Concerns raised over SLCo District Attorney declining to prosecute domestic violence
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Over the last few months, police detectives across Salt