Former Weber Sheriff employee accused of tainting evidence appears in Ogden court
Former Weber County evidence technician Candice Follum appears in Ogden's 2nd District Court on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. Follum was charged with 40 counts related to allegedly consuming methamphetamine while working the Weber County Sheriff's Office's evidence room.
Former Weber County evidence technician Candice Follum appears in Ogden's 2nd District Court on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. Follum was charged with 40 counts related to allegedly consuming methamphetamine while working the Weber County Sheriff's Office's evidence room.
Former Weber County evidence technician Candice Follum appears before Jodge Noel Hyde in Ogden's 2nd District Court on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. Follum was charged with 40 counts related to allegedly consuming methamphetamine while working the Weber County Sheriff's Office's evidence room.
Former Weber County evidence technician Candice Follum appears in Ogden's 2nd District Court on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. Follum was charged with 40 counts related to allegedly consuming methamphetamine while working the Weber County Sheriff's Office's evidence room.
Follum
OGDEN — A former evidence technician for the Weber County Sheriff’s Office who’s accused of tampering with evidence and consuming methamphetamine while on the job had her first court appearance Tuesday afternoon in Ogden.
Candice Barbara Follum, 48, is charged with 20 counts of altering public records, a third-degree felony, and 20 counts of possession or use of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor.
Follum briefly appeared in court alongside her attorney, Kristopher Greenwood.
Judge Noel Hyde told Follum of the maximum penalties for the charges she faces. Each altering public records charge carries a maximum sentence of zero to five years in prison, and each controlled substance charge could land her a year in jail, according to Hyde.
The brief hearing ended after Follum’s next court hearing was set for Oct. 23 in Ogden’s 2nd District Court.
Outside the courtroom, Deputy Weber County Attorney Branden Miles said Follum’s counsel and prosecutors were working on resolving the case with a plea deal. Miles declined to say what the terms of the possible deal were.
At least 12 criminal cases apparently tainted in the Weber County Sheriff’s Office’s evidence room resulted in convictions, according to previous Standard-Examiner reporting.
Investigators flagged at least 59 sheriff’s office incident reports during an internal affairs probe launched after Follum was fired in January. Of those, the Standard-Examiner obtained 48 reports with an open records request.
At least 33 cases had drugs that apparently went missing in the evidence room, while four others involved mishandled rape kits. Still other case reports detailed instances of missing money and jewelry, mishandled guns, and angry complaints from evidence owners who were turned away by the technician when they attempted to retrieve their property.
Follum is not being held in police custody. She was issued a summons to appear in court Tuesday.
As a stipulation of her summons and indictment, Follum was booked and released from the Weber County Jail on Tuesday, Sept. 18.
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