Show Clark acoostted ! ' Prominent Ogden defense attorney found innocent of felony witness tampering A 2nd District Court jury deliberated three hours before returning a verdict of innocent on three charges of felony witness tampering lor allegedly coaching clients to he A conviction would likely have ended Clark's legal career By TIM GURRISTER —- Standard Examiner staff OGDEN - I or the second time tn four months controversial defense attorney Geoflrey Clark was acquitted of charges filed b the prosecutors he faces olT i against on a ! r daily basis Meteorologist says officials didn’t take wind warnings seriously By CHARLES F TRENTELMAN US Weather Service rologist Bill meteo- Alder said Friday that some of the damage caused by Friday's high winds could have been avoided if warnings the day before had been taken more senously Instead he said more than 20 trailers toppled over on Interstate 15 in Davis Weber and Box Elder counties Alder said he predicted the semi-tract- f The usually chatty Clark had no comment after the verdict his normally even more verbal defense attorney would only hint at possible legal action against the county for now" Clark's Salt "It's over charaes aoaasi Lake City defense counsel Mike Martinet said cryptically alter the verdict "Die Weber County Attorney's Olfice has spent SlOOOtX) on these prosecutions (of Clark) I or w hat?” As part of a plea bargain tied to the outcome of this week's trial six other charges alleging similar behavior by Clark with two other clients were dismissed witness- -tampering "I really don't know what to expect" Rich Parmley the lead prosecutor in the trial said of Martinez's veiled threat In January with Martinez's delense work Clark was acquitted of an assault charge alter a 2nd District Court judge lound evi Jence didn't support prosecutors’ claims tfat Clark slugged a handcutled client dun lg an argument in the county tail Clark was charged with coaxing former animal rights activist Trev Poulson into building d lulse alibi at his trial on at- See CLARK 4B four-da- y Many of the tipped-ove- r trucks were m Box Elder County Winds north of Brigham City were measured at 113 miles per hour a new record for altitudes below 5000 feet Eltah Highway Patrol Lt Rich Lncksen personnel Standard Examiner staff OGDEN - Friday's fast-movi- wind slowed trucking businesses to a crawl Shipments in and out of Ogden were disrupted by gusts which forced the closure of Interstate 15 to both the north and south because trucks kept tipping over "It pretty much left us at a standstill for today” said Jack LAYTON - More than 1 000 students at Northridge Hgh School made an eflort Thursday to send their condolences to students at Columbine High School in Cannon pushes to move Moab tailings Rep Chris Cannon R Utah introduced legislation on Earth Day requiring the removal of 10 5 million tons of hazardous uranium tailings located beside the Colorado River near Moab Cannon said the ALDER4B contamination began in the 1 950s when Atlas Corp began processing uranium for defense and commercial fuel uses Today the tailings cover 130 acres Located near the gates of Arches National Park and just 700 feet from the Colorado River the waste is contaminating drinking water used by 25 million people in Nevada California and Arizona Cannon said His proposal would require the tailings to be removed to a secure location that does not threaten Utah s lands wafer or recreation activities who does payroll and for Northridge banner supports Columbine ‘ Trucks screech to a halt By BRYAN CORUSS AT A GLANCE Student body officers set up a large banner in the commons area during lunch and invited students to sign it We just wanted to show students in Colorado our support how much we care said Darci Calder student publicity vice president On Tuesday 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High were shot to death by two students who then shot themselves to death Calder said Northridge students are concerned about guns in school as well as a nationwide violence epidemic storm on Thursday and issued a high wind watch then a high wind warning “V e called emergency managers we called the Highway Patrol Why does the Highway Patrol wait to do this when you give them a heads-up- ? And this one really looked like it was going to be a npsnorter” See MEWS BEAT Littleton Colo Could the damage have been avoided? Standard Examiner staff ' off Consolidated Freightways in Ogden “Anything north of North Ogden we couldn't get to it to pick it up” he said And with closed m Davis County trucks couldn't get through from Salt Lake City he said "A lot of our freight inbound just did not reach us today” See TRUCKERS SB Violent crimes in Salt Lake City drop SALT LAKE CITY -- Violent crimes in Salt Lake City decreased during the first three months of the year according to police statistics released Friday Murder aggravated assault and burglary in Salt Lake City dropped dramatically decreasing 40 percent 23 2 percent and 27 1 percent Chuck Hadley (left) owner of Chuck’s Towing & Recovery on Pacific Avenue in Ogden helps install a temporary fence around his car lot after the bnck wall surrounding it collapsed Fnday morning’s windstorm caused the bncks to crush 1 2 cars (right photo) Hadley estimated repairs to the wall itself at $50000 IN THE WIND'S WAKE: Memories collide in ski resort fight Weber County Powder Mountain valley residents in dispute By PAT BEAN Standard Examiner staff OGDEN - Ask slx witnesses 30 minutes after a robbery to desenbe the suspects and you’re likely to get widely varying Some witnesses may remember the robber as being blond others may reand brown-eye- d call brown hair and blue eyes Go back in time 30 years and the eyewitness descriptions will likely be even further apart That's how it has been with the details of a contract between Weber County and Powder Mountain ski resort owner Alvin Cobabe 2 The contract involved the road the county built to Powder Mountain a promise from Cobabe to repay the cost if he did not develop the