Bountiful police officer charged with assault and obstruction

A Bountiful City police officer is facing charges of assault, obstruction of justice and illegally accessing protected information.

Ryan Newbold, 31, of Layton, is on administrative leave with pay while the court proceedings play out, according to police.

Two different sets of charges have been filed involving two incidents. In the first, filed Feb. 11, a probable cause statement states that on Oct. 20, Newbold “used unlawful force or violence” against an unnamed person, “causing bodily injury.”

He then “made verbal and written reports about the incident that were false.”

Newbold was charged in 2nd District Court with obstructing justice, a class A misdemeanor, and assault, a class B misdemeanor.

Bountiful police Lt. Dave Edwards said he couldn’t talk about the specifics while the case remains under investigation, but he did say the charges were not the result of a citizen complaint made against Newbold.

“This came to light internally. Didn't come from outside,” he said. “Every use of force that Bountiful Police Department is involved in goes through a review process. … There were concerns with this one, which led to an internal investigation.”

And that turned up “potential” violations, which were reported to the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council and the Davis County Attorney's Office.

Edwards said the second set of charges, filed May 10, also resulted from an internal review. According to court documents, on Nov. 27, Newbold unlawfully “accessed the Utah Criminal Investigations database for warrants, NCIC and driver’s license information on an individual not associated with any investigation,” and then “disseminated the protected records for an unlawful purpose.”

That probable cause statement goes on to say that Newbold told investigators he sent the records “accidentally … but that was shown to be false through text messages he had sent.”

He is facing one count of obstruction of justice, a class A misdemeanor, and three counts of unlawful access or use of criminal investigations and technical services division records, class B misdemeanors, in this case.

The Davis County Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.