Utah County sheriff's deputy erred in arrest of BYU linebacker Chaz Ah You, sheriff's office says

LAS VEGAS — More details have come to light regarding the decision by the Utah County Attorney's Office to drop misdemeanor DUI and other charges against BYU linebacker Chaz Ah You.

After Ah You's arrest in February, officials from the sheriff's office "were made aware that there may have been procedural errors during Ah You’s arrest," according to a news release from Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon.

Ah You was arrested at the scene for driving recklessly by a Utah County sheriff’s deputy who was training, Cannon said. The deputy and his training deputy also intended to impound Ah You’s car, which led to a search and discovery of two open containers of alcohol and a THC pen, the release stated.

"The evidence found during the inventory search would not have been found but for the physical arrest of the driver and the inventory of his car," according to Cannon.

There were also "procedural concerns" with how the field sobriety tests were administered, Cannon said.

“The field sobriety test after the fact were also not performed, not administered in a way that was completely reliable and so I think that — we haven’t talked to the county attorney about it— but I think those are some concerns that they had and we had those same concerns," Cannon told KSL.com

The deputy did not document the incident "particularly well," which created confusion as well.

"The arrest was made based on the violation of reckless driving — which is not a common thing that we typically arrest somebody for — and the vehicle was searched based on that arrest.”

“And that kind of created some confusion about what the arrest was for,” he said. “There are procedures or steps to be taken in making sure that you’ve got everything done the way it’s supposed to be done and some of those orderly procedures were not done in the way that they should’ve been done.”

"The deputy’s inability to articulate the facts of the traffic stop," caused the Utah County Attorney's office to dismiss the case, according to Cannon.

In addition, the deputy in question — who was not named — was evaluated and “appropriate steps have been taken to ensure that a situation like this will not happen in the future,” the release states.

“The information that the deputy had, the violations that he witnessed, there were no problems with that,” Cannon told KSL.com.

Ah You was cited with five counts of misdemeanor driving under the influence, drug possession, reckless driving, making an improper lane change and speeding Feb. 9 at 4:45 p.m. on Pioneer Crossing near the intersection of Lehi and Saratoga Springs. The junior-to-be linebacker was booked into Utah County jail, and eventually released on his own recognizance following several citations. Charges were ultimately filed in the case.

Ah You remains enrolled in classes at BYU, but he has not participated with the BYU football team during spring practice, head coach Kalani Sitake said.

Contributing: Lauren Bennett, KSL.com

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