Jeremy Duda

It's getting harder for Utah County's most prolific criminals to stay under the radar.

"It's just to tell the prosecutor that this person is at a point in their criminal career where they've earned different treatment," Buhman said.

Any plea deals or bargains involving defendants from the PNG list must be approved by Buhman. The list is tacked to a bulletin board in the conference room at the county attorney's office, and all prosecutors are e-mailed when a new name is added.

With troubling high-profile crimes such as murders and rapes, prosecutors are already well aware of the gravity of the situation. The list is not for those crimes, but for people with large numbers of convictions for crimes such as theft, forgery, burglary and drug possession, people whom Buhman described as "one-man or one-woman crime spree people."

Buhman emphasized that his office does not treat listed defendants differently from others with similar criminal backgrounds. The PNG list simply tells a prosecutor to be aware of things such as prior convictions and ongoing investigations.

There are "people who, in the past, have slipped through the cracks because we've had maybe multiple cases spread out over multiple courts, maybe even multiple prosecutors," Buhman said. "It's the people that tend to commit your lower level felonies -- your drug possession, forgeries, theft, some burglaries. They tend not to come up on the radar as quickly because we do so many of those cases."

Buhman said he's looking into the legality of publishing the list online. There are some examples on the county attorney's Web site of people who have been on the list, at http://www.co.utah.ut.us/Dept/Atty/PNGList.asp.

He said there are six names on the list right now. Others have been taken off the list after being sentenced to lengthy stays in prison.

One defendant who made his way onto -- and off -- the list is Michael Pino. With 29 arrests under his belt and an extensive criminal history, Pino was sentenced in August on a number of drug and burglary-related charges. Despite the relatively low level of Pino's felonies, Judge Gary Stott sentenced him to up to 35 years in prison after considering the defendant's criminal history.

Many PNG-worthy defendants are already well known to prosecutors by the time their case is assigned to a deputy county attorney, Buhman said. But in case a prosecutor is new or just isn't familiar with a certain name, the PNG list will provide a red flag.

Buhman said the PNG list is symbolic of his efforts to tighten up his office's policies regarding plea deals since he became Utah County Attorney a year and a half ago. Other efforts include changes to policies on reducing charges in drug dealing and drunk driving cases, Buhman said.

Buhman said the changes are effective, as evidenced by the increased number of cases that go to trial under his watch.

"It's dramatically different than it used to be," he said.

Not everyone feels that the changes have had as monumental an effect as Buhman does. Tom Means, director of the Utah County Public Defender Association, said he's aware that Buhman has implemented new policies, but doesn't think the changes have had a major impact.

"I haven't seen a significant change," Means said.

Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it