“I thought that I'd be maybe getting back to enjoying life,” Lukes said, “or just walking across the street on a daily basis, feeling safe.”
Meanwhile, Marx, 56, remains a sergeant first class in the Utah Army National Guard, where his primary job has been as a military policeman. Lukes obtained a protective order against Marx after the alleged assaults. Such orders prevent the subjects from possessing firearms. One defense attorney asked a judge for a delay because Marx was on active duty with the military at the time and was unavailable.Salt Lake City police went looking for Marx in the summer of 2022. According to a police report, Marx told a crisis worker he would “not go down without a fight” and “isn’t afraid to die or to hurt the police.”
“There is sometimes a gamesmanship that occurs in the process that you see,” Gill said, “ but I think the court does a really good job of trying to stay on top of it.” Dwight Stirling is the CEO of the Center For Law and Military Policy and an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s law school. He points out Utah has a statute allowing the Guard to start discipline or discharge proceedings at any time — it need not wait for the civilian courts.