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Sheriff’s Office sued again

Patrick Parkinson, Of the Record staff

Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds and three of his deputies were named as defendants Friday in a $1 million lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.

A 33-page complaint accuses the deputies of entering a Snyderville home last summer without a search warrant.

According to Salt Lake attorney Ted McBride, the officers fabricated a noise complaint in order to gain enter the home at Hidden Creek Condominiums.

"This may look like a seemingly harmless event to some people, but what these deputies did was a serious abuse of their authority as police officers," McBride said in a statement sent Friday to The Park Record. "These are a couple of regular guys watching TV, having a few beers in their own home, just winding down after work. Then there’s a knock on the door and all hell breaks loose."

The lawsuit alleges that the deputies violated the civil rights of Basin residents Dan Vesey, David Dupoy and Jonathan Dunford when they entered the men’s condo and seized a glass pipe July 31, 2005.

When the three deputies responded to the home, McBride alleges that they entered the condominium without permission.

After the pipe was found, McBride claims a deputy began searching the second floor of the home.

"Vesey asked the deputies whether they had a warrant," McBride’s statement said. "[The] deputies said they did not need a warrant to enter and search the home."

McBride claims dispatchers in Summit County had no record of a noise complaint lodged that day against the men.

According to the attorney, Dupoy was charged with a class C misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia, which prosecutors dropped after they realized the pipe was obtained during an illegal search.

Two deputies were seen "peering" through the plaintiffs’ window prior to entering the home, McBride said.

"They were spying on them," McBride said during a telephone interview Friday. "The law required [the deputies] to make an application for a warrant they bypassed that requirement and took the law into their own hands."

Edmunds was not aware of the incident when contacted Friday. At least, two other lawsuits have been filed against the Summit County Sheriff’s Office under Edmunds’ administration.


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