Salt Lake man who prompted police standoff arrested again hours after getting out of jail

SALT LAKE CITY — A man who was arrested following a three-hour standoff with Salt Lake police on Tuesday was arrested again on Wednesday — just five hours after he was released from jail and then returned to the same house.

And Salt Lake police say they are concerned with Maurice Charles Raffoul's increasingly erratic behavior, which allegedly includes threats to kill his parents. Yet he has spent little time in custody.

Raffoul even told officers after his arrest on Wednesday that "the second he is released, he would be going back to the protected party's residence (his parents) and that nobody could stop him or control him," according to a police booking affidavit.

"In this instance we have devoted many resources, including social workers, over several months to try and resolve this situation. During the last two days, the suspect's behavior has escalated and become more alarming. It's frustrating to see someone released from custody when we have presented the potential dangers they pose. Often crime victims need time to utilize resources to ensure their safety, something that is not possible when a suspect is quickly released from custody," Salt Lake police said in a prepared statement Thursday.

Raffoul's violent behavior dates back to at least Sept. 22 when he was arrested and accused of assault and damaging a phone. Raffoul's father called 911 to report he was being assaulted, and dispatchers could hear Raffoul yelling in the background that "he was going to kill" his father, according to a police booking affidavit.

When he was arrested, police say Raffoul "stated several times he will be rich once his parents die."

Raffoul, 42, pleaded guilty in that case to assault, an infraction, in February, according to court records. That plea was to be held in abeyance for a year.

On June 4, Raffoul was arrested and charged with abuse of a vulnerable adult, a third-degree felony. Raffoul's father again reported being assaulted by his son following an argument over money.

"Maurice threatened to kill him if he did not give him $50,000," court documents state, adding that Raffoul told his 75-year-old father that "he wanted him dead."

Officers also noted in an arrest report that the day before, Raffoul "made numerous threats to hurt officers." His father told police that "the abuse is daily" and Raffoul "has made threats to hurt and kill his elderly parents whom he lives with if they do not give him money," according to a police affidavit.

An arrest warrant was issued in that case after the formal charge was filed and Raffoul was rebooked into jail on July 17.

But on the same day the arrest warrant was issued, police say Raffoul "made several calls to dispatch" while he was having "psychiatric issues." Charging documents further state that Raffoul "contacted dispatchers numerous times swearing and yelling, asking why police were not at his house."

When officers arrived, Raffoul began fighting with them and hit one officer "on the left side of his face near his eye, causing it to swell," a police affidavit states. In addition to the warrant, he was arrested for investigation of assault on an officer and interfering with an arrest.

Raffoul posted bail the next day after he was booked into jail, according to court records.

He was formally charged for the July 17 incident on Tuesday, with assault on a police officer, a class A misdemeanor; interfering with an arrest and emergency reporting abuse, class B misdemeanors.

Also Tuesday, the same day that he was charged for the July incident, Raffoul again assaulted a family member and then barricaded himself inside the house, according to Salt Lake police, which prompted them to send a SWAT team to the residence. About three hours after the standoff began, Raffoul surrendered to officers.

After his arrest, detectives learned that Raffoul had been assaulting a person in the house "over the last three days," according to a statement from the department. He was arrested for investigation of assault and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail about 5:40 p.m. Tuesday, according to jail records.

By 11:35 a.m. Wednesday, he was released on bond from the jail.

But also on Wednesday, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office was quick to file charges for the most recent incident, charging Raffoul with two counts of aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult, a class A misdemeanor, accusing him of punching his father in the stomach on Saturday, elbowing him and kicking him in the leg. A warrant was issued for his arrest by Wednesday afternoon.

About the same time that arrest warrant was issued, Raffoul returned to his parents' house, violating a protective order that had been issued by a judge. Salt Lake police said they found Raffoul in a car after he left the residence. They pulled him over and arrested him both on the warrant and for investigation of violating a jail release order.

Police noted that Raffoul has violated the conditions of his jail release on multiple occasions and "has also continued to assault the victim in the residence. There is an extensive firearms collection within the protected party's residence that (Raffoul) has access to."

Raffoul has repeatedly shown he will violate the agreement of his jail release "and continue to assault the victim," officers wrote in an affidavit, adding that he "has shown himself to be a substantial danger" to his father, as well as neighbors.

Thursday afternoon, Raffoul was charged with violation of a jail release order, a third-degree felony. In filing the new charges, the district attorney's office has requested that Raffoul remain in jail pending trial, noting: "The state believes that should the defendant be released from custody, the victim will be in grave danger of suffering further domestic abuse or death at the hands of the defendant."

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