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FILLMORE — Two Millard County sheriff's deputies are now facing criminal charges accusing them of failing to properly perform their duties while responding to a domestic violence call involving a woman with whom one of the deputies developed an intimate relationship.
Deputies Richard Lee Warren, 45, of Scipio, and Taylor James Frampton, 29, of Fillmore, were charged Monday in 4th District Court with two counts of obstruction of justice, one third-degree felony and one class A misdemeanor; and two counts of official misconduct, a class B misdemeanor. In addition, Warren was charged with witness tampering, a third-degree felony, and Frampton was charged with illegally accessing records and disclosing private information, class B misdemeanors.
The charges were filed by the Utah Attorney General's Office.
In charging documents, prosecutors cite the Utah Cohabitant Abuse Act, which requires officers who investigate domestic violence incidents to "arrest or cite the person who committed the act of domestic violence." Or if an arrest is not made, the officer must submit a "detailed, written report specifying the grounds for not arresting any party," and "shall forward a copy of the incident report to the appropriate prosecuting attorney within five days."
On July 1, Frampton responded to a report of a domestic violence incident. A family member of the alleged victim reported that the night before, a woman — who has a child in common with the victim — had pulled a knife on the man and threatened to kill him, and later "did doughnuts" in the driveway, according to charging documents. The family member said she wanted criminal charges to be filed against the woman.
Frampton was shown a text message that the alleged victim sent to another relative that stated in part, "I almost got killed last night. She said she is killing someone. Walking all over the place with a knife. ... She said she was killing someone. She pulled a knife on me in front of my kids."
Frampton and Warren then located the woman to question her. But according to the charges, Warren and the woman have known each other for a long time and became involved in an intimate relationship with each other in mid-July.
After speaking to the woman, the deputies went back to the relative who initially called police.
"Now I need you to come help me to explain to (her) why nothing is being done, because you are buddies with them, too," Frampton told Warren, according to the charges. "I'm going to tell her that we called the county attorney. … I'm going to let you lead. This is your investigation."
When the deputies spoke to the relative again, Frampton told her, "Basically, at this point, I'm probably just going to type the report up, send the video in, and have the county attorney see what he wants to do," while also adding, "I need to get more info about the knife thing," the charging documents state.
Both Frampton and Warren also expressed to each other that neither has good relations with the alleged victim of the domestic violence incident. Frampton wrote up his police report that afternoon and said he was unable to verify the claim that the woman had pulled a knife on the man, the charges allege.
"Deputy Frampton did not send the report to the Millard County Attorney's Office or any other prosecuting agency," the court documents say.
On July 17, the sheriff's office was again called regarding a possible domestic violence incident between the same woman and the same man. The two got into an argument and the woman called someone to get a ride home. Warren was off-duty, but showed up in his marked patrol car to pick the woman up, the charges state.
However, he "did not notify dispatch or the Millard County Sheriff's Office that he had a lone female in his patrol vehicle, which is required by policy. He did not activate his camera," according to the charges. On July 20, Warren "was disciplined by the Millard County Sheriff's Office for failing to activate his vehicle camera system when he drove (the woman) home, (and) failing to take a case report for assisting (her) in leaving (the) residence."
On July 31, the victim's family called the Millard County Attorney's Office directly to inquire about the domestic violence case report from earlier that month. The county attorney, however, said no report had been submitted to his office. He then talked to the sheriff, who agreed an investigation needed to be conducted to determine if Warren's relationship with the woman had interfered with him performing his duties.
During the investigation, it was also discovered that Frampton had checked two vehicle license plates on his police database at the request of a friend, but not for official police duties, the charges allege, and three times told a family member about information from a case that was not public.
The Millard County Sheriff's Office released a statement Monday night that said it received a complaint involving a deputy's conduct in August.
"Due to the serious nature of the complaint, an outside agency was contacted to conduct an independent investigation into the complaint. The Utah Attorney General's Office conducted an investigation resulting in the filing of criminal charges on this date against two deputies," the statement said.
The sheriff's office said both deputies were placed on leave during the investigation and remain on leave.
