A check for $100,900 seized from a California-bound van was to be returned to Emery County on Thursday, and the action is expected to remove the threat of contempt-of-court charges against the Emery County attorney and sheriff.
Emery County Attorney Patricia Geary said an FBI agent and a U.S. attorney were expected to arrive in Castle Dale with a check made out to Emery County. She said she would endorse it and turn it over to Mark H. Tanner, an attorney representing Hurdley Evans, a California resident and owner of the van from which the money was taken.As soon as Tanner got the money, the U.S. attorney planned to hand Tanner a federal seizure warrant and take back the money.
The money, in $5,000 bundles wrapped in brown paper, was discovered by Emery County deputies after the van was stopped and searched on I-70. Because no drug charges were filed in Utah in connection with the case, the Utah Supreme Court ruled the money should be returned to Evans.
Seventh District Judge Boyd Bunnell and later 7th District Judge Bryce Bryner ordered the return of the money. Bryner sentenced Geary and Sheriff LaMar Guymon to 20 days in jail on contempt-of-court charges but stayed execution of the sentence for 10 days pending return of the money.
Geary said she had turned the money over to the FBI because she knew a federal seizure warrant had been issued and a federal investigation of drug charges is continuing.
"It was a jurisdictional dispute," she said.
Although she wanted to safeguard Emery County's interest in the money, that was not her primary motive in turning the money over to federal authorities. But counties get a percentage of drug money seized within their borders.
She said the search was not illegal. She said the money was seized during a lawful stop and officers had a search warrant before searching the van. The matter will now be pursued by federal authorities.