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PANGUITCH — The former chief of Escalante's one-man police department has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he falsified police reports.
Kevin Worlton, 48, was bound over Tuesday to stand trial in 6th District Court on two second-degree felony counts of making false or inconsistent material statements. A charge of official misconduct, a class B misdemeanor, was dismissed.
An investigation by the Utah Attorney General's Office alleges Worlton made false statements about whether he notified a woman he was questioning in a Dec. 17, 2014, drug investigation of her Miranda rights before using the confession to obtain a search warrant to investigate five others and to later arrest her.
In the probable cause statement Worlton filed to make the arrest, he said the woman he spoke to was "not in custody and free to leave the residence," indicating she had been read her Miranda rights, according to court documents. A video recording confirmed she had not, charges state.
While serving the search warrant, Worlton questioned a woman and later reported she implicated herself and two others in the exchange of marijuana, charges state. But investigators say a recording of that exchange shows she told Worlton she had "no clue" about possible drug activity.
Six people were arrested in the investigation, four of whom pleaded guilty Dec. 23, 2014, to charges ranging from first-degree felonies to class B misdemeanors, charges state. However, a report about the arrests wasn't written until four days after they entered their pleas.
The case was later dismissed.
At the time, Worlton was the only officer in the Escalante Police Department and acted as chief. He was terminated from the post following his arrest and the department was disbanded. The Garfield County Sheriff's Office now polices the area.
A jury three-day jury trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 30, 2017.
