Prosecutor wants prison for man who tried selling drugs through school-issued iPads.
James Tilson
Staff writer
4-6-2017
MANTI — A man has pleaded guilty for attempting to sell drugs to high school students through school-issued iPads.
Shaun Maloney, already on probation for criminal-mischief and criminal-damage charges from 2014 and 2015, entered a guilty plea on March 22 in 6th District Court on a charge of arranging to distribute the prescription medication hydrocodone (Lortab, an opiate derivative) to high school students at Gunnison Valley High School.
Maloney specifically targeted minors, Sanpete County Deputy Attorney Kevin Daniels said on March 23, explaining why he would be seeking a prison sentence for Maloney.
Gunnison School Resource Officer Carl Wimmer arrested Maloney on March 9 after an investigation begun earlier that day when a student at GVHS was questioned and their iPad was examined.
During the examination, Wimmer discovered a conversation with a person names “Porter Maloney,” who the student identified as Shaun Maloney. The conversation included a request from Maloney about whether the student knew anyone who was interested in buying pills.
Wimmer contacted Maloney’s probation officer, who then accompanied Wimmer on a probation check at the apartment where Maloney resided with his father, Eric.
The officers found that Maloney had been drinking alcohol and placed him under arrest for violating his probation.
Maloney’s father, being under doctor’s care for pain, possessed a prescription for hydrocodone. Examining his prescription bottle, the officers noticed there were more than 100 pills missing. When asked, Eric Maloney said his son took the pills and sold them.
During a search of the apartment, two cell phones were found. One of them contained a conversation regarding selling pills. A syringe was also found in the apartment. When shown the syringe, Maloney spontaneously admitted that the syringe contained methamphetamine, according to a police statement.
Maloney was charged with arranging to distribute a controlled substance, a third degree felony; endangerment of a child, a third degree felony; possession of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor; and possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor.
He was also charged with probation violations on his two earlier cases.
In a plea agreement offered by Daniels, Maloney pleaded guilty to the arranging to distribute charge; the other charges, but not the probation violations, were dismissed.
Maloney is scheduled for sentencing on the new charge, as well as on the probation violations, for May 3 in 6th District Court in Manti.
