot," according to court charges.


I just took out some of the stuff that didn't appear to be relevant.

–- Alanna Warnick


When police questioned the constable's wife, she said: "I just took out some of the stuff that didn't appear to be relevant," the charges state. She said she asked the police officer what had happened, and she determined it "was not a use of force."

The bailiff's recollection was false, the charges quote Alanna Warnick as saying, because he was "too far away to be able to hear what was going on, so he's reporting something he had no idea what was going on."

Chief deputy district attorney Jeffrey Hall said a constable is a law enforcement official with full police power while on duty. They are known as special function officers, who must undergo POST training and can serve a number of functions, including serving court papers and providing court security.

Hall said there are several constable's offices in Salt Lake County. He said this case is concerning because prosecutors rely on the honesty of officers when screening for charges.

"If it came to light that any police report was deliberately misleading or left out material information, that would be very troubling," he said.

The voice mail message for the Salt Lake County constable featured Silvan Warnick, though no one at the office could be reached for comment on his position in the office or his current employment status.

Email:emorgan@ksl.com

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