This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A former Perry police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted extortion after being accused of trying to bribe a state trooper to keep a friend from losing his license after a drunken driving arrest.
Daniel Kotter was originally charged in 2nd District Court with a second-degree felony, but the charge was reduced to a third-degree felony after reaching a plea deal. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 7.
Kotter was accused in September 2011 of offering a Utah Highway Patrol trooper $1,000 to not appear at a Utah Driver License Division hearing for Matthew Scott Jones, who had previously been an Ogden police officer and Weber County sheriff's deputy.
"... Kotter told [the trooper] that he did not want to call it a 'b-r-i-b-e' but a Christmas bonus," investigators wrote in Kotter's arrest warrant.
Jones was getting a job where he needed a commercial driver license, Kotter said, and didn't want to lose his license over the DUI.
Kotter asked what Jones' blood alcohol level had been. When the trooper replied via text message it was about 0.15, almost double the legal limit, Kotter upped his offer to $2,500.
The two men communicated several times via texts and phone conversations, several of which the trooper recorded.
On Sept. 13, after a hearing was scheduled with the Driver License Division, Kotter met with the trooper at a Phillips 66 convenience store in Ogden and gave him $2,000 in cash in exchange for skipping the hearing.
Kotter was arrested as he drove away from the convenience store.
According to the Perry Police Department, Kotter was a part-time officer who was only employed for a few months before the incident.
Twitter: @jm_miller