CEDAR CITY – An Iron County Sheriff’s deputy is facing several criminal charges based on information found during a four-month investigation conducted by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Millard County Attorney Patrick Finlinson filed documents in 5th District Court Thursday beginning the process to formally charge former Cpt. Bret Allred with four counts of misuse of public monies, all third-degree felonies.
Allred, 46, was employed with the Iron County Sheriff’s Office for more than 20 years before resigning in February amid allegations that he misused public funds. For the last 10 years of his term, approximately, Allred served as jail commander for the Iron County Correctional Facility.
Attempts to locate Allred for comment this week were unsuccessful by Cedar City News.
According to court documents, Allred allegedly misused public monies on or about March 12, 2015, and twice on June 25, 2015. There is also an alleged incident Jan. 8, 2016.
The details of those incidents were not available and Finlinson declined to elaborate.
“It would be inappropriate for me to discuss this case in detail at this point,” he said. “I will be more than happy to discuss it once the case is moving forward but not right now.”
Iron County Sheriff’s Office first discovered the alleged misuse of public funds in January, sheriff’s Lt. Del Schlosser said. But he would not provide details of the case or the findings of the Sheriff’s Office internal investigation.
After conducting an internal investigation and to avoid any potential conflict of interest, Sheriff Mark Gower referred the case to Washington County Sheriff’s Office for criminal investigation.
The findings of the Washington County investigation were forwarded July 4 to Iron County Attorney Scott Garrett so he could review them and determine potential charges, Washington County Sheriff’s Lt. Jared Redfearn said.
Garrett then referred the case to Millard County, in light of his potential conflict of interest.
Finlinson said he has had the case since July 8 but did not file charges until this week following a phone call two weeks ago from Garrett’s office asking for a status update.
“He reminded me I had it,” Finlinson said. “I had forgotten about it.”
An Aug. 17 email from Cedar City News to Garrett requesting status of the case and location of the investigation file went unanswered.
While the documents filed Thursday with the court outline charges Finlinson is moving to bring against him, Allred will not be formally charged until he is arraigned. The arraignment comes after an initial appearance and a preliminary hearing.
Charges can change or even be dismissed between the initial filing of the charges and the arraignment.
Allred’s initial appearance in 5th District Court is scheduled for Oct. 11 at which time a preliminary hearing will likely be set.
Court documents order Allred to report to the Iron County Correctional Facility to be booked on charges prior to the October date. He will be released immediately.
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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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.
I’m sure it’s just a clerical error. .
Wow, Iron County is having issues with public officials being unethical. Is this the second or third article this week?
Dang Tweekers !
Why is it that a normal citizen in iron County will get arrested, booked into a correctional facility and be required to post bail or sit in there until they are found innocent? Where is the justice and unprejudice in that?
Shaun. You have to be of the. . ( chosen ones )
First, I highly doubt methamphetamine is involved. Second A book and release is common practice . it happens,all the time. What needs to be looked at here is, former sheriff David “Dude”Benson. I identical criminal charges D’s designed to discredit him. And right as he was about to leave the department. Ponder that one