A former Kanab mayoral candidate who owns a sanitation company is one of three individuals facing criminal charges in connection with the illegal discharge of human waste near a tributary of the Sevier River in southern Utah.
Sindi Brown Vetere, 42, who lost her bid to become Kanab’s mayor in 2021, and her husband, Weston Frank Vetere, 33, were charged Wednesday in 6th District Court with third-degree felony obstruction of justice. One of Sindi Vetere’s employees, 61-year-old James Phillip Torgerson of Fredonia, Arizona, was charged with knowingly violating the water quality act and obstruction of justice, both third-degree felonies.
“Most of the sites were older, but there was a smell consistent with raw sewage and what appeared to be dried toilet paper and female hygiene items. One of the sites appeared to be a very recent dump, due to the ground still being wet,” the affidavit states. Garfield County Sheriff’s spokesperson Joseph Adams said the Veteres and Torgerson were arrested and booked into the Garfield County Jail, but are currently out on bail awaiting trial. Meanwhile, he added, the investigation is still ongoing.
“We want to know if [Torgerson] was acting … on his own or if the business had any idea of what he was doing or was directing him to do it,” Adams said, adding there could be other illegal dump sites investigators are not aware of at this point. Utah Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson Ashley Sumner said engineers’ immediate concern is to clean up the site.
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