The former UHP trooper charged with Arson in the Maesar Highway Fire in June made his initial appearance in 8th District Court on Monday. The Maeser Highway Fire started on June 9th in Uintah County and burned over 2,500 acres. On August 8th, the Utah Attorney General’s Office charged 37-year-old Rex Richard Olsen with one count of Second-Degree Felony Arson as well as a second charge for placing a lighted item on a highway/wildland area, a class B misdemeanor. According to the charging document, Olsen, who was a trooper at the time of starting the fire, “placed a lighted cigarette with matches just off the shoulder of a highway right of way.” Video evidence from a local gas station showed Olsen purchasing the type of cigarette used at the scene to start the fire and GPS based location data placed Olsen at the time and place of the fire. The damage caused to property, land and the expense of responding to and suppressing the fire is more than $800,000 dollars. Olsen was advised by Judge Clark McClellan on Monday of the charges and penalties he faces.
