SALEM, Utah, March 22, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — A Salem man was booked into the Utah County Jail after police say he drove drunk, sideswiped another car, and headbutted one officer hard enough to draw blood.
Jesus Hartman, 22, was charged with seven offenses:
- Interference with an arresting officer
- Reckless driving
- Disorderly conduct — continues after request to stop
- Open container — drinking alcohol in a vehicle
- Driving under the influence of alcohol
- Failure to remain at the scene of an accident
- Assault against a peace officer knowing person is an officer
A probable cause statement said an officer was patrolling in the area of 400 North and 800 West, Orem, when he saw a Chrysler 300 pass him “at an extremely high rate of speed. I estimated that speed to be around 100 mph.”
The officer checked his rear-view mirror, and saw the Chrysler sideswipe a blue passenger car parked at the side of the road.
“I made a U turn and found the vehicle and driver parked near 390 N. 800 West. The driver was outside his vehicle when I approached him, it appeared he was looking at the damage to his vehicle from just causing the accident.”
The suspect was identified by his Utah driver license as Jesus Hartman.
“I could smell the odor of alcohol from Jesus’s breath, his eyes were glossy and his speech slurred,” the probable cause statement says.
“Jesus was not cooperative with me, for this reason I put him in handcuffs for my safety and his. Jesus still was uncooperative after in handcuffs and had to be physically restrained several times. He was asked to calm down and to stop resisting police many times, each time he failed to comply.”
The officer looked inside the suspect’s car and saw an open container of alcohol in the console’s cup holder.
“That bottle was later recovered and appeared to be a 40 ounce bottle of Miller Genuine Draft alcohol that was about half full. I determined that standard field sobriety test’s could not be conducted due to Jesus fighting with police even while in handcuffs. I was concerned for the safety of everyone on scene if handcuffs were removed from Jesus.”
Paramedics checked out Hartman as thoroughly as they could, then transported him by ambulance to Orem’s Timpanogos Hospital to be medically cleared, the statement said.
Hartman was disorderly at the hospital, but was cleared and transported to jail. A blood-draw warrant was approved, and Hartman continued to resist.
“During that resisting incident, Jesus intentionally raised his head and headbutted Deputy Dave Cunningham in the face,” the statement said.
