CEDAR CITY — A California man who had been charged with multiple misdemeanors after refusing to exit his vehicle and firing a pellet gun out the car window last December was sentenced Aug. 9 to 18 months of probation.
Andrew Lee Kaiser, 31, was also ordered by 5th District Judge Matthew L. Bell to pay $1,000 to the SWAT team that responded to the incident.
As previously reported in Cedar City News, the incident occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 20, 2020, when a Utah Highway Patrol trooper responded to a report of a car blocking part of the roadway in a remote part of northern Iron County on state Route 130.
Although the responding trooper initially thought the Toyota Camry was unoccupied, it turned out that the driver, later identified as Kaiser, was still inside. His subsequent refusal to cooperate with law enforcement triggered a response involving officers from multiple agencies.
Although Kaiser initially faced eight charges, five of the counts were dismissed Monday in exchange for his guilty pleas on three class A misdemeanors: assault against a police officer, failure to stop at the command of an officer and drug possession.
Each of the three counts for which he pleaded guilty had a maximum sentence of up to a year in jail, but the court suspended all jail time and gave Kaiser credit for the 10 days he served after his arrest and before he was freed on bail. He was also ordered to complete 18 months of supervised probation.
Bell also waived some $14,250 worth of fines, leaving Kaiser with just a $159 surcharge to pay, in addition to the $1,000 in restitution.
“Part of Kaiser’s sentence is that he must pay restitution to the Iron Metro SWAT team, who were deployed as a result of his irresponsible and reckless actions,” Iron County Attorney Chad Dotson told Cedar City News after the sentencing.
“While this case only amounted to misdemeanor offenses, the facts underscore the all-too-common nexus between drug use and dangerous conduct,” Dotson added.
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