The former UHP trooper charged with Arson in the Maeser Highway Fire pleaded Not Guilty this week to the charges in 8th District Court. 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 former trooper, 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 an on-duty 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. With his Not Guilty pleas entered on both charges, Olsen is now scheduled for a pretrial conference
on November 14th.
Olsen is also facing a federal charge for allegedly setting a second fire in Uintah County about a week and a half before the Maeser Highway Fire. The second fire, known as the Mile Marker 166 Fire, started
on May 30th
and closed Highway 40 for a brief time.
