This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Beaver County's sheriff, who has been under investigation for more than two years for an episode at a homicide scene, will not face criminal charges.
Sandra Barker, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Salt Lake City, said Friday that the investigation of Cameron Noel has been closed with no charges filed. She referred further comment to the U.S. Department of Justice. Media staff there declined to comment.
Neither Noel nor his attorney, Peter Stirba, returned messages seeking comment Friday.
The FBI investigation was the last and most serious inquiry Noel faced in a matter that pitted him against two of his former deputies. A lawsuit by one of those deputies, Cody Allen, was dismissed this week.
On May 14, 2014, Dorothy Louise Searcy, then 44, stabbed and killed her husband, 45-year-old Reginald Searcy, at a motel in Beaver. Dorothy Searcy's son, Timothy Wilson, was in the next room during the stabbing and was handcuffed while deputies and a state trooper sorted out what happened.
A summary of the episode from Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) says that as Wilson was being led away, he yelled at another deputy to get his mother's medication. Noel told Wilson to "shut up" and get in the car.
That's when Wilson, according to a deputy's report, yelled at Noel, "F—- you, you fat motherf——-."
Noel took Wilson from the deputy and attempted to put Wilson in the front passenger seat of a patrol car. Noel told POST investigators that Wilson was resisting and not complying, the summary says.
"Sheriff Noel claims while he was attempting to fasten the seat belt on [Wilson], Noel was pushing [Wilson] with his left forearm across [Wilson's] face and [Wilson] was resisting," the summary says.
Noel told the investigators that Wilson tried to head-butt him and that Wilson bit him on the arm.
"Sheriff Noel then put both of his hands on [Wilson's] neck and pushed him back into the seat," the summary says.
Allen wrote in his report: "I observed the sheriff's arms tense up and him squeeze as hard as he could."
The episode ended when a deputy on the driver side of the car latched the seat belt.
POST determined in 2014 that there wasn't enough evidence that Noel choked the man, and it declined to pursue administrative action.
A criminal investigation of Noel, meanwhile, passed through the Millard County Attorney's Office, the Utah Attorney General's Office, and the Davis County Attorney's Office before the FBI took over.
Allen told The Salt Lake Tribune in January 2015 that FBI agents asked him about what happened at the homicide scene and about Noel's use of county vehicles and any business interests the sheriff has in Beaver County.
Allen was fired in late 2014 over allegations he was drunk at a Halloween party and threatened someone. He contended the firing was retaliation for reporting what Noel did at the homicide scene. He sued Noel and Beaver County last year in federal court.
This week, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit. Both sides requested the case be dismissed, which suggests a settlement was reached. A Tribune records request for the settlement amount is pending.
Wilson also filed a federal lawsuit against Noel for what he asserted were civil rights abuses. Wilson is representing himself. A court docket shows there have been no filings in the case since March 2015.
Noel is the son of Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab.
Twitter: @natecarlisle