This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

A former Kamas police chief who lost his job after being accused of witness tampering and official misconduct and spent five years fighting the charges before they were dismissed has filed suit alleging he was maliciously prosecuted.

Adam Howard Jones claims his prosecution was driven by then-Summit County Sheriff David Edmunds' "personal animus" against him and says he spent more than $80,000 in attorneys' fees defending himself.

The suit, filed June 22 in 3rd District Court, accuses Summit County and Edmunds of malicious prosecution and abuse of process and asks for an unspecified amount of money in compensatory and punitive damages.

A third defendant, Kamas City, is being sued for attorneys' fees and court costs that Jones incurred in fighting the official misconduct charge because that count was associated with the performance of his duties, according to the suit.

A Kamas official could not be reached Monday for immediate comment.

Edmunds said Monday that the suit is "perplexing" because as a law enforcement officer, he investigated cases and prosecutors made charging decisions, he said.

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said in a news release that the county "denies the allegations that it in any way engaged in the malicious prosecution of Mr. Jones."

She also said the county is not aware of any personal animus between Edmunds and Jones and pointed out that then-Summit County Attorney David Brickey had made the decision to charge Jones.

Jones, now 38, was charged in 2011 with third-degree felony witness tampering and class B misdemeanor official misconduct for allegedly failing to take action during a domestic violence incident at his brother's home.

The then-police chief went to the home on Feb. 15, 2011, after his brother's girlfriend called and asked him to "take care of" his brother, who she said was intoxicated. When Jones arrived at the home, the girlfriend claimed the brother had hurt her and the brother leveled the same claim against the girlfriend.

Jones clarified he was there as a brother and offered multiple times to call the Summit County sheriff's office because he could not handle an incident involving a family member. However, the girlfriend refused, saying they could not afford for the brother to go to jail again.

Because he saw no evidence to corroborate the claims, Jones left the home after his brother was asleep in his room, the suit says.

Later that night, the girlfriend called police and reported that Jones' brother had assaulted her and her child, and the brother was arrested. The suit says Jones visited his brother in jail the next morning and told him he needed treatment for his drinking.

After learning of Jones' visit, the Summit County Sheriff's Office launched an investigation and either ignored or failed to investigate facts that weighed against prosecution, the suit claims. The county attorney's office filed charges in 3rd District Court on May 3, 2011, of third-degree felony witness tampering and class A misdemeanor official neglect and misconduct; an additional charge, class B misdemeanor official misconduct, was added later.

Kamas fired Jones on May 12, 2011, after the county informed the city that it risked civil liability by keeping him as chief, the suit alleges.

Olson said Edmunds was operating within his scope of authority in investigating the domestic violence call.

"The County is always concerned about domestic violence and investigates all reports of domestic violence thoroughly," she said in the news release.

Prosecutors argued at a preliminary hearing that when Jones failed to take action at his brother's home when the girlfriend reported that the two had physically fought, it amounted to misconduct under the state's Domestic Violence Act. Prosecutors also claimed Jones tampered with a witness by talking to his brother at the jail the next morning because his intent was to clear himself of failing to act on the domestic violence allegation.

Following a preliminary hearing, however, 3rd District Judge L.A. Dever dismissed the class A misdemeanor count of official neglect, which alleged that as police chief, Jones was a municipal officer and had failed to perform his duties when he allegedly did not comply with the requirements of the Cohabitant Abuse Procedures Act. The judge said Jones was alleged to have violated his general duties as a police officer, not his duties as police chief.

Dever also ruled that prosecutors had failed to demonstrate probable cause to believe that Jones had committed any of the three charged crimes and granted a motion to dismiss the case.

Prosecutors appealed to the Utah Court of Appeals, which upheld Dever's ruling in 2014. They then appealed the dismissal of the witness tampering and class B misdemeanor official misconduct charges at the Utah Supreme Court, which reversed the Court of Appeals in 2016.

The case was sent back to 3rd District Court, and prosecutors, citing "insufficient evidence," asked last August that the charges be dropped. Jones' lawsuit notes the county was "governed by new administration" by then.

Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC