The leader of the Occupy Park City movement was arrested on a drug charge during a traffic stop in Prospector in mid-April, a count that could carry a prison term of up to five years if he is convicted.
Tyler Galovich, who is 28 years old and lists an address in Kamas, was arrested in the early morning hours of April 14. He was released from the Summit County Jail at 8:30 a.m. on the same day after $6,415 in bail was posted on his behalf.
Prosecutors charged Galovich with a count of possession of a controlled substance, a third-degree felony that is punishable by a prison sentence of between zero and five years upon conviction. He also faces counts of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and speeding.
According to charging documents filed in Third District Court at Silver Summit, a police officer was on a patrol at the Kearns Boulevard-Comstock Drive intersection and saw a Mazda Protégé speed by. The officer’s radar clocked the Mazda at 52 mph in a 35 mph zone, the charging documents said.
Galovich pulled over and the officer saw an open case of beer in the backseat and smelled alcohol, the prosecutors said. Galovich’s eyes were glassy and bloodshot, convincing the officer to conduct sobriety tests, according to the court filing. The officer found him to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs after the tests, the prosecutors said.
Galovich was arrested and the officer found him to have “several pieces of unusually colored chewing gum,” the charging document said. Ecstasy was found in the gum during a test at the scene.
Galovich is scheduled to make his first appearance in court on May 21. He has not entered a plea. Court records do not list him as having an attorney. Galovich did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Galovich launched the Occupy Park City movement in late 2011, setting up a small encampment on the edge of City Park. The encampment did not involve more than a few people and it was dismantled early in 2012.
Occupy Park City, which aligns itself with the wider Occupy Wall Street movement, held a series of demonstrations over the winter, including several noteworthy ones during the Sundance Film Festival in January. In one of them, Occupy Wall Street protesters stormed into the lobby of the Wells Fargo branch on Kearns Boulevard. There has been little activity of public interest by the group since Sundance.