This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
New documents show how the Utah attorney general's office unsuccessfully tried to find a prosecutor to consider assault charges against the Beaver County sheriff, and how conflicts with the sheriff's office and the sheriff's father, who is a state legislator, complicated the case.
Eventually, the FBI conducted an investigation of Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel's actions at a 2014 homicide scene. The FBI closed that investigation last year with no charges filed.
Before the FBI's involvement, at least three county attorneys and the attorney general's office all declined to consider whether Noel's use of force against a witness at the homicide scene amounted to assault, according to emails recently obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune through open-records requests.
The newspaper also obtained reports on the criminal investigation into Noel, as well as Noel's own report on what transpired May 14, 2014, between him and a handcuffed 28-year-old Timothy Wilson, whose mother stabbed her husband to death at a motel in the town of Beaver.
Detectives from the neighboring Millard County Sheriff's Office were asked to investigate Noel. Two days after the homicide, Noel gave two interviews to the detectives.
In the first interview, according to the detectives' report, Noel said Wilson was intoxicated and became belligerent as Noel was leading him to a patrol car.
Noel said he had to use his arm to push Wilson into a seat and attempt to buckle his seat belt. Noel, according to the detectives' report, said Wilson was resisting and attempted to head-butt him. Noel said he put his left arm on Wilson's throat and face. Noel said he later discovered his left arm was bleeding and he had teeth or bite marks there.
The report on the second interview with Noel is more descriptive. As Noel led Wilson away, Wilson yelled something back toward the stabbing scene, the report says. Noel told Wilson to get into the car, and Wilson yelled at Noel, "F—- you, motherf——-," the report says.
From there, the report on the second interview reads much like the first, but Noel says Wilson in the car was saying, "You're not strong enough to choke me."
"During the struggle Sheriff Noel did have his right hand on Wilson's throat in an attempt to keep him restrained in the seat until the seat belt could be put on," the detectives wrote.
Noel wrote his own report on the homicide and what transpired with Wilson. That report, dated May 19, has no mention of Noel placing his hand on Wilson's throat.
Noel wrote that he tried to use his left arm to restrain Wilson, and Wilson tried to head-butt him three times.
"I then used my right arm under his chin and throat area, pushed him back into the seat," Noel wrote.
The altercation ended when one of Noel's deputies ran over and buckled the seat belt.
Noel did not respond to interview requests from The Tribune. His attorney, Peter Stirba, said in a statement that the decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to not file charges, as well as a 2014 decision by Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training, which regulates police officers, to not take action, had "exonerated" Noel.
"There is no pending investigation and has not been for close to a year," Stirba wrote.
Concerns from two Beaver County deputies prompted the investigation into Noel. Those deputies, Cody Allen and Steven Kline, wrote reports saying Noel had both his hands around Wilson's throat.
Staff at the Beaver County jail took photos of Wilson's throat. The report from the Millard County deputies says the photos showed no bruising or injuries.
The Millard County report makes no recommendation on whether criminal charges should have been filed against Noel. Patrick Finlinson, then-deputy attorney for Millard County, said in an email Thursday that he initially agreed to "screen" the case — a common prosecutor term for considering charges. Finlinson's then-boss, Richard Waddingham, however, intervened, and had the case sent to the Utah attorney general's office. Finlinson, who has since been elected as the Millard County attorney, said Waddingham was concerned about jeopardizing his office's frequent interactions with the Beaver County Sheriff's Office.
The Utah attorney general's office apparently didn't want to screen the case, either. Emails show that in December 2014, it wanted Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings to consider charges against Noel.
That is when Stirba, a private practice attorney hired to represent Noel, got involved. The emails reference a letter Stirba wrote questioning whether Rawlings had legal authority to consider charges within the boundaries of the 5th District Court, which covers Beaver, Iron and Washington counties.
"Should I call Peter?" Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes asked in a Jan. 6, 2015, email to Spencer Austin, chief of Reyes' criminal division. "Should we do it together? I know Peter well but it's your department. Let's both get on like old times. Two witnesses always better than one."
Austin responded the next morning with an email saying, "Let's both call him."
Dan Burton, a spokesman for Reyes, last week said the telephone call discussed Stirba's concerns. Reyes agreed with Stirba that Rawlings couldn't screen the case without being deputized by the attorney general's office.
"Peter's M.O. tends to be, 'Here's why you shouldn't prosecute my client,' " Burton told The Tribune.
Meanwhile, other personnel at the attorney general's office apparently went looking for a prosecutor within the 5th District Court boundaries.
In an email dated Jan. 12, 2015, Craig Barlow, who works in the criminal division of the Utah attorney general's office, sent an email to Austin. Barlow implied that Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap turned down screening the case just as the Beaver County attorney did, in part because of Noel's father, state Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab.
"Rep. Noel represents parts of Washington Co.," Barlow wrote.
Burton said the attorney general's office intended to deputize Rawlings to screen the case, but before that happened, the FBI announced it would conduct its own investigation and consider the case.
"We closed down our investigation right away at that point," Burton said last week.
When asked whether the attorney general's office declined to screen the case out of fear of political reprisals from Mike Noel, Burton responded with a statement: "The attorney general's office does not consider political reprisal during screening or review of complaints, and this complaint was no exception."
The statute of limitations for most misdemeanor offenses in Utah is two years, but it's four years for most felonies. Burton last week acknowledged that, legally, a prosecutor still could consider charges against Cameron Noel. Burton said the FBI had not returned reports and other materials his office had shared with the federal agency.
At this point, reliable witnesses could be a problem for any prosecutor.
At the time his stepfather was killed, Wilson had absconded from parole in Tennessee for a conviction of attempted especially aggravated armed robbery. He was sent back to Tennessee after his apprehension in Utah. He was released from prison in August.
Wilson, acting as his own attorney, filed a civil rights lawsuit against Noel and Beaver County. Federal Judge Robert Shelby dismissed it Feb. 27, noting that Wilson hadn't filed any motions or briefs in 23 months.
Neither deputy who reported that Noel had choked Wilson still works for the Beaver County Sheriff's Office.
Allen was fired in late 2014 over allegations he was drunk at a Halloween party and threatened someone. He contended the firing was retaliation for reporting what Noel did at the homicide scene. He sued Noel and Beaver County in federal court. The county resolved the case by paying Allen $5,000, according to a copy of the settlement obtained via a records request.
The other deputy, Kline, pleaded guilty in March 2015 to a class B misdemeanor count of wrongful appropriation. Kline pawned ammunition belonging to the sheriff's office, according to an investigation by POST. The homicide that led to the alteration between Wilson and the sheriff occurred when Dorothy Louise Searcy, then 44, stabbed her husband, Reginald Searcy, 45, with a steak knife. Court documents state that Searcy stabbed her husband — who had been drinking heavily and was angry — after he had been pulling her hair and slapping her in the face.
The couple, Wilson and Wilson's girlfriend had been traveling around the country, Noel said at the time, and had been panhandling in Beaver after their car broke down.
Dorothy Searcy was charged with first-degree felony murder but pleaded guilty in 5th District Court to a reduced third-degree felony count of manslaughter and was sentenced to up to five years in prison.
ncarlisle@sltrib.com
Twitter: @natecarlisle —
Donations to Reyes
Attorney Peter Stirba, who intervened on behalf of Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel with the Utah attorney general's office, has been a relatively small donor to Sean Reyes' campaigns. His law firm gave Reyes $1,000 in 2012 and again in 2015, according to Reyes' campaign reports. In 2016, the reports say Stirba's firm gave Reyes $2,500. In each of those years, those donations amounted to less than 1 percent of the total Reyes received.