- San Juan County Sheriff's Sgt. Chaz Black stopped a speeding driver.
- The driver, Michael Bowman, is accused of later causing a DUI crash, injuring others.
- Bowman faces charges but missed court appearances; a warrant is issued.
MONTICELLO — It started as a typical traffic stop.
San Juan County Sheriff's Sgt. Chaz Black pulled over a white SUV for going more than 100 miles per hour on U.S. 191.
During that stop Feb. 5 just after 1 p.m., the driver fell asleep, Black wrote in an incident report. But without evidence of impairment, the sergeant cited him for speeding and let him continue.
Six minutes later, that same driver caused a serious crash with injuries while under the influence of alcohol, according to court documents.
Through a public records request, KSL obtained body and dash camera footage from the traffic stop, which a former law enforcement officer reviewed along with incident reports.
"We want to trust our police officers," said Chris Bertram, a retired deputy police chief. "We want to believe that they are doing a great job every time, but we do know that mistakes sometimes are made, or things are missed."
Traffic stop
In the body camera video, Black is shown pulling over a white SUV, which he said was clocked traveling southbound at 102 mph, near Milepost 80.
Behind the wheel of the SUV was Michael Steven Bowman, 39, from New Mexico. The San Juan County Sheriff's Office redacted the body cam video, making it nearly impossible to observe Bowman's facial expressions during his interaction with Black. KSL appealed the redaction, arguing it violated the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act, but the county denied the appeal.
However, the sheriff's office neglected to redact a small part of the video, allowing for a glimpse of what Bowman looks like. KSL has chosen to publish that image.
After Black wrote a citation, he walked back to the vehicle. At that point, Black wrote, Bowman "appeared to be asleep." Black tapped him on the shoulder to rouse him.
"I asked him if he was OK. I asked him if he had been drinking," Black wrote in the incident report. "He denied that he had been drinking. I leaned in through the window and got close to Bowman's face twice, trying to smell the odor of alcohol. I never smelled the odor of alcohol on him or in the vehicle."
Black added he never saw any open containers of alcohol or drugs inside the SUV.
That process lasted less than 30 seconds, as shown on the body camera footage. The sheriff's sergeant then moved on, giving Bowman the ticket and allowing him to continue driving. Bowman left the area at 1:24 p.m., according to the timestamp on the sheriff's office video.
"At no time during the stop did I think he slurred his words or had trouble communicating with me," Black wrote. "When he handed me his license, his dexterity appeared normal. He did not struggle to get his license out of his wallet."
But that wasn't the last authorities would see of Michael Bowman.
Serious crash
Just six minutes after driving away from the traffic stop, around 1:30 p.m. —a few miles outside of Monticello — Bowman passed a semitruck on the shoulder "at a high rate of speed" and lost control, causing a three-vehicle crash with injuries, according to the Utah Highway Patrol. Officials said Bowman and another man were both taken to the hospital.
During the crash investigation, court documents noted, "one of the EMTs stated that (Bowman) looked extremely intoxicated." At the hospital, a UHP trooper added, Bowman had "the odor of alcohol emitting from his breath" and blew a blood alcohol level of .154.
"The fact that he is three times the legal limit in Utah is concerning," said Bertram, the retired deputy police chief.
Bertram said Black did the right thing by sniffing around for alcohol, and based on the video, the driver didn't appear to be obviously impaired.
That is, except for sleeping.
"To me, that is probably the only gap that I see," Bertram said, "is that there may have been more inquiries about why he would fall asleep in the middle of the traffic stop."
He added that this case poses tough questions for the San Juan County Sheriff's Office.
"I think the chief executive of any department needs to go back and question, was something missed? Why was it missed?" Bertram said.
KSL asked for an interview with San Juan County Sheriff Lehi Lacy to talk about what Black did during the traffic stop, but Lacy declined, saying this is still an active case. The sheriff wouldn't say whether Black faced any discipline over what happened.
Court case
As for Bowman, who's now 40, he was booked into jail but released a few days later. He's charged with three misdemeanors in 7th District Court, including driving under the influence of alcohol with a prior conviction and negligently operating a vehicle resulting in injury.
Bowman is also charged with threatening the UHP trooper who questioned him at the hospital. According to court documents, Bowman "told the trooper that he would have the trooper 'taken out tomorrow' as a threat against his life."
However, after posting bail, Bowman didn't show up for a court hearing in March or in April. A warrant is now out for his arrest.
Correction: A previous version incorrectly referred to state Route 191.
