A Weber State University administrator was bound over on Tuesday to stand trial on charges that he kidnapped a former student.
Phillip O. Austin appeared Tuesday for a preliminary hearing before 2nd Circuit Judge Pamela Heffernan. Austin is scheduled to enter a plea on a first-degree felony kidnapping charge May 23 before 2nd District Judge Stanton Taylor.Austin, WSU director of academic advisement, has been suspended with pay since his arrest. He has been at WSU since September 1993.
According to the victim, Colby Clifford, the defendant picked him up March 12 and gave him a ride in Roy, where the incident supposedly occurred. Clifford testified that Austin told him he was a homosexual before pulling out a gun and asking for a sexual favor.
Clifford, 20, said he jumped out of the car after Austin told him that he was going to drive Clifford to his Ogden house. Clifford called police.
Clifford, who is now in the Navy, said several days later he was at WSU when he saw Austin and recognized him. He called police again. Austin was arrested and booked in the Weber County Jail. He was later released on a $20,000 bond.
If convicted, Austin faces life in prison.