ski resort and 160 acres of land Cobabe donated to the county for a horse park Cobabe said the road had nothing to do with the contract that it w as simply a donation to the county Weber County officials in recent months publicly sup COPY Simplifying Utah’s tax system ported that premise But Ogden Valley residents Kent Fuller and Ben Toone angry that the county sold the 60 acres without accepting bids on the property remember it another way - and a Standard-Examin1 er newspaper article sup- ports their claim Accordmg to a 1968 story in the paper: “Weber County Commission has agreed to build at public expense a 4 6 mile road from Patio Springs along Wolf Creek to a proposed private ski development on Powder Mountain “In exchange for its road work the county will receive from the developers 160 acres of rugged terrain for public out- door recreation” The story went on to say that if Powder Mountain wasn't developed the developers would repay the $213000 cost of the road The official contract signed m 1968 confirms the agreement for Cobabe to repay the county if the ski resort is not built The contract also says that if the county does not build the road it will return the 160 acres to Cobabe's Western America Development Corporation Deputy Weber County At- - See MEMORY3B Commission aims to make paperwork easier may reform sales taxes By BOB WARD Standard-Examme- staff r SALT LAKE CITY - Simplification of Utah's tax system is one of the priorities of the Utah State Tax Commission officials told the state's biggest tax watchdog group on Friday Appearing before the Utah Taxpayers Association’s 21st annual conference at the Double-tre- e Hotel in Salt Lake City tax commissioners repeatedly stated hat tax collection and administration have become too large a burden on individuals and businesses None of the commissioners claimed to have any magic solutions to reduce the collective brain damage Utahns feel at tax time but they made it clear at least that they understand the problem “W’e have 868000 people who filed income tax returns last year” said Commissioner Bruce Johnson “If we could eliminate they spend on just a half-hotheir return that's 400000 hours I think almost any use of that 400000 hours would be better than filling out a state tax reur turn” The commissioners didn't apologize for levying taxes which pay for everything from clean wa ter to school teachers to restaurant inspectors But they did admit that a simpler tax system could increase their tax receipts Officials estimate that 10 per- cent to 15 percent of Utahns aren't paying their taxes and some of them might change their minds if the process weren't so difficult Tax simplification could also reduce hassle and conflict for the 700 employees of the Tax Commission itself They spend much of their time tracking down and ironing out mistakes and misunderstandings over tax forms “1 think the Tax Commission has received the message” said Sen Howard Stephenson and president of the Tax-pa- y ers Association Other Tax Commission officials said they hope to simplify sales taxes Consumers pay sales taxes virtually every time they buy something over the counter businesses must collect the taxes and pass them on to the government “We're hearing from vendors that the cost of compliance with sales tax laws is significant” said executive director Rod Marrelh Several efforts are afoot to reduce costs for businesses that collect sales taxes The “uniform vendor discount” would set one rate all businesses could use to deduct their costs of collecting and remitting sales taxes Also the Tax Commission is involved sales tax simplifiin a three-stat- e cation project with Idaho and Washington that will explore among other things adopting one sales tax rate per state The Taxpayers Association clearly thinks there is room for Vice President improvement Greg Fredde said Utah taxpayers have the 14th heaviest tax burden m the nation but he said the 1999 legislative session was "one of the best sessions we've had as an organization” Fredde lauded several pieces of legislation he said were “criu-cin protecting Utah’s business climate” including a bill exempting manufacturers from sales taxes on replacement equipment and another bill exempting steel mills from sales tax on machinal ery Tax CommisInterestingly sioners said exemptions were one of the major culprits tn the growing complexity of the tax system No matter how legitimate or desirable every tax break granted to certain categories of people or businesses creates more paperwork and more potential for error - both for tax preparers and for auditors at the Tax Commission "The taxpayers of the state are really the ones with the most to gam from simplification” said Commissioner Johnson You cart reach reporter Boh 4 or bnardstan-dar- d UarJ at 532-210- net respectively statistics show And three categories that were increasing last year -rape aggravated assault and theft - dropped during the first ' quarter of 1999 Rapes decreased nearly 16 percent and theft d pped 8 6 percent Police Chief Ruben Ortega credits residents’ participation in enme prevention programs like Mobile Neighborhood Watch Watch in Neighborhood and Court Watch He said those community programs have resul'ed in federal grants that have allowed the city to hire an additional 100 officers in the past seven years “Instead of just police officers out patrolling the streets we have 1 100 extra people” said Lt Phil Kirk Other violent crimes that took a dip were robbery motor vehicle theft and arson While calls from people seeking police services actually increased 16 percent violent enmes decreased nearly 1 4 percent over last year s first quarter police statistics show Police planning analyst Dave Doepner said that s because the community is more involved in enme prevention and has become more aware of minor ‘ crimes Doepner did not have statistics showing whether nonviolent enmes have decreased in the past three months - Standard Examiner stad and wire services RmWfFORTIMsl online wwwstarxJardnet |