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Escalante's police chief — and lone officer — faces criminal charges in connection to drug cases in which investigators say he made false statements against suspects.

Chief Kevin Worlton also did not write reports or file search warrant returns in several cases in December, according to charges filed this week.

Worlton, 47, faces two second-degree felony counts of false or inconsistent material statements and one misdemeanor count of official misconduct.

In the process of investigating a drug case, Worlton swore to probable cause statements for two search warrants based on a recorded interview with a woman identified only as D.S., who said she smoked marijuana one day earlier and gave the name of her supplier.

Investigators from the state Attorney General's office claim that Worlton did not give D.S. a Miranda warning, and in a request for a warrant to draw her blood and collect her urine, Worlton accordingly wrote that D.S. "was not in custody" when she made the statements.

But in a separate probable cause statement for a warrant to search another home in Escalante, based on the same interview, Worlton allegedly wrote that D.S. statements were made "post-Miranda."

"There are inconsistencies between two sworn-to probable cause statements," investigators wrote.

While searching the home indicated in the second probable cause statement, Worlton interviewed another woman. Investigators say that in the interview, also recorded, Worlton asked the woman whether a suspect identified only as J.R. was selling drugs or giving drugs to anyone, to which the woman replied she had "no clue."

But in documents of J.R.'s arrest, Worlton allegedly wrote that the woman said J.R. had given marijuana to an acquaintance.

"This false statement is material because it was the difference between a third-degree felony distribution of marijuana charge and a class B misdemeanor possession or use of marijuana charge against the suspect," investigators wrote in charges against Worlton.

Worlton arrested six people in the two days surrounding the drug investigation, on "charges ranging from first-degree felonies to class B misdemeanors," investigators wrote. Four of those suspects pleaded guilty less than a week later.

But Worlton wrote just one police report regarding all six cases — and only after the four suspects pleaded guilty, investigators alleged. Worlton also didn't file the required inventories of his findings after he executed the two search warrants, investigators wrote.

Worlton has been on paid leave since January. Worlton's LinkedIn profile says he has been Escalante's police chief since April. The profile says he was an officer in South Jordan from 1992 to 2005.

Escalante Mayor Jerry Taylor has said Garfield County sheriff's deputies are policing the town in Worlton's absence.