This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Two recent developments in Garfield County highlight tensions between law enforcement jurisdictions about who has control in Utah's majestic rural outback.
After several court delays and a 14-month investigation by the Utah attorney general's office, 6th District Judge Marvin Bagley ordered former Escalante Police Chief Kevin Worlton to stand trial on two second-degree-felony counts of making false or inconsistent statements in his reports on a drug investigation.
When he first was accused of the crimes in early 2015, Worlton's supporters said he was being punished for being too aggressive in efforts to curb drug dealing — an ongoing problem in Garfield County, they said.
But Garfield County Sheriff Danny Perkins, whose office has taken over law enforcement in Escalante since Worlton was the town's only police officer, said the ex-chief was out of control in the way he investigated certain drug suspects.
Perkins' investigation was turned over to the Utah attorney general's office to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. Because of the false-reporting allegations, authorities had to drop charges against six people Worlton had arrested on drug counts.
The other development involves former Bureau of Land Management Ranger Jeff Ellison, who was arrested at his home by Garfield County sheriff's deputies in December for a conversation he had at the BLM office two days earlier in which he allegedly made threatening comments to a co-worker about using explosive devices.
According to a March 20 story by Tay Wiles in High Country News, Ellison had a casual conversation with a woman in his office that apparently was interpreted to be threatening. Two days later, while he was at home, he was called by his supervisor and told he had to apologize to the woman and that two deputies were on their way to arrest him.
According to that story, Ellison, who has since left the BLM and moved to California, said the deputies informed him the sheriff wanted to make an example of him. He spent the night in jail and wasn't informed of the potential charges — a class B misdemeanor of making a threat of violence and a disorderly conduct infraction — until he posted bail to get out of jail the next morning.
That was five months ago. No formal charges ever were filed.
In April, after months of uncertainty, Garfield County Attorney Barry Huntington and Ellison's lawyer, Pat Shea, a former national BLM director, issued joint statements in the case:
"I have screened the case and have found the arrest was justifiable based on the probable-cause standard for arrest. Since receiving the case in its entirety, I have interviewed all known witnesses and the alleged victim. Because of differing eyewitness accounts and due to the wishes of the alleged victim, I have determined to not prosecute this case," Huntington said.
"Mr. Ellison is a combat veteran with two Bronze Stars," Shea said. "It is my belief from examining all of the evidence that there were certain predispositions toward federal law enforcement personnel, which allowed a minor office conversation to escalate far beyond what any of the participants intended. It is clear no one felt threatened by the casual conversation."
Perkins, the Garfield County sheriff, took umbrage with a previous column I wrote about Ellison's arrest. It was Dan Love, the BLM's special agent in charge of Utah and Nevada, who called the sheriff's office and wanted Ellison arrested, Perkins said.
Ellison had been involved in an earlier dispute when he said a man threatened him with a gun while he was patrolling a campground in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. He reported the incident, but no charges were filed.
I had written that deputies tracked down the man in a different county, but Perkins said BLM officers responded to Ellison's complaint and declined to press charges.
Perkins said it was never shown that the man had a gun and Ellison had invaded the campers' area, where a privacy curtain had been hung.
Perkins and other rural sheriffs have been vocal about their displeasure with federal law enforcement on several occasions.