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OGDEN — Trial began Tuesday for a former Salt Lake police officer accused of hitting a car while under the influence of alcohol and Xanax, then pinning the car's driver to the bumper soon after.
Thomas Caygle, 38, is charged with aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, and negligently operating a vehicle resulting in injury, a class A misdemeanor. He opted for a bench trial with Ogden's 2nd District Judge Jason Nelson instead of appearing in front of a jury.
Caygle's attorney Ivy Telles asked the judge in her opening statement to "take special notice of the assumptions, of the leaps made" the day of the incident.
Deputy Weber County attorney Sean Brian walked the judge through a video recording of a traffic incident that quickly escalated.
The officer, who was off-duty at the time, allegedly drove his truck into the back of an Ogden man's car in December 2022. The accident was captured on a dashboard camera inside the car, and that recording was entered as court evidence.
The dashcam video shows Ryan Goodman chatting with his girlfriend about potentially buying a new car soon. "$40,000 is a lot of money," Goodman can be heard saying, as he slows to a stop at a red light. The conversation is interrupted by a jolt from the rear, when the truck strikes them.
"Now you might need a new car," Goodman's girlfriend says in the video. "Ironic."
The video then shows Goodman moving his car out of traffic and in front of the nearby gas station. When he walks to the rear of his vehicle to inspect the damage to the car's rear bumper, he is struck by Caygle's truck and pinned to the tailgate by his knees. His girlfriend pounds on the hood of the truck, shouting for Caygle to back up, but has to run and pull Goodman's car forward to release him.
"I made some groaning noises that I'm not proud of," Goodman quipped while testifying in Tuesday's hearing. A track athlete, he said he can no longer run without pain as he did before the incident.
In the courtroom on Tuesday, Caygle watched the video and continuously combed his mustache and beard with his fingers.
Court documents state that witnesses at the scene said Caygle "seemed really drunk," and some saw him "place gum in his mouth and spray cologne on himself" after the crash.
The former police officer's defense, laid out in Telles' opening statements, hinges around the fact that the state must prove that Caygle acted with intent. "Showing intent is difficult," Telles said. "There is no motivation whatsoever."
Caygle was previously employed by the Ogden Police Department. Employment documents show he had previous disciplinary issues, including striking "a pedestrian improperly crossing the roadway."
Those documents were deemed irrelevant to the current trial and will not be used as evidence. Earlier Tuesday, Nelson denied the defense's motion to suppress evidence from what they argued was an unlawful arrest.
The judge found there was sufficient probable cause to arrest Caygle for investigation of driving under the influence, so field sobriety tests and blood samples collected afterward will be used as evidence.
The three-day bench trial will continue Wednesday.
Correction: An earlier version incorrectly said Caygle is a current Salt Lake police officer. He is no longer employed by the department.
