This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
St. George • Officer Roderick Dixon knocked on the door of Room 211 of the motel, calling for whoever was inside to open up.
State investigators say the occupant was Dixon's girlfriend. Dixon, who was a police officer for Layton, had seen her car in the parking lot while he was on duty.
On Thursday, Utah's police regulators, the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST), decided Dixon abused his authority by checking up on his girlfriend while on duty. He received a one-year suspension from the council.
Eleven other peace officers also received discipline, including an officer caught smuggling drugs into the Salt Lake County Jail.
Sateki Mosaati Nau, 32, pleaded guilty in December to a second-degree felony count of drug distribution. He was sentenced in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City to 90 days home confinement, 120 hours of community service and three years of probation.
According to court documents, detectives with the Unified Police Department received a tip in April that an officer of the jail was smuggling drugs. The investigation led to Nau, court documents show.
Nau admitted to meeting people outside the jail, taking prescription pain medication from them and bringing it into the jail, according to a probable cause statement filed with the criminal charge. Court documents don't specify what Nau received in return.
The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office fired Nau the same month the smuggling was discovered. On Thursday, POST revoked his law enforcement certification, which will prevent him from working as a peace officer anywhere else in Utah.
POST also revoked the certifications of two sheriff's deputies found to have had sex on duty.
In Sanpete County, Marcus Lambert admitted to meeting a woman while on duty and having sex or sexual contact about 20 times, according to information provided to POST. Lambert also was found to have once lied to investigators and to have unlawfully taken a pain medication.
In Washington County, Jay Strausser had sex at a courthouse where he worked, according to a presentation given to POST. The other participant was a court employee. Strausser also was accused of harassing his ex-wife and violating a stalking injunction she had issued against him.
Dixon's case began when he spotted his girlfriend's car in a motel parking lot, according to the POST presentation. After figuring out which room she was in, and after no one answered the door, Dixon went to a clerk and asked him or her to open the door. Dixon, according to the POST presentation, claimed the matter was police business.
Dixon and the clerk knocked again and warned they were coming in. A man who was inside the room with the girlfriend opened the door. He was on the phone with 911, according to the presentation, reporting that he was being harassed by a police officer.
Millard County Sheriff Robert Dekker, one of the POST Council members, on Thursday wondered if Dixon should be suspended for two years instead of one.
"He just represented himself as peace officer on official duty a couple times there and abused his authority," Dekker said.
But Dekker voted for the one-year suspension after a POST investigator explained Dixon admitted to everything when confronted by his own police department.
A Beaver County corrections officer, William Arevalo, received a three-year suspension for child abuse. Arevalo entered a guilty plea in abeyance in 5th District Court to a misdemeanor child abuse count after a 2015 fight at home with his stepdaughter. Beaver County terminated him in 2015.
Other discipline issued Thursday:
Morgan County Sheriff's Office • Robin R. Taylor, one-year suspension for unauthorized use of a police database.
Roy Police Department • Kenneth C. Parker, 2 1/2-year suspension for theft.
Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office • Christian Wininger, three-month suspension for disorderly conduct.
Utah Department of Corrections • Tanner Atwood-Bowen, two-year suspension for lying on his applications for training or employment.
Department of Corrections • Williams B. Francom, three-year suspension for poaching, obstruction of justice and trespassing.
Department of Corrections • Dan Sorenson, one-year suspension for intoxication and disorderly conduct.
Department of Corrections • Scott Michael West, nine-month suspension for driving under the influence.
Twitter: @natecarlisle