Misconduct charges dismissed against ex-Kamas police chief

Misconduct charges dismissed against ex-Kamas police chief

(Jordan Allred, Deseret News, File)


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KAMAS — Misconduct charges filed against a former Kamas police chief five years ago and appealed to the Utah Supreme Court have been dismissed.

A judge signed a motion from prosecutors Tuesday saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed to trial on charges that Adam Howard Jones, 37, should have done more after his brother's girlfriend called him for help saying he'd kicked her while he was drunk in February 2011.

Jones was charged with witness tampering, a third-degree felony, and official misconduct, a class B misdemeanor. The charges were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be filed again.

The charges had been dismissed by now-retired 3rd District Judge L.A. Dever, who ruled Jones was at the home as a family member and a private citizen. The case was revived in January after prosecutors appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, only to motion eight months later that the charges be dismissed.

Prosecutors had claimed that when Jones responded in uniform to his brother's home toward the end of his shift, he was acting in his role as a law enforcement officer and was therefore obligated to report the disturbance, even though his brother's girlfriend refused to call any other police. Jones had explained that he couldn't handle the complaint because of the family relationship and offered to call the Summit County Sheriff's Office.

Though Jones knew his brother had been violent in the past when drunk, he didn't see any marks on the woman, who said the couple couldn't afford for him to go back to jail and declined to file a report.

Jones put his brother to bed and went home. Later that night, the brother assaulted both his girlfriend and her 10-year-old son, according to charging documents.

Charges also alleged Jones tried to cover up his involvement in the ordeal the next day by saying his jailed brother had been passed out the entire time he had been at the house.

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McKenzie Romero

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