From Deseret News archives:
Former Utah County politician faces sex charges
Woman accuses former commissioner Gardner
Gardner, 52, served two terms as county commissioner from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was charged with misdemeanors three times.
Now he faces a class A misdemeanor for allegedly rubbing the woman's thigh and kissing his fingers and touching them to her face, according to the woman's statement to Springville police.
Gardner's previous legal troubles include two DUIs and a charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly attacking a neighbor boy over a broken flashlight.
The most recent allegations come from a woman who told police she'd been working at an auto-body shop in Springville on April 25 when Gardner came in to the business and started flirting with her. When she told him she had a doctor's appointment, he offered to drive her.
On the way to Gardner's house as a side stop, the woman said he grabbed her hand. When she pulled away, he began kissing his fingers and touching her face, according to a written statement she provided to police.
"I became frightened and froze," she wrote. "I didn't know what to do and didn't do anything — I didn't encourage him in any way but was too scared to say anything."
Calls to Gardner were not immediately returned Friday afternoon.
The woman told police that at Gardner's house, he kissed her, grabbed her buttocks and put his arm around her.
The woman told police that she demanded to be taken back to the shop. While she drove, she told police, Gardner grabbed her inner thigh and rubbed it for nearly the entire trip.
"My client didn't know what to do," said the woman's attorney, Adam Ford. "She absolutely panicked and had a complete break down. She ended up in the psychological unit of a hospital for a week afterward. She's had a rough time of it."
While a county commissioner, Gardner was arrested in March 1999 after he ran his car off the road and then tried to put out a resulting grass fire with his feet. He told police he had one drink of vodka with lunch and accepted a sip of a drink from a hitchhiker he had picked up earlier. Tests revealed Gardner's blood-alcohol levels were at or above the legal limit.
He was charged with a class B misdemeanor for driving under the influence of alcohol, but the charge was later dismissed on a technicality.
In August 2000, he was charged with disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor, after he was accused of roughing up a 9-year-old neighbor boy for harassing his children.
