A Millard County man arrested for drunken driving is also facing assault charges, accused of coughing on deputies and nurses and telling them he has COVID-19.
Deputies found the man asleep in an SUV that had gone off the road into sagebrush near the Fillmore Cemetery late Saturday night, according to a probable cause statement. Deputies woke the man up and convinced him to get out of the vehicle — and then he started shouting profanities and fighting the deputies and paramedics on the scene, an officer wrote in the statement.
The 33-year-old man fought again as deputies got him into a police vehicle, the statement said, and deputies tasered the man in the thigh when he tried to kick his way out. Ultimately, deputies took the man to the Fillmore Community Hospital, where he refused a blood draw — and, according to the statement, he loudly said he had COVID-19 “and began intentionally coughing in the faces” of the nurses and deputies there.
As deputies were taking the man from the hospital to the Millard County jail, the statement said, the man tried to head-butt an off-duty deputy who is also on the fire rescue crew. Once in the secure area of the jail, the officer wrote, the man tried to kick a deputy.
The man is now under investigation for a dozen charges, including three felonies: aggravated assault by a prisoner, a second-degree felony, and assault by prisoner and assault on a health care provider, both third-degree felonies.
The man was already free on bail on a different assault-by-prisoner charge from a DUI arrest in September. He is being held in the Millard County jail.