Three Utah County prosecutors resigned amid investigation into free Jazz tickets
Prosecuting attorney Craig Johnson speaks to the media after Conrad Truman's sentencing at the Fourth District Court in Provo on Monday, Feb. 9, 2015. Truman was sentenced to consecutive sentences of 15 years to life for murder and one to 15 years for obstruction of justice in the 2012 shooting death of his wife Heidy Truman. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald
The Utah County Administration Building stands Friday, Dec. 27, 2019, in Provo. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
Three prosecutors with the Utah County Attorney’s Office resigned in late January amid a misconduct investigation after the attorneys received tickets to a Utah Jazz game from a defense attorney.
According to a Utah County Office of Human Resource Management report obtained by the Daily Herald, Utah County prosecutors Chase Hansen, Craig Johnson and Pona Sitake were investigated for “the possible inappropriate acceptance of gifts by the attorneys from a criminal defense firm, Pawelek and Gale,” specifically from defense attorney Dennis Pawelek.
The Jan. 17 report states that the four attorneys attended a Utah Jazz game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 4 of last year and that Pawelek had paid for the lower bowl tickets, which are estimated to have cost $240 each (although another report from the investigation says they may have cost about $315).
All three prosecutors said during investigation interviews that they had strong friendships with Pawelek and that he had paid for their Jazz tickets on previous occasions. They denied that there was anything improper about accepting the tickets even though all three have worked on cases with Pawelek in recent years.
Utah County Office of Human Resource Management Director Ralf Barnes concluded that Pawelek “has established a pattern of fostering an inappropriate relationship with Deputy County Attorneys by providing improper gifts including Jazz tickets over the past several years,” adding that these actions violated the Utah Public Officers’ and Employees’ Ethics Act and the county’s professional ethics code.
“While there is no evidence of explicit bribery or an attempt to influence the outcome of any specific case, it can be inferred that Mr. Pawelek’s widespread generosity is an attempt to create favorable relationships and conditions that could indirectly influence case outcomes in his favor,” the report reads.
Barnes recommended the prosecutors receive “severe disciplinary action,” which is defined as suspension without pay, demotion or termination.
Hansen, Johnson and Sitake were placed on “indefinite suspension” in January pending the investigation and resigned before the investigation concluded, Utah County Attorney David Leavitt said in an interview on Tuesday.
“They resigned before discipline could be taken,” Leavitt said, adding that the incident also is being investigated by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
In addition to violating “both the county attorney’s written policy and the Utah County written policy,” Leavitt said accepting the basketball tickets “impugns the public confidence in the criminal justice system.”
Leavitt said overly friendly relationships between prosecutors and defense attorneys can impact which cases go to trial and which are settled through plea bargains.
“Even if there was no quid pro quo … it demonstrates an understanding, at least by those who are giving tickets, that the subtle differences in relationships affect plea bargains,” he said. “And it’s one of the big problems that exists in our criminal justice system … that we decide cases based on relationships sometimes, not based on facts.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Pawelek denied that he did anything wrong by buying tickets for the prosecutors.
“It’s not like I just bought them Jazz tickets,” said Pawelek. “We all went to the game together. We’ve been friends for a long time. It was just friends going out to a game. They bought dinner, parking, some ice cream afterwards, and I had the tickets.”
The defense attorney rejected the idea that having a close relationship with prosecutors has an impact on courtroom proceedings.
“(Plea bargains are) not based on relationships,” he said. “They’re based on evidence.”
Pawelek added that he thinks it is important that prosecutors and defense attorneys have “a good working relationship.”
“Why have a caustic relationship when you work with each other?” Pawelek said.
Pawelek said he thought the investigation was politically motivated, noting that Leavitt announced Friday that he is running for Utah Attorney General.
“I just think this is motivated by the political environment that Dave Leavitt has created there,” he said.
In a written statement, Johnson said his resignation was due to the attorney’s office disbanding its Special Victims Unit (SVU), which he worked on, as well as “philosophical differences with Mr. Leavitt.” He added that it is a “false narrative” to suggest that the free Jazz ticket “in any way affected my ability to fairly and ethically represent the citizens of Utah County.”
“The defense attorney and I have had a long-standing friendship for almost a decade in my neighborhood,” Johnson said. “We have coached our kids in T-ball, had family bbqs, and otherwise had a long-term community-based friendship. Suggesting that we ever compromised cases together that short-changed the pursuit of justice could not be further from the truth.”
Hansen and Sitake did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Sitake had previously been investigated by HR for taking “pictures of several females without their knowledge” and sharing the pictures with other attorneys via text message, according to a Nov. 12 report.
The report states that Sitake had been accused of taking pictures of women in court and sharing them with other attorneys in a group message.
“The messages sent with the pictures were statements regarding the attractiveness of the women, and the images were taken without the subjects’ knowledge,” the report says.
Another section of the report states that while “the pictures were not particularly suggestive, provocative, or inappropriate, they were accompanied by statements such as ‘beautiful,’ ‘looks good for 41’ or ‘could be a model.'”
Sitake originally denied taking or sending any such photos but later, when shown printed out text message exchanges that investigators had obtained, “indicated that he did recall at least some of them (the text messages).”
“Mr. Sitake has been less than forthcoming about his participation in these events,” the report concludes. “His tendency to divert attention and complain about the conduct of others instead of accepting responsibility is particularly disturbing. His behavior in any case has been less than professional.”
The report recommended that Sitake serve a “one-to-three-day suspension as consequence” for his actions.
Leavitt said on Tuesday that his office was “just getting ready to hand down discipline (to Sitake) when we suspended him for the tickets. And so then we concluded that we would wait and do everything all at once when the ticket investigation was done, but then he resigned before either one of them could be handed down.”
