PRICE — Utah County Commissioner David Gardner got an unwelcome valentine Monday: an invitation to a Feb. 14 trial on a DUI citation.
The date was agreed to by Gene Strate, the Democratic Carbon County attorney who is prosecuting the case, and the defense team for Gardner, a two-term Republican. The trial is set to start at 9 a.m.
According to 7th District Court records, Gardner has not requested a jury trial. If he does not file the motion to empanel a jury, Judge Bruce Halliday will issue a ruling on the class-B misdemeanor charge.
It is scheduled as a one-day trial, according to court records.
The trial is for Gardner's first DUI charge. He was arrested and cited in March 1999.
According to police reports, Gardner told officers he had a small amount of vodka with lunch on the day he drove his car off a rural road in south Utah County. Police believe Gardner's car started a fire, which Gardner tried to stomp out with his feet.
Gardner says he saw the fire while driving to a scheduled meeting with area mayors — and drove his Lincoln Towncar into the field to stop the fire from advancing.
During questioning, Gardner also told police he had been given a drink by a hitchhiker he'd picked up earlier that day.
He told police the drink "smelled like vodka but tasted like gasoline," according to a police report.
If convicted, it would be the second DUI for Gardner, who refuses to step down from his elected position despite repeated calls from his political party to relinquish the seat.
Earlier this year, Gardner was convicted in Provo's 4th District Court of DUI and open-container charges.
Gardner originally pleaded no contest in the first case as part of a plea-in-abeyance deal. The Pleasant Grove justice court judge said the DUI charges would be dismissed if Gardner did not violate any laws during a nine-month probation period.
The deal was yanked when Gardner was convicted of disorderly conduct for berating a 9-year-old neighbor boy.
Gardner appealed the ensuing conviction, voiding the precinct court action and requiring a new trial on the DUI charge to be held in 4th District Court.
The case was transferred to a Carbon County court in an effort to avoid any any appearance of partisan favoritism from a county attorney's office that is also headed by a Republican.
Gardner, who has worked as a licensed marriage and family therapist, also faces the possible revocation of his license to practice by the state for alleged professional misconduct.
E-MAIL: gfattah@desnews.com