Utah couple arrested for rewarding 14-year-old son with marijuana

Stock image | St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A Utah couple was arrested for child endangerment and other drug-related charges in Spanish Fork after allegedly telling police they regularly allow their 14-year-old son to smoke marijuana.

Edwin Lee Steward, of Spanish Fork, Utah, booking photo posted April 18, 2017 | Photo courtesy of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

Investigators with the Spanish Fork Police Department and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at the couple’s home Tuesday night following a months-long investigation into drug activity at the home.

After entering the home, authorities found marijuana in several different areas of the home, along with drug paraphernalia and four firearms, according to a statement issued by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.

Subsequent to the search, Edwin Lee Steward and Valerie Steward, both 37, were arrested and booked into Utah County Jail on third-degree felony count of child endangerment and three class B misdemeanor counts of contributing to delinquency of a minor, marijuana possession and drug paraphernalia possession.

“(The couple) told investigators they regularly allowed their son to smoke marijuana,” Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said in a statement. “He was also regularly exposed to drugs and paraphernalia in the home.”

Valerie Steward, of Spanish Fork, Utah, booking photo posted April 18, 2017 | Photo courtesy of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

The couple told police they allow their son to smoke a joint or two at night if he goes to class and makes good grades, Cannon told Deseret News, adding that the parents said they used the drug to alleviate medical issues and believed it helped their son focus in school.

A third adult in the home, Wesley Morse Vivian, 35, was the owner of the firearms found during the search, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Vivian was booked into jail on four third-degree felony charges of possession of a firearm by a restricted person and two class B misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

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

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3 Comments

  • comments April 24, 2017 at 10:43 am

    All well and good, but did the find the stash of meth and heroin?

  • comments April 24, 2017 at 10:46 am

    hard to tell if they’re full on tweeker addicts or just hippies. “Months investigating” just for a little mj. If mj is all it was these bored cops need to go to traffic patrols–make themselves useful. Bored and overpaid police is a bad combination.

  • ladybugavenger April 25, 2017 at 10:41 am

    Utah judge rewards plygs with free classes for millions stolen in food stamp fraud, child molestation, rape, child abuse, and a discriminating police force….Pot seems so small compared to the plygs cult.

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