Woman arrested for drugs, theft after alert cop spots stolen vehicle

LAVERKIN – A St. George woman was arrested in LaVerkin Monday after an attempt-to-locate bulletin was issued for a stolen vehicle out of Hurricane and an alert police officer on patrol spotted the vehicle.

Tori Anne Chidester, of St. George, Utah, booking photo posted Feb. 9, 2015 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s booking, St. George News
Tori Anne Chidester, of St. George, Utah, booking photo posted Feb. 9, 2015 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s booking, St. George News

Shortly before 1 a.m., the stolen vehicle pulled into the Maverik gas station, located at 460 N. State St. in LaVerkin, and the officer pulled in behind it, LaVerkin City Police Officer Dennis Wolsleger said in the probable cause statement supporting the arrest.

The driver of the stolen vehicle was discovered to be 20-year-old Tori Anne Chidester, the statement said. She and her male passenger were handcuffed.

After calling for backup and receiving permission from the vehicle’s owner, officers searched the vehicle.

During the search, officers located Chidester’s purse, which contained syringes inside of it, Wolsleger said in the statement. Inside one of the syringe caps was a substance that tested positive for heroin.

Chidester was asked if she had anything else on her person, and she told officers “no,” according to the statement. Chidester was placed under arrest and transported to the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.

“When (Chidester) was taken back to the cell,” Wolsleger said in the statement, “there was a small bag with black small granules in it found in her bra.”

Chidester admitted to jail staff that the substance was heroin, the statement said.

Chidester was charged with a second-degree felony for theft, a third-degree felony for drug possession, and a class B misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia.

She made her initial court appearance Tuesday and is scheduled to make her next court appearance on Feb. 17.

This was not Chidester’s first run-in with the law. She was convicted of two counts of drug possession in December 2014, according to Utah state court records, and was placed on probation.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Related posts

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

5 Comments

  • groanattack February 10, 2015 at 9:09 pm

    Can’t imagine the nightmare of waking up next to that!

    • indy-vfr February 11, 2015 at 9:38 pm

      Babe!

    • Mesaizacd February 12, 2015 at 8:28 am

      She should of called a cab its cheaper

  • Anderson February 11, 2015 at 6:45 am

    On probation and still can’t get a clue to straighten up. Enjoy prison.

  • sagemoon February 11, 2015 at 8:36 am

    Dang junkie.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.