SALT LAKE CITY — State officials are taking steps to fire a Utah Highway Patrol trooper who has been criticized for how she handled drunken driving cases, her attorney said.
Prosecutors announced this summer they wouldn’t charge Cpl. Lisa Steed, who has been under investigation since two judges found in April she had been untruthful on the witness stand during DUI and drug possession cases. However, the Utah Highway Patrol sent a letter Nov. 1 notifying Steed she will be fired, according to her attorney, Greg Skordas. Steed has requested a meeting with the commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, he said. The patrol hasn’t replied to that request. Such meetings are the first step in an appeal process available to state employees facing termination, but it could be months before there is a resolution. "She loves her job and she would like to keep it in some fashion," Skordas told The Salt Lake Tribune. "She’s certainly willing to be reassigned or moved to a different area." Dwayne Baird, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, declined to discuss Steed. "It’s still an internal matter," Baird said, "and it would be inappropriate for us to discuss it." Steed’s credibility in DUI cases has been questioned since a judge in the 3rd District, which includes Salt Lake City, said Steed wasn’t truthful and suppressed evidence in a case in April. That same month, a judge in the 2nd District, which includes Davis County, also said Steed suppressed evidence in a case, and the Davis County attorney has said he will not prosecute cases where Steed is a significant witness. Last month, the newspaper also reported on a 2010 memo in which Steed’s then-supervisor referred to a pattern of conflicting information between Steed’s arrest reports and laboratory results. In seven of 20 cases Nixon said he reviewed, toxicology tests showed drivers arrested by Steed for DUI had only the remnants of drugs or pharmaceuticals in their blood, not necessarily the illegal kind, and four other drivers had no drugs in their systems, according to the memo. Skordas said Steed was placed on administrative leave and ordered to leave UHP offices the same day she was served with the letter. She continues to draw a paycheck from the state while appealing. "She’s pretty discouraged," Skordas said. "This wasn’t something we had expected."
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