This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Carbon County may be without a sheriff soon.
County leaders suspect that Sheriff James Cordova no longer lives there and has moved to his new house in St. George, which would breach the requirement that elected officials live in their jurisdictions and would negate his right to hold the office.
"It just looks like he's not here," Commissioner Jae Potter said Wednesday. Cordova will have a chance to defend himself at a meeting at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
If ousted, the Carbon County Democratic Party would appoint a new sheriff, though Potter could not speculate on who that would be.
Cordova's term ends this December and he has not filed to run for re-election. He has held the office since 1999.
Last spring, citizens started calling county officials, prompting an investigation into whether Cordova used county equipment and a county credit card in his move to St. George, Potter said in May.
Carbon County Attorney Gene Strate has said that Cordova allegedly spent about $2,100 on the credit card to buy gas for the county-owned pickup truck.
The findings from that investigation have been turned over to the Utah Attorney General's Office.
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