This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
When a Millard County sheriff's sergeant pulled into Bunker Hill Raceway early one morning, a suspected drunken driver jumped out of his car, threw his keys and ran.
But the sergeant was able to coax his suspect out of hiding: The driver was his brother, a Millard County sheriff's deputy.
Instead of making an arrest, the sergeant drove his brother home, according to an investigative report obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
The 150-page report is part of an investigation into whether Millard County Sheriff's Office personnel concealed the discovery of a hunting rifle inside the home of a felon who is the father of a Millard County detective. But the report, compiled by Iron County investigators in May and June, shows detectives expanded their investigation when they learned of other possible wrongdoing.
In the report, witnesses including Millard County deputies allege:
• The rifle possessed by Merlin Jackson may have been given to him by his detective son.
• The sergeant and his brother are alcoholics who get drunk in public with impunity, and the sergeant once assaulted a teenager at a high school football game while drinking.
• Sheriff's personnel bypassed the office records system when employees or their families were suspected of crimes.
• A deputy sexually harassed a citizen to the point where she was afraid to call police when she needed assistance.
Millard County Sheriff Robert Dekker on Saturday said his office investigated some claims while referring others to other county or state agencies, whose decisions are pending.
"I don't let people just get away with things," Dekker said in an interview with The Tribune.
Some of the allegations, if true, might constitute criminal offenses. Others would only be violations of Utah's police conduct code.
"I would hope and I pray that every sheriff's office isn't like this," Millard County Deputy Dale Josse, who is not accused of wrongdoing, told investigators, "because I think it's just so out of hand now. When I took this job ... I did not have this in mind at all and I think in some cases we're worse than these people we're arresting because we're the one hired to do the job."
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Gun possession • One of the Iron County detectives, Jody Edwards, has publicly discussed the original focus of the investigation: whether Millard County Detective Bill Jackson and Lt. Roger Young filed false reports to cover up Jackson's rifle possession in July 2008.
Deputies allegedly discovered the weapon while responding to a medical emergency at Jackson's home.
One of those deputies, Colby Carter, told the Iron County detectives that Young ordered him to create a new case in the office's computerized records system, but to leave it blank. Then, Carter said, Young told him to handwrite a report, seal it in an envelope and slip it under Young's office door or put it in his incoming basket.
Carter said he complied and that it was the only time he has ever been told to handwrite a report.
"I thought that smelled bad," Carter told the Iron County detectives, according to a transcript of his interview included in the reports. "I didn't like it; I thought we were being part of a cover up."
Carter said he was so concerned he told a deputy Millard County attorney about the incident and asked if he could be prosecuted for obstructing justice. The attorney told him he was not at risk.
Carter also told detectives he suspected Bill Jackson gave a rifle to his father, a convicted sex offender. The description of the rifle used by Merlin Jackson to poach deer last year in Beaver County matched that of one Bill Jackson had described to Carter years earlier.
Carter said Dekker told him he didn't know anything about the 2008 rifle incident.
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Sergeant, deputy brothers • Much of the report discusses two brothers who work at the Millard County Sheriff's Office: Sgt. Rhett Kimball and Deputy Justin Kimball.
According to the reports, Millard County Deputy Michael Peacock provided the Iron County detectives with an audio recording in which Rhett Kimball describes his brother driving drunk. The report describes Rhett Kimball saying on tape that his brother had been in an early-morning argument with his wife and drove away from their home.
The wife called Rhett Kimball, who was on duty, the report said. Rhett Kimball found his brother at Bunker Hill Raceway in Delta. When Justin Kimball saw the marked sheriff's truck arrive, he threw his keys and ran into the bushes, according to the report. Josse told the detectives Rhett Kimball called his brother's cell phone to bring him out of hiding.
Rhett Kimball said on the recording that Justin Kimball was drunk, according to the report, and that he drove his brother home in Justin Kimball's car.
Rhett Kimball called deputy Josie Greathouse Fox to get a ride back to the raceway to pick up his patrol truck, and Fox made the recording as she was driving, the report said.
Fox was shot to death during a traffic stop Jan. 5 outside Delta, and Peacock told investigators he found the recording while conducting an inventory of Fox's truck. He also said he had given a copy of the tape to Dekker.
In the report, Peacock and Josse both called Rhett and Justin Kimball alcoholics who can be seen drinking and intoxicated in public whenever they play golf, softball or go bowling.
"Somebody's gonna get hurt," Peacock told Iron County investigators, "or one of us is gonna get hurt or those guys can't come to work 'cause they're drunk or they're gonna be doing it off duty and crash into somebody."
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Football, hot springs • The reports also discuss a teenager placed on home confinement who went to a football game at Delta High School. The teen told investigators Rhett Kimball, smelling of alcohol, grabbed him from behind and pushed him by the neck into the parking lot. Another teenager said Rhett Kimball appeared to be drinking beer from a transparent cup.
In April, Millard County deputies responded to a report of an argument at a hot springs near Meadow about 3 a.m. A deputy found Justin Kimball, his wife and two other couples. Justin Kimball appeared to be intoxicated, the deputy's report said. His group was being rude to another group of people and calling them names, the report said.
Justin Kimball told members of the other group they needed to leave the hot springs because they were drinking and underage, the report said. In fact, the report shows, everyone in the other party was 21 or older.
Deputy Corey Anderson said Rhett Kimball was working that night but did not respond to the scene, presumably because he knew his brother was a suspect.
Anderson said another sergeant told him to e-mail his report to a superior rather than enter it into the office computer system.
Anderson told investigators he was instructed to do something similar when the wife of a jail employee was suspected of partying with a juvenile.
The special instructions, Anderson said, made him uncomfortable. "Even though it is an officer, if you've got a problem everybody [in the sheriff's office] should be able to see the report and be aware of it so you know what you're looking for," Anderson told investigators.
Dekker on Saturday said his office investigated what happened at the hot springs and took "appropriate action." Dekker also said he has investigated various allegations against Rhett Kimball and again took "appropriate action." Dekker declined to be more specific and said they were internal matters.
The Kimballs did not reply to requests for comment last week.
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Harassment allegations • The Iron County detectives also interviewed a woman who said in 2005 then-deputy Scott Corry made explicit sexual advances toward her on two occasions while on duty.
The woman said sometime later she found a toddler wandering a Millard County street but was hesitant to call police for fear Corry would be the deputy to respond.
Corry, who has since been promoted to sergeant, on Friday denied those claims.
"This is the first I've heard of it," Corry said.
The Iron County Sheriff's Office was asked to investigate Millard County personnel earlier this year, apparently after concerns about the 2008 Merlin Jackson gun case resurfaced.
On June 9, the report said, Dekker went to Cedar City to inquire about the investigation and told investigators he believed his deputies' concerns were politically motivated. Dekker is seeking re-election in November.
Within days, the case was removed from the Iron County Sheriff's Office. Iron County Attorney Scott Garrett said Millard County officials became concerned that Garrett's cousin is married to a Millard County sheriff's deputy.
That's when the case moved to the state Bureau of Investigation, which has forwarded its findings to the Sevier County Attorney's Office.
During his interview with the Iron County detectives, Josse said he felt like a "rat" for discussing his colleagues at the Millard County Sheriff's Office.
"But that is totally outweighed by the fact that I'm tired of carrying this around and nothing being done," Josse said.
What's Next? County attorney to investigate
P Sevier County Attorney Dale Eyre is determining if any criminal charges will be filed against Millard County personnel. Any review by state police regulators likely would begin after Eyre makes his decision.