YouTube video leads Logan to postpone vote on police chief

The Logan Municipal Council has postponed its vote on a new police chief amid questions over a 2007 YouTube video that has created what one councilman called "a tempest in a teapot."

Vernal Police Chief Gary Jensen was supposed to be confirmed as Logan's top cop at Tuesday night's council meeting. But council members chose to put off the vote until their Oct. 20 meeting.

"The decision was made not out of nonsupport," Jensen told the Deseret News Wednesday. "It was made to let this thing have its life for a few days, let the dust settle, and let everybody take a hard look at what they've seen and what they've heard and make their own decision."

"This thing" is what Jensen and others believe is a media-generated controversy over a YouTube video that was sent to Logan council members last week.

The clip, which runs less than two minutes and is obviously edited, was shot following a 2007 rock concert in Vernal. (The clip can be viewed at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MbfAaOV3wg. Contains some graphic content.)

Jensen said he was talking with members of a band backstage when one individual asked to see the chief's police-issue nunchucks, a weapon Jensen is certified to carry. Jensen said he handed the nunchucks to the man and went back to a conversation with another individual.

In the video, the man with the nunchucks strikes another man on the buttocks, with the man's consent. The two laugh about it and Jensen quickly takes the nunchucks back.

The man who was hit pulls down his pants to display a red welt on his buttocks.

After an edit, Jensen presents the man with a Vernal City Police Department commemorative coin. Someone off-camera says, "There's your gold medal man. You've been whooped by Vernal police," drawing laughter. Jensen did not make the comment, and the words are not inscribed on the coin.

"On one side it says 'Office of the Chief,' " he said of the coin that bears images of the department's shoulder patch and badge. "On the other side it says, 'Pride and Professionalism.' "

Jensen informed Vernal City Manager Ken Bassett of the incident when it occurred. Bassett took no action, a fact he confirmed when contacted by Logan Councilwoman Tami Pyfer on Tuesday.

"He backs Gary 100 percent," said Pyfer, who was the council's representative on the police chief search committee.