Utah lawmaker Bruce Adams accused of ‘intimidation’ against deputies

A Utah lawmaker dropped a flurry of f-bombs while threatening cops who busted his convicted-burglar son — even after getting special access to see the valid warrant behind the arrest.

Long-time San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams was caught on bodycam footage obtained by KUTV raging at deputies as he arrived to pick up a car after his son had been pulled over and arrested the day after Thanksgiving.

As soon as he arrived, Adams went up to officers and “stated that he wanted to see the ‘mother f—ing warrant right away,” Deputy Wyatt Holyoak wrote in a police report shared by the outlet.

“I told [Adams] I could not show him personal returns on my computer,” the deputy wrote.

But the commissioner “replied that I better show him the God damn warrant right away,” the officer wrote.

“It appeared to me that [Adams] was trying to use his influence as a County Commissioner to intimidate me into showing him information that I was not permitted to do,” the officer wrote.

Aware of the raging official’s powerful position, the deputy called his boss and got special permission to show him the warrant on his computer to “help de-escalate the situation,” the report said.

Adams continued arguing, the bodycam shows, angrily telling the deputy: “I want you to turn him loose.”

He then threatened legal action after the deputy said he could not free Adams’ son, Kenneth Adams, because of the valid warrant he’d just shown him.

“Do you want me to sue the son-of-a-b—— county sheriff because he arrested my kid on a false warrant?” Adams said, with the officer reminding him that “the warrant’s right there.”

Adams left — but then continued his complaints in a phone call to the sheriff’s office lead investigator, Alan Freestone, who called a court clerk at home to confirm that the warrant was valid.

Three days later, then-Sheriff Jason Torgerson and Freestone met with Adams in his Salt Lake City office to raise their concerns at his “lack of professionalism,” KUTV said.

Adams instead accused Deputy Holyoak of lying to him, but refused to watch the bodycam footage that the sheriff’s officials said would prove “that was not true,” the documents said.

However, Adams now admits his behavior was inappropriate.

“It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing for me to act that way,” he told KUTV last Thursday, two months after the incident.

“I feel bad that I did that. But I was emotional,” he said.

“In my opinion, I was acting as a father,” he said, while conceding now that he “absolutely” should always act as the commissioner that he is.

He also maintained that at the time he believed his son’s warrant — connected to a burglary and theft case from 2020, in which he had pleaded guilty and entered into a plea in abeyance — was invalid.

However, officials repeatedly told him that it was active because his son was missing several documents related to required courses for his probation.

Kenneth Adams, who got out of jail soon after the arrest, turned in the missing documents required and the warrant was dropped, KUTV noted.

Kenneth — who was seen calling the warrant “a joke” when he was pulled over and arrested — also told the outlet that he believed his probation had been all in order at the time.

“I was in compliance with everything I was supposed to be in compliance with,” he said.

“I think my dad was just beyond frustrated,” Kenneth told KUTV of the caught-on-camera confrontation.

He also said it was “absolutely ridiculous” to suggest his dad had tried to use his influence to intimidate the officer.

“My dad takes his office very seriously, dude. Like, very seriously,” he said.