5 officers lose their POST certification for life

SANDY — The former commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety can never be a police officer in the state again.

Scott T. Duncan was one of seven Utah law enforcement officers sanctioned Wednesday by the Utah Police Officer Standards and Training Council during its quarterly meeting. He was one of five to have their certification revoked for life.

"Any time we have to deal with police officer misconduct, it becomes difficult," said Capt. Kelly Sparks, deputy director of POST, when asked about Duncan's case.

"Certainly, the more senior a person is, the more experienced the person is, the more serious the misconduct issues are," Sparks said, "and perhaps the more repercussions there are because of the notoriety."

Duncan pleaded guilty in 4th District Court on Nov. 9 to two counts of falsely obtaining a prescription, a third-degree felony, and one count of filing a fraudulent insurance claim, a class B misdemeanor. He was ordered to serve three years on probation as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. The charges will be dismissed if he does not violate probation.

In January, Duncan was stopped twice for swerving on a road in southern Utah. He first told a deputy he was distracted by an audio book and was let go. Later, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper stopped Duncan again, noticed something was wrong and took him to a Cedar City hospital to be examined.

Duncan resigned soon after, effectively ending his 32-year law enforcement career. Prosecutors said he later approached authorities, said he had a drug problem and admitted that he'd gone to multiple doctors in Utah County to obtain prescriptions for hydrocodone.

The six other officers disciplined Wednesday were:

Anna L. Barney: Investigators said Barney, a former Utah County sheriff's deputy, had sex with a Utah County Jail inmate in September 2008. Barney had been a deputy for more than 11 years when she resigned in February. She agreed to a revocation of her certification.

Travis Harvey: A former Utah Department of Corrections officer, Harvey fondled a female officer without her consent while on duty, investigators said, and also lied when interviewed about it. Harvey, a corrections officer for little more than a year when he was fired in October, agreed to have his certification revoked.