Intoxicated man accused of having 12-year-old drive him home

STOCKTON, Tooele County — A 41-year-old Tooele County man is accused of abusing a 12-year-old boy by having the boy drive him home while he was intoxicated.

The man, from Stockton, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated child abuse, a third-degree felony; reckless endangerment, a class A misdemeanor; and drinking alcohol in a vehicle, a class C misdemeanor.

Sunday at about 10:15 p.m., a Tooele County sheriff's deputy received an anonymous tip that a 12-year-old boy was "operating a vehicle while transporting an intoxicated adult," according to a police booking affidavit.

The deputy spotted the Ford F-150 near Bald Mountain Road in Stockton and followed it. After the vehicle stopped at the man's residence, the deputy "made contact with the occupants and confirmed that the driver was a 12-year-old juvenile male," the affidavit states.

While talking to the man in the passenger seat, the deputy said he noticed signs of intoxication, including slurred speech. When the man got out of the vehicle, he was "unsteady and leaned against the truck," according to the affidavit. A half-empty beer was allegedly found on the passenger side floor of the vehicle. Police said the man refused a portable breath test. Court records do not say how far the boy drove the man, whether it was his first time driving or the relationship between the boy and the man.

Police noted in an affidavit that the man was on probation when he was arrested. According to court records, he was placed on probation less than two weeks earlier for violating a protective order in one case, and for violating the terms of his probation in a second case after being convicted of child abuse in 2025.

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