PROVO -- Utah County Commissioner David Gardner's DUI case has been moved from Utah County to Juab County to avoid conflicts.
"I obviously can't prosecute it," said Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson, who said there was never any question that the case would be transferred to another jurisdiction.Meanwhile, at least one politician has called for Gardner's resignation should the charge prove to be true.
Gardner was charged with driving under the influence after allegedly driving his car off the road and causing a grass fire that also caught his vehicle ablaze. The incident occurred Monday night near 1450 W. 5000 South in Palmyra, west of Spanish Fork.
His behavior and a strong odor of alcohol raised some suspicion on the part of police officers who responded to the scene. Gardner told the Deseret News he failed a Breathalyzer test given him by a Utah County sheriff's deputy. He said the results registered .09 likely because he'd taken a swig of something from a hitchhiker he picked up in Provo about 1 1/2 hours earlier.
He also said he'd received a gastric bypass operation that left him with a 2-ounce stomach and a low tolerance and absorption rate of alcohol. The legal blood-alcohol limit is .08.
The commissioner also failed several field sobriety tests administered by a drug recognition expert with the Utah Highway Patrol, a UHP report states.
Bob Davis, Democratic Party chairman for Utah County, said the whole situation proves that Republicans make mistakes as well as Democrats.
"I would say that it's unfortunate (for him)," Davis said. "We would hope that if the police version of the incident is proven correct that he could consider resignation as the honorable thing to do.
"We expect more from our commissioners," he said.
"It is also unfortunate that a number of people in this area choose to vote Republican believing that Republicans have a higher standard than Democrats. This could be considered a call to arms. People need to look more closely at both Democrats and Republicans before they vote."
Davis said everybody looks at President Clinton and says, "Oh, he's just a Democrat."
"The Republicans know this," Davis said, "And they've used this to their party advantage."
Deputy county attorney Mark Brady said there obviously would be a conflict of interest if Utah County attempted to prosecute the case of a commissioner since the commissioners are essentially the employers of the attorneys in the office.
Juab County Attorney David Leavitt will receive all of the materials and evidence from Utah County immediately, Bryson said.
However, the evaluation of the case cannot begin until results are in from blood tests and a urine screen, which were conducted at a hospital.
"The usual procedure is to screen the evidence, evaluate the merits of the evidence, file and issue a summons directing him to appear," Brady said.