Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
MANTUA, Box Elder County — A physical altercation between a 76-year-old Mantua resident and the town's police chief, which neighbors say left the elderly man bloodied and concussed, may prove to be a breaking point for the small, struggling police department with a checkered history.
Thursday night, residents packed the chambers and foyer of the Mantua Town Hall, some calling for the termination of Chief Dakota Midkiff, who is currently on administrative leave pending review. The town attorney was called in to walk through segments of almost three hours of body camera footage not yet released to the public.
Cars lined the grass and pebble easements on both sides of the road leading up to the city building, which faces the Mantua Reservoir. Neighbors shuffled in to find the wooden chairs in the cramped waiting area occupied, others standing along walls and in the doorway to the council chambers, in which every seat was taken. Some even sat on the ground in the singular aisle leading to the curved committee table.
Rick Schulze, 76, did not attend the council meeting. "He's still beat up," said Tiffany Reimann, Schultz's neighbor, to the crowded room. "He still doesn't want people seeing what he looks like. He's in a pretty dark spot right now because of what happened."
On Oct. 5, Schulze had walked over to his daughter's house, where Midkiff had responded to a domestic call. Schulze, who family says was an officer for the Division of Wildlife Resources for over 30 years, left the property as instructed by Midkiff but returned to the consternation of the chief, according to a police booking affidavit.
Schulze was standing in the driveway, became "argumentative" and was yelling, Midkiff wrote in the arrest report. "I approached him and instructed him to place his hands behind his back. He refused to comply with my instructions and resisted me trying to place his hands behind his back. I decentralized him, and he continued to resist."
Town attorney Seth Tate told the audience at the meeting that the two men "struggle while standing up for a few seconds, the chief uses his right leg to, in essence, sweep the feet out and try to bring Mr. Schultz the ground."
The body camera video, according to Tate, does not show when Schultz's "head must have hit the concrete."
Photos taken by family and neighbors appear to show Schulze's head bloodied with wounds darkened into plum-colored bruising across his face. One of those photos was passed around during the meeting in a cellophane sleeve. One man told KSL.com he visited Schulze a day after that photo was taken and said his injuries looked even worse.
"I have definitely seen elderly people with much more benign looking injuries that have died as a result of those injuries," said Joe Bach, a friend of Schulze, to the gathering.
Reimann's version of events differed from the booking report, but she spoke from secondhand knowledge. "Midkiff made a mountain out of a molehill," she said. "Instead of keeping the peace in our town and keeping things safe, he made things completely out of control that day."
Tate provided a legal analysis of the use of force, which was "frankly against my better judgement," he said, given how recent the incident happened and how little time the town has had to investigate. He played a 3.5 minute clip of body camera footage and presented a preliminary finding.
The severity of the crime being investigated may not have warranted Midkiff's use of force, Tate explained, but he said the perceived threat Schulze posed and his alleged resistance to arrest both lean in favor of Midkiff's use of force being justified.
A petition started by Reimann has been passed around since that day, calling for the termination of Midkiff, which she estimates has 240 signatures so far. The town will be sending it to the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training, which certifies Utah police officers and is conducting its own review, according to Tate.
"I can't fire someone without due process; I'm sorry," said Mayor Terry Nelson. "I would be liable, and so that's why we're going about it this way. If that's too slow, I apologize for that."
Some at the meeting, though empathetic of Schulze's injuries, were concerned about the way town residents were handling the issue.
"It's actually embarrassing," said city employee Dave Ornelas, "for the people of Mantua who chose to defame, condemn, convict and decide a sentence on merely speculation, one side of the story and incomplete facts."
Another resident, Janice Johnson, who recently retired from the Mantua Justice Court, said Midkiff is innocent until proven guilty. "This was a horrible incident, but there's a process," she says. "I know some of the town employees have been harassed," Johnson said, and questioned why town officials were making statements about an ongoing investigation.
Asked to comment before Thursday's meeting, Midkiff told KSL-TV he was "not permitted to release any information" since the case is under investigation.
The real problem with the town's police force is much deeper than this single incident, according to Bach. "The best law enforcement officers come at a premium," he said. "Because our budget cannot support the best, we find ourselves hiring people that, quite frankly, either can't get or can't keep employment in a bigger city."
When Midkiff was hired in June 2022, council member and former Police Chief Justin Brown expressed concern about Midkiff's "lack of experience," and said he would "tell any who ask him, not to call Chief Midkiff for help if it is needed," and that "citizens should be fearful," according to meeting minutes.
In a statement given to the Box Elder News Journal, Midkiff began his career in January 2020 with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office but graduated from Law Enforcement Officer Academy as recently as April 2021. He worked as a part-time police officer with Wendover Police Department on the weekends, the News Journal statement says, before working part-time in Mantua under former Chief Craig Hamer.
After just a year on the job, Hamer resigned in June 2022, citing insufficient salary. Before being hired in Mantua, Hamer left the West Jordan Police Department after he was given a termination letter for numerous disciplinary issues, according to KUTV.
Hamer followed former Chief Michael Castro, who was sworn into office in July 2020 and who made headlines in December of that year for rescuing an ice fisherman who had fallen through the ice in Mantua Reservoir, but was let go in March 2021.
At the time, a source within Mantua told KSL officers were being pressured to bring in more revenue through writing more tickets. Officers were allegedly penalized when ticket revenues went down, drawing protest from Castro and other staffers. Several officers submitted resignations after Castro's dismissal.
Before Castro, Shane Zilles was the police chief, but he was arrested and subsequently fired for impaired driving in February 2019.
Bach said as the population around the reservoir grows from "a small town to a bigger small town," it might be time to consider outsourcing policing to the county. "Right now, we are in a very difficult time of transition," he said. "If we can put our pride and tradition aside and look at the facts, we may be much better off as a community to contract these services."
Tate said a neighboring county, either Davis County or Weber County, is being asked to conduct an independent evaluation of the incident.
