Former Utah Senate majority leader Sheldon Killpack requests hearing about his DUI arrest

SALT LAKE CITY — When a fellow defendant told Sheldon Killpack that the presence of news media at his court hearing Monday should make him feel "really popular," he just shook his head and said "not so much."

The former Utah Senate majority leader was in Salt Lake County Justice Court to ask Judge Shauna Graves-Robinson for a hearing in his DUI case, which will address a yet-to-be-filed motion his attorney Ed Brass would only say is "with respect to the stop." Brass has until May 4 to file the motion.

Killpack, 41, was pulled over Jan. 15 by a Utah Highway Patrol trooper near 700 East and 3300 South. The trooper who stopped the Syracuse Republican had observed a vehicle "with a poor driving pattern." The trooper "detected a strong odor of alcohol coming from the defendant's breath, his speech was slurred, the defendant's balance was poor and his eyes were bloodshot, glossy and droopy," the charges state.

Killpack "performed poorly" during field sobriety tests administered after he was stopped, and "swayed from side to side during the test," losing his balance twice, the charges state.

He was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, a class B misdemeanor; and failure to signal, a class C misdemeanor. Prosecutors say Killpack had a blood-alcohol level of 0.11 at the time. The legal limit for impairment is 0.08.

Killpack resigned from the Legislature the day after the incident. He has since pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Brass has previously questioned the legality of the stop, saying in a petition that the UHP trooper who pulled Killpack over "lacked reasonable grounds to request a chemical test." Brass filed that petition in early March in an effort to overturn the suspension of Killpack's driver's license, which will be in effect until August 2011. When Killpack gets his license back, he must have an ignition interlock device on his vehicle for three years and also will be designated as an "alcohol-restricted driver" for five years.

A hearing on that matter will be held April 21.

There has been further controversy surrounding the arrest, as access to the initial arrest records and dashboard camera video — both items that law enforcement agencies regularly release and that are typically deemed public by state law — has yet to be granted by the state.

The Utah State Records Committee ordered that the records be released, but the Utah Department of Public Safety and Utah Attorney General's Office are now fighting that ruling in 3rd District Court.

The motion hearing for Killpack's case is set for May 25.

e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com