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Show State Reduces Charges Against Jackson To 18 Misdemeanors Charges against an Escalante man were reduced prior to a motions mo-tions hearing on July 1 1 in Sixth District Court in Panguitch over the protests of his attorney who sought to have the trial set the on the original felony charges. Tom Jackson who had been bound over May 8 on a third degree felony count of theft of diesel fuel on the Burr Trail from his former employer came into court July 1 J to find that the state had reduced his felony charge to 18 counts of class B misdemeanor theft 4. Jackson's attorney Pat Fenton of Cedar City asked the court to proceed pro-ceed with the case on the original charges, giving no reason for his action except to say that his client wanted to face those charges. Garfield County Attorney Wallace Wal-lace Lee told the court that the state had filed an amended information reducing the charges to 18 misdemeanor misde-meanor counts and they should be tried in circuit court to avoid adding to the already overtaxed district See Jackson Charges Page 4A State Reduces Jackson's Charges From Page 1 court schedule of cases and to avoid the additional expense to the taxpayer. tax-payer. District Court Judge Don V. Tibbs agreed and remanded the case to the jurisdiction of the Sixth Circuit Cir-cuit Court. Lee explained that the state has a law that says felony theft may be charged if the value of the stolen property exceeds $250 and is taken in a single criminal episode, but another law says that if the total amount of value is taken in small increments, each must be charged individually as a misdemeanor, thus the change in the charges against Jackson. |
