ST. GEORGE — A traffic stop off of Old Dixie Highway 91 led to the arrest of a Salt Lake City man after officers found a cashier’s check for a large amount with no payee, along with an underaged passenger and several cards and financial statements that did not belong to him.
On Monday, Washington County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of two suspicious vehicles located near the Browse Exit of Interstate 15.
According to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest, deputies arrived to find both vehicles on the shoulder of Old Dixie Highway 91. One was determined unoccupied, while the other one dark tint on the windows, which made it difficult to see if anyone was inside.
When deputies knocked on the window of the darkened car, the report states that deputies heard the sound of one of the doors being unlocked, and then the driver, later identified as 30-year-old Timothy James Rich, a resident of Salt Lake City, got out of the car.
Authorities say when the suspect exited the vehicle, his pants were unzipped and he was not wearing any underwear. He then quickly closed the vehicle’s door.
Rich reportedly told police that he and the passenger, who was still sitting inside the car, had left Salt Lake City the day before to travel to Mesquite to retrieve his car from an impound lot in Nevada.
The passenger was then asked to exit the car and both were separated to be interviewed by police.
According to the report, the passenger gave deputies a similar account, saying she had left Salt Lake City the day before and the two were heading to Mesquite to retrieve Rich’s vehicle from the impound lot, adding they had left the Salt Lake City area between 10-11 a.m. that morning, but by the time they reached the lot, it was closed.
The passenger also reportedly said the car had been impounded for a window tint violation and a paraphernalia offense. She said Rich was finally able to get the car out of impound and while heading back into Utah, they became tired and pulled off the interstate to rest. When deputies asked if there was anything illegal inside of the car, the passenger said she did not know.
According to the report, the driver told deputies his vehicle was impounded several months ago after he was arrested for drugs in Mesquite and that the car remained at the impound lot while he sat in jail. He also told deputies he wasn’t sure if there was anything illegal inside of the car, since he had just picked up the vehicle, he was unsure if officers in Mesquite had recovered all of the drugs during his arrest months before.
When asked if they could search the car, the suspect said that he would prefer that they did not since he didn’t know what was still in there, the report states.
Both suspects were detained at that point, while a K-9 unit was dispatched to the scene to perform a free-air sniff around the exterior of the car. Based on the animal’s reaction, the report states, deputies searched the car.
In the backseat, officers located a magnetic lock box on the driver’s side of the car, and inside they found a bag containing suspected methamphetamine and syringes. The report also states the substance later tested positive for the drug.
A search of the front passenger area yielded a zippered bag that contained a glass pipe that officers say is commonly used to smoke meth.
As the search continued, deputies located a $58,930 cashier’s check from Cedar Valley Bank and Trust issued out of La Porte City, Iowa. Near the bottom of the draft were hand-written loan numbers, but no payee information was listed on the check. Officers also noticed there was no bank stamp on the check, nor were there any signatures on the back, indicating it had not been deposited into an account.
In the back of the car, deputies recovered a safe that contained two Department of Treasury statements from the IRS, neither of which belonged to either suspect; and in the trunk, they found two debit cards as well as a social security card that were also listed in other individuals’ names.
Deputies later learned the passenger was a 16-year-old juvenile who was listed in the foster care system, and once the teen’s caseworker was contacted, she was taken to a youth crisis center.
While speaking to deputies, the suspect denied having any knowledge of the cashier’s check or of the cards found in the car, the report states, and he also denied that he had any sexual contact with the teen, despite officers finding him with his pants unzipped when they first approached the car, which he said was because he had urinated outside near the vehicle just before deputies arrived.
The suspect was subsequently transported and booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility on three third-degree felony charges, including two counts of unlawful acquisition of a financial card and one count of possession of a controlled substance. He also faces four counts of possession of another’s identifying documents and possession of paraphernalia and marijuana, each a misdemeanor.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. 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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