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A state Bureau of Investigation agent has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in Garfield County.
Jason James Whitehead, 35, was arrested last month by the Garfield County Sheriff's Department while driving an unmarked law enforcement vehicle to Lake Powell for a training assignment.
Whitehead was charged two days later in Garfield County Justice Court with one count of DUI and two counts of carrying a dangerous weapon while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, all class B misdemeanors, court records show.
He also was charged with one count of class C misdemeanor open container in vehicle.
A pretrial conference was set for May 17. Whitehead's defense attorneys have entered not guilty pleas on his behalf, according to court records.
Garfield County Sheriff Danny Perkins said Wednesday that his dispatchers received reports of an erratic driver at about 5 p.m. on April 24.
Whitehead was stopped by a Utah Highway Patrol trooper about 5 miles north of Panguitch on U.S. 89, according to an affidavit seeking a warrant to take a sample of Whitehead's blood.
Once the trooper determined that the driver was a Department of Public Safety employee, Garfield County authorities were called to take the case to avoid a conflict of interest.
"It's an unfortunate thing," Perkins said. "Any DUI arrest is. But we treated it like anyone else."
Officers found a half-empty bottle of vodka on the passenger's seat, and Whitehead was visibly intoxicated, according to the affidavit. He had "slurred speech, red, glassy eyes and ... appeared to have urinated on himself," the affidavit states.
After Whitehead failed an initial field sobriety test, he declined to take more tests, including a breathalyzer test, and he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Whitehead was "very unsteady on his feet" and had to be helped to the officer's vehicle, according to the affidavit.
Whitehead works in the major crimes unit of the State Bureau of Investigation, according to DPS spokesman Todd Royce. He has worked for DPS for the past four and a half years, and been investigating major crimes — such as drug dealing and rape — for less than a year, Royce said.
The department has resources available to help officers avoid turning to alcohol as a way to handle stress, according to Royce.
"There is no excuse for DUI, and we talk about it all the time," Royce said. "We take it seriously and if someone's having difficulty in their life and with their job or stress, we say it over and over again, come get help. We have help available."
Before working for DPS in 2012, Whitehead had been a Utah Highway Patrol trooper, who had worked in Tooele, Salt Lake and Juab counties.
Whitehead was going to Lake Powell for a regular training for the DPS Dive Team, Royce said. According to the DPS website, Whitehead has been on the dive team since 2014.
Whitehead was booked into the Garfield County jail, but posted $1,420 bail on April 25, Perkins said.
"I'd just like it to be known," said Whitehead's attorney J.C. Jensen, "that Mr. Whitehead is afforded the same due process rights as well as the presumption of innocence that the rest of us, as Utah citizens and citizens of the United States, are afforded."
Whitehead is on paid administrative leave during the DUI investigation, Royce said. A DUI conviction is cause for termination from the department in most cases, Royce said.