A judge had some strong words for two southeastern Utah county commissioners who he said deliberately delayed appointing a county attorney in order to benefit themselves.
The comments from Seventh District Judge Don Torgerson came during a hearing Wednesday over a lawsuit that was initially filed after the San Juan County Commission refused to appoint somebody to the vacant position and instead seek outside candidates.
Torgerson specifically called out Commissioners Willie Grayeyes and Kenneth Maryboy, who hold a Democratic majority on the three-member commission, for trying to "circumvent the legal process that is established by statute."
“They acted not in the best interest of San Juan County, but they acted clearly in their personal interest for both partisan and personal gain,” Torgerson said.
The judge added that the lawsuit which resulted from the commissioners’ actions will cost taxpayers about $15,000 in legal fees.
“The court finds that those attorneys’ fees were entirely unnecessary and would not have been incurred but for the bad-faith conduct of Commissioners Maryboy and Grayeyes,” said Torgerson.
KUTV 2News reached out multiple times to Grayeyes, Maryboy, and their attorneys for comment Thursday but did not hear back.
Background
This all started in March when San Juan County Attorney Kendall Laws announced he would resign to take a new job with the state of Utah.
Four candidates applied to replace him – Daniel Anderson, Alex Goble, Craig Halls, and Brittney Ivins. All of them are Republicans. But the San Juan County Democratic Party declined to nominate any of them, sending the matter back to the San Juan County Commission.
So, in April, commissioners voted 2 to 1 to seek additional candidates from outside the county, despite a legal opinion that said doing so would violate Utah law.
Two of the original candidates, Halls and Ivins, sued to stop that, and Torgerson agreed. He ordered commissioners to stop looking for other candidates.
In May, the commission decided to appoint Ivins to the interim county attorney position, along with a fiery resolution declaring that San Juan County “has a long history of violating the civil rights of its Native American citizens,” and outlining certain grievances against Laws and Halls, who also served as county attorney.
As part of their lawsuit, Halls and Ivins asked the judge to strike part of that resolution and to award attorneys’ fees. In the end, Torgerson did neither, even though he called the language of the resolution “inflammatory.”
“The court would be stepping in to legislate, and that would be the court sticking its nose into business that it shouldn’t be involved with,” Torgerson said, “the same way that the county commission here stuck its nose into the county attorney appointment process in a way that it should not have done.”
The third San Juan County commissioner, Bruce Adams, was also named in the lawsuit along with county administrator Mack McDonald and clerk/auditor Lyman Duncan. The judge found none of them exceeded their authority or violated the law.
Reaction from former prosecutor
Greg Skordas, a former prosecutor not involved in this case, said Judge Torgerson’s words were strong – and unusual.
“It’s really rare, especially in Utah, to see a judge – a district court judge – call out public officials for abuse in office,” Skordas said.
Utah has a law against public officials using their office for personal benefit. But Skordas said criminal charges aren't likely.
“There may not be much more to gain by filing misdemeanor charges against them,” Skordas said. “They probably understand by now that what they did was inappropriate.”
Halls, one of the original candidates for county attorney, told KUTV 2News Thursday he's pleased with how this ended up.
“Hopefully the process here maybe gave them a little idea that they need to follow the law in the future,” he said.
Ivins, now serving as interim county attorney, added that she's "glad that a legal process was followed."
“The ultimate issue of them picking a local county attorney to fill that position was what was done," said Ivins, "and I think that that is the best way to serve the county was picking somebody local.”
Ivins will serve in the interim position until the end of the year when a new elected county attorney will take over. Alex Goble is running for that unopposed.