Box Elder Sheriff Charged With Obstruction

Friday's charge is about what Potter told a Highway Patrol colonel on the phone in January. The county says the DUI reviews did not support an impaired-driving case, and this misdemeanor is not that case. Huggins is dead. The canyon crash is still open, and this filing does not decide it.

Cache County prosecutors on Friday charged Box Elder County Sheriff Kevin Potter with obstruction of justice, a class A misdemeanor, in Logan's 1st District Court. No arraignment date has been set.

Court documents say that on the evening of Jan. 19, a caller reported Potter driving a county vehicle erratically on Interstate 15 near Riverside, with slurred speech, an unsteady balance, and a silver can in his sweatshirt pocket. Utah Highway Patrol troopers looked for him and did not find the vehicle. Col. Greg Holley reached him by phone. Potter said he knew why they were calling. He confirmed the can was beer and said he often hikes with a beer to watch the sunset. He denied being impaired, said he was already at his Brigham City house, and would not come outside.

A trooper and a Brigham City officer went to the house. The county vehicle was not there. Cell records later placed his phone in the Tremonton area during that call. The charging papers say he knew he was the subject of a DUI investigation and gave a false location, which kept troopers from seeing him in person.

Box Elder County said an outside review, and the Highway Patrol, found insufficient evidence that he was driving under the influence that night. The county commission censured him on May 27 for conduct unbecoming and for having alcohol in a county vehicle. Friday's count is not a DUI charge.

Potter is on voluntary leave after a separate crash on Oct. 27 near the mouth of Ogden Canyon. Motorcyclist Katie Sue Ruth Huggins, 22, died of her injuries. Ogden police said she was riding east on Canyon Road when she collided with a vehicle turning from Valley Drive. He stayed at the scene. That crash is still under investigation.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.