Arrest of Panguitch motel guest highlights rift between owner and local law enforcement - St George News
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CEDAR CITY — A man from Texas was arrested in Panguitch after allegedly lighting off fireworks at the motel where he was staying.
Matthew Kirk Blum, 41, was arrested March 27 and booked into Garfield County Jail on suspicion of three misdemeanor counts, namely reckless endangerment, interfering with an arresting officer and intoxication; in addition to illegal discharge of fireworks, an infraction.
According to a probable cause statement filed in support of Blum’s arrest, another guest at the Adobe Sands Motel on Panguitch’s Main Street had called police that afternoon to report a man had been lighting fireworks in the parking lot and then going back inside his room.
One of the fireworks had reportedly tipped over and had discharged toward parked cars and at least one person, the statement added.
The Garfield County Sheriff’s deputy who initially responded wrote in the affidavit that he made an attempt to speak with the man, but that he refused to answer his door.
After obtaining a search warrant, the deputy and other law enforcement officers from the sheriff’s tactical team responded and were able to gain entry to the room.
During their subsequent search of Blum’s room officers reportedly found multiple beer cans and three “flaming ball” type fireworks.
“As I was searching for weapons I could smell alcohol on Blum,” wrote the arresting deputy , adding that Blum was then arrested and taken to jail.
In a follow-up telephone interview with Cedar City News, motel owner Jenelle Molenda said she questioned whether the law enforcement’s level of response was appropriate.
“He lit a firework,” she said. “He should have been issued a citation with a fine and then been on his way. But they didn’t do that. They came in full SWAT gear with a search warrant and guns drawn.”
Molenda said she also believes the officers used excessive force and bruised Blum’s ribs when they arrested him.
“He did not resist arrest,” she said.
However, in a telephone interview with Cedar City News, Garfield County Sheriff Danny Perkins said that Blum was “very combative” and refusing to cooperate with deputies during the incident.
Perkins noted that Blum had chosen not to answer to the first deputy’s knock at the door.
“He (the deputy) tried and tried the door, but he was just hiding from him,” Perkins said.
“We tried to make contact with him to find out what the deal was,” Perkins added. “He wouldn’t respond to the door, so we got a search warrant. We went in and we got him out and he was very combative and highly intoxicated.”
Then, once the SWAT officers arrived on scene and entered the room, they were met with further resistance from Blum, Perkins added.
The sheriff also defended the level of response, citing the importance of the officers’ safety.
“We just don’t know what we’re going to run into,” he said. “You just don’t know if the person you’re after, if they hate cops, or if there’s either drugs or alcohol involved, boy, things can turn south in a hurry.”
“Back in the day, I’ve served warrants and I’ve gone into places where I suddenly realized I was getting in over my head,” Perkins said, “It’s an awful feeling. And you’ll get killed doing that nowadays.”
Perkins said he remembers one such close call in particular, where the suspect ended up being armed.
“I came close to making a widow out of my wife that day. We can’t do that,” he said.
Perkins said it was not the first time he and his deputies have responded to an incident the motel.
“This is a place that we have been called to time after time,” he said. “It’s a place that we frequent a lot, and that’s why the owner doesn’t like us. She thinks we’re trying to run her out of business, but we’re not the ones calling 911.”
Molenda says she feels unfairly singled out by the sheriff’s office.
“They would not have done this if it was anywhere else but my property,” she said.
“They’re trying to run me out of town, is what they’re trying to do,” Molenda added. “It’s not going to work because I’m not doing anything wrong. I purchased land there and I have rights as a land owner and a business owner.”
As for Blum, he has since posted bail and gone back home to Texas. According to court records, he’s scheduled to appear electronically on April 14 before 6th District Judge Marvin D. Bagley.
“I let him stay a few extra days to get checked out at the hospital and take care of court,” Molenda said of Blum. “He’s gone now, and really messed up mentally from the ordeal.”
She said that although Blum had stayed at her motel for a couple months last fall, he went back home for Christmas and had only recently returned to Utah, wanting to find some more work.
However, Molenda said that after Blum recently did a bit of work for her at another rental property in Cedar City, things ended up not working out, so Blum was in the process of getting ready to return to Texas when the incident occurred.
“He was just a visitor for a few days,” she said. “He lit the firework to mark his leaving, but I don’t think he knew it was illegal.”
Molenda said when the sheriff’s tactical team arrived, the officers didn’t ask her the name of the guest or how long he’d been staying there.
“If they’d talked to me, they could have run a background check on the person and they could have known exactly what they were dealing with,” she said. “But they do not talk to me. That is the problem. They tell me to shut up, quite literally.”
Perkins admitted that he did have to ask Molenda to be quiet at one point during the incident.
“Right in the middle of all this, she starts to fight with another one of the tenants, just screaming and yelling,” Perkins said, adding that he did ask them to shut up. “I don’t even know what they were fighting over.”
Perkins also said that there are multiple other witnesses to the incident who don’t agree with Molenda’s version of what happened.
“There are people that are 110% on our side, who thought the deputies acted appropriately,” he said.
Although Perkins at one point during the interview described the motel as “kind of like a homeless shelter,” Molenda said she strongly disagrees with that characterization.
“That is completely untrue,” she said. “Anybody that stays at my property either pays the nightly rate or they’re renting there on a monthly basis.”
“I have a building behind my motel that I’ve converted into six apartments, where people have year-long leases and they pay rent every month,” she added.
Molenda said her business has been doing well lately, even as the spring tourist season gets underway.
Aside from a few anonymous fake postings, Molenda said the vast majority of reviews her business receives are positive.
“If you were to go on to Airbnb, I have well over 500 reviews and I think probably about 90% of them are good,” she said. “I have people who make reservations there because I have good reviews. Yeah, there’s the occasional bad review, but you’re going to have that anywhere.”
Molenda said she sees her motel as helping, rather than hurting, the city of Panguitch.
“What I’ve heard and what I’ve continued to hear from the townsfolk, is that they want nicer motels, they want affordable places for people to live and they want year-round jobs,” she said. “I’m almost done remodeling my motel. I have created six apartments that did not exist in this town before. And I am open year-round, so I have at least one year-round (position) and hope to have more than that.”
Moving forward, Molenda says she’s hoping to have more positive interactions and better communication with local law enforcement.
“When my lawyer had a conversation with the city attorney, he was told that I’m on the wrong side of the wrong people,” she said.
Molenda added that she doesn’t have anything against law enforcement in general.
“I grew up with police in my family, in Chicago PD and San Bernardino PD,” she said. “I grew up with the mentality that they are officers of the peace, keeping the peace. But I am getting nothing but being bullied by these people. That’s not peaceful.”
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.
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source: https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2022/04/04/jmr-arrest-of-panguitch-motel-guest-highlights-rift-between-owner-and-local-law-enforcement/
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