911 call in St. George leads to felony arrest of 2 suspects – 1 with more than 40 cases over 20-year span

Composite image with background image of St. George Police patrol vehicle and overlay image taken in St. George, Utah, March 17, 2021 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Two suspects are in jail on multiple felony charges after a call to 911 about a couple fighting triggered an encounter with officers near Main Street in St. George early Friday morning.

Mark Norman Glodowski, 44, of American Fork, booking photo taken in Washington County, Utah, March 25, 2021 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

Shortly after 10:30 p.m. on  Thursday, officers responded to St. George Boulevard and Main Street after a citizen called 911 reporting a couple fighting, according to charging documents filed with the court.

The caller told emergency dispatch while walking north on Main Street, a man was yelling at a blonde woman. When the officer arrived, the report states, he noticed a couple who matched the description provided by the reporting party sitting in a silver passenger car parked near a business north of the Pasta Factory. The driver attempted to drive off when he spotted the officer, but instead the car lunged forward and struck the curb. The man drove off, nearly running over a couple of bushes, the report states.

The officer then stopped the car for a moving violation and spoke to the driver, identified at the time as Trevor Sexton, according to the Utah Driver’s License he handed to the officer. The passenger also provided a driver’s license, which identified her as Terryne Bergeson. Authorities later discovered these identification cards to be fraudulent after the suspects’ true identifies were revealed when their fingerprints were processed and run through the national data base, which then identified the driver as 44-year-old Mark Norman Glodowski of American Fork. The passenger was identified as 32-year-old Elizabeth Ola Canon of St. George.

While speaking with the driver during the traffic stop the officer noticed a number of used syringes and paper towels that appeared to have dried blood on them that were in plain view.

The report also states the couple appeared “extremely nervous,” and the driver exhibited signs of recent drug use, including fidgety movements, droopy eyelids, slurred speech, a gaunt and sallow look on his face, as well as sores and fresh track marks on his forearms and hands.

When the driver was asked to take a field sobriety test he pulled out two small baggies from his pocket that contained a brown substance consistent with heroin, the officer wrote, and in the other baggie was a white substance that appeared to be methamphetamine, narcotics the driver allegedly admitted to using earlier that day.

When the driver reportedly failed several of the tests he was placed under arrest and the vehicle was searched.

On the front passenger seat officers recovered several plastic baggies that contained a small amount of suspected meth and heroin, as well as several used needles, prescription pills and a glass pipe with suspected marijuana residue. In a leather case they found more suspected meth and heroin, as well as a small amount of suspected marijuana.

Elizabeth Ola Canon, 32, of St. George, booking photo taken in Washington County, Utah, March 25, 2021 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

As the search continued officers also recovered multiple backpacks, purses, luggage and other bags that contained at least fifteen financial transaction cards and financial card information that belonged to other people and more than five identification documents including a passport, a driver’s license and a list of bank accounts with the name of the account holders and other identifying information, which also belonged to persons other than the couple in the car that “appeared to be possessed for the purpose of fraud,” the officer wrote.

When questioned, neither the driver nor the passenger were able to provide a plausible explanation for possessing the documents or the cards. Later, the passenger allegedly told police that Glodowski had multiple girlfriends that were possibly involved in theft and fraud, and said she had grabbed a number of the cards and documents when she helped him clean out the car earlier that day.

The pair was transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility where they were booked into jail facing 10 third-degree felony counts of unlawful acquisition of a financial card each, as well as felony possession of another’s identifying documents. Each also faces three counts of possession of a controlled substance, selling, dispensing or trafficking prescription drugs, and possession of paraphernalia – each a misdemeanor.

The driver was also charged with DUI.

This is not the first brush with the law for either suspect.

In January, Canon was arrested for retail theft and felony drug possession after the NPS store in Orem called authorities reporting that a suspect had fled the store with $500 in merchandise concealed in her purse. The store also reported the suspect got away during a foot chase through the parking lot with the store’s loss prevention department, according to a report filed in support of the arrest.

The suspect was arrested shortly thereafter following a foot pursuit with police. When asked why she ran, the officer noted that Canon said, “she was running because she had been shoplifting and was afraid she would get in trouble for it,” the officer recounted in the report.

She told the officer she needed her inhaler and grabbed for her bag to search for it, but when the officer took the bag to retrieve the item, instead of an inhaler, the officer found several syringes and a small baggie of suspected meth.

As the suspect was being detained, she requested that officers allow her boyfriend, Glodowski, to retrieve the vehicle in lieu of  going to an impound yard, but when store personnel heard the boyfriend’s name, they informed authorities that Glodowski had attempted to pass a counterfeit $50 bill before leaving the store.

At that point Canon withdrew her consent to the search of the car and all activity ceased and she was transported and booked into the Utah County Jail while a search warrant was obtained.

Stock image of Purgatory Correctional Facility, Hurricane, Utah, Oct. 21, 2020 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

It was during a subsequent search of the car that officers found more suspected meth and heroin inside the vehicle, along with a number of identifying documents belonging to other people. Canon was later charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, one count of retail theft and possession of marijuana.

She was also charged with one count of failing to stop at the command of a peace officer. The possession and theft charges were enhanced after a background check revealed multiple qualifying convictions within the last 10 years, according to the report.

The officer also noted that the documents recovered would be investigated further and more charges may be forthcoming in the case that is still pending in the courts.

Glodowski has an extensive criminal history that includes a number of open cases, including two drug arrests in Salt Lake County reported earlier this month.

He was also charged with first-degree felony drug possession in January when officers in West Jordan responded to a trespassing call and found nearly a dozen baggies of suspected meth, as well as heroin and multiple prescription pills, according to a report filed in support of the arrest.

In December he was charged with drug distribution and three counts of possessing a forgery device after officers reportedly recovered a cardboard box containing a large quantity of a white, crystal-like substance and a package of unused baggies tucked in between the driver’s seat and center console, and in the trunk they allegedly found more meth and heroin. A warrant was issued in that case when the defendant failed to appear for a hearing earlier this month.

Another open case involves a traffic stop where officers recovered a number of blank checks the suspect allegedly told police he stole from a family friend, the report states, along with a list of personal identifying information and credit card numbers belonging to a number of individuals. Officers also found “a distributable amount” of suspected meth and heroin.

He was charged with drug distribution and multiple counts of unlawful possession of another’s identifying documents and financial card offenses. A conference has been scheduled in the case that is expected to take place in April.

Glodowski’s criminal history includes nearly 45 cases and convictions spanning the course of more than two decades, cases that involve hundreds of charges, a majority of which were felonies. More than a dozen of those cases have yet to be resolved, a search of court records revealed.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!