Show The ballad of the dancer and the cop 1 Los Angeles Times photo by Michael Robinson ez Cha r West Vest r Wendover j HY Nev with nith its hotels casino-hotels has been piling up amenities such as a community pool and new City Hall lIali complex Its one major eyesore the Southern strip club Peter H. H King Los Angeles Times Sylvia Tripp needed another pair of shoes So on a Wednesday night in mid-August mid Wendover Police Chief Vaughn Tripp 50 headed across across town to the club where where i his is year old wife performed as an exotic dancer Vaughn had been raised Mormon and while no longer attending services every Sunday remained a teetotaler Sylvia was wasa a German Gennan immigrant with blonde hair and a slender figure She battled an addiction to pain pills in the aftermath of a car wreck The Tripps had been married 16 years Each brought one child to the union Vaughns Vaughn's friends and relatives were ambivalent about the match My son has hasa a problem picking wives said Tripps Tripp's mother Gertrude 78 the towns town's unofficial historian and a city council me member But Buthe Buthe Buthe he always kept his troubles to himself The trouble began six years earlier A dancer missed her shift at Southern a cabaret located in a strip mall just across the Utah state line in inVest West Vest Wendover Nev workers Co-workers coaxed Sylvia who was working behind the bar to step inI inI inI in I I didn't know what I was doing but at the end of the night it was like Wow This is really good money she said Vaughn was not pleased buthe buthe but buthe he made peace with Sylvias Sylvia's new job reasoning gother gother got gother her life and I have got my life But as he pulled into the parking lot at Southern with his wife's shoes Tripp could see something was amiss Several West Wendover police officers along with state narcotics officers were near entrance Tripp rolled up to Ron chief of West Wendover Police Department and his side Nevada-side counterpart Should I not be here asked Tripp I wouldn't be replied if I l were you ou Wendover Utah celebrating its centennial in 2007 is located where Utah bumps into Nevada What is striking is the disparity created by the border On the Utah side Wendover is a struggling town of 1000 people Blight coexists with the occasional well kept residence and the brick edifice of the Wendover Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Latter Saints Across the line rises West Wendover Nev a neon oasis of hotels casino-hotels that melds into tidy neighborhoods Incorporated 15 years ago the town has a population of Fattened on tax revenue and payroll roll from the hotels casino-hotels West Yest Wendover has a community pool library fine schools golf course and an equestrian center with a new city hall complex to come One eyesore remains At the western edge of town a strip mall greets motorists on Interstate 80 with giant banners Smokes Liquor Showgirls Its It's a come- come cr Wendover Continued on AS Wendover controversy Continued from AI AIon 1 i on for the malls mall's anchor the Southern For years West Vest Wendover officials have pressured the owner to relocate With allegations of intimate lap dancing the didn't fit West Wendover's image of what it aims to become a gamblers' gamblers mecca yes but butone butone butone one that is modem modern modest and wholesome Earlier in 2007 an undercover investigation into alleged drug activity was initiated by a state task force at West Vest Wendover's request The probe narrowed its aim In June of 2007 according to a task force leaders leader's sworn affidavit I was informed by a West Vest Wendover Police Officer that she he had reason to believe that one Sylvia Tripp was selling controlled substances at a commercial enterprise known as the Southern Exposure On Aug 17 officers burst into the club A search of the place for narcotics came up empty although suspicious pain pills turned up in Sylvias Sylvia's purse Two suspects were led away in handcuffs a bouncer accused of selling marijuana earlier that day and Sylvia who allegedly had been involved in the sale of two bottles of pain pills and muscle relaxants to undercover officers The story of the police chiefs chief's wayward wife soon oon hit the Salt Lake newspapers and local television In less than a week Tripp was driven from the post he had held most of his adult life on grounds of embarrassment said the mayor It sucks Tripp said Im going to get the worst of this deal out of everybody he said Shell end up getting a slap on the hand no jail time Vaughn and Sylvia met across the state line where he was moonlighting as a acard acard acard card dealer and she worked as a cocktail waitress Both were regrouping after failed marriages Vaughn said he warned Sylvia Establishments built around the popularity of the bared female breast tend to attract drug activity In hindsight the peril created by Sylvias Sylvia's job seemed obvious A police chief husband and an exotic dancer wife simply presented an irresistible target for law-enforcement law investigators and political foes some said Supporters of Vaughn saw his dismissal in a different context Im not saying Sylvia didn't do this said Gertrude Vaughns Vaughn's mother But they are using her to bring him down Like Gertrude there were those who believed that political opponents seized an opportunity that Sylvia had dropped in their laps Finally Chris Chris' Melville West Vest Wendover's city cily manager who vho grew up in Wendover recalled how people who moved from there to the new town were branded traitors At the same time Wendover residents detect condescension from across the border They think we are a bunch of illiterates said Gertrude Wendover Mayor Brett Shelton who ordered Tripp to resign or be dismissed cited what he considered a relevant precedent The chief who served before Tripp had been caught along with his officer wife selling narcotics evidence from the trunk of a squad car Tripps Tripp's charge had been to clean up the department So now Chief Tripp finds himself in a similar situation Shelton said And so so it was embarrassing for him and it was embarrassing for the community as a whole Sylvias Sylvia's account of the affair offered outside court following her first appearance on her felony case was that two men dressed like construction workers but later identified as undercover officers had been coming into the club for months pestering her for drugs Where can I get pot Where can I get meth Where can I 1 get coke she said they asked her I said I I dont don't know They were definitely pushing me but I kept saying no Sylvia said she pointed out other bar employees but the men insisted that they wanted to deal only with her Yes she said she dropped hints that perhaps a connection might be made later But she was just stringing them along They were spending money And we want customers to stay slay in the bar until we have all of their money not just part of it That's the name of the game isn't it she said Finally in July three weeks before the raid with the two men again present a woman customer burst in inand inand inand and told Sylvia a story about being beaten by her husband and needed money The woman said she had medicine to sell and asked Sylvia to help Sylvia told the would-be would drug buyers it appeared their ship had come in and indicated the woman with the pills They said You get them We dont don't know her But we know you You go get them So Sylvia in a stupid decision she conceded ducked into the bathroom with the woman and emerged with a bottle of The men paid which Sylvia claimed to have delivered to the woman It was the first time I had ever done that Sylvia said Im definitely not a dealer I thought I 1 was helping a friend Now it seems like a complete set But none of it went into my pocket none of it nothing I didn't get a dime After the raid Sylvia found it impossible to leave the house l lI lj I t PI r P j q iI 1 s Los Angeles Times by Michael Robinson Chavez ez Sylvia Tripp suspects the drug raid in Wendover targeted her employer or her husband You cant can't go anywhere without people looking at you she said She still wonders if the underlying point of theraid theraid the theraid raid was to close down the Southern humiliate her husband or both Early talk of circulating a petition to reinstate Vaughn died after a few weeks As for Vaughn in September he went to work as a security officer atthe atthe at atthe the run county-run Wendover airfield After a week he was fired The county commissioner says it doesn't look good Tripp said He said that if Im I'm not good enough for the forth th e city Im I'm not good enough for the county 1 There was a lot of self- self pride in the fact a boy from town could grow up and become the police chief he said As for his relationship with Sylvia Tripp does not not discuss itI itI it I dont don't know what you'd call it now he sa said d but its it's not a marriage Tripp repeats the rationale rational that once helped him dea deaf with his wife's jobI job I guess you could say he said got her life and I 1 got mine I I II |