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Court employees investigated for allegedly deleting citations for friends, family

Posted at 9:55 PM, Jan 07, 2015
and last updated 2015-01-07 23:55:50-05

PAROWAN, Utah - Five Iron County Justice Court employees could soon find themselves facing criminal charges.

This week, Parowan Police Chief Kan Carpenter completed an investigation into alleged mishandling of court documents. The allegations say those employees deleted traffic citations for their friends and family.

“Rather than the citations going through the legal process, it was being circumvented,” Carpenter said. “That’s what we took a look at.”

Parowan City runs their own justice court, so in this case they were able to work as an independent third-party. If charged, those employees would likely only face misdemeanor charges, but it’s something Carpenter said they take seriously.

“We need to make sure the justice system is working properly,” Carpenter said. “If it’s being abused in some way, then it’s important for us to take the corrective action and make sure it’s not being abused.”

Now that the investigation is complete, Carpenter said it will be forwarded to the Parowan city attorney. If there’s no conflict of interest there, he will make a determination whether to file charges against those employees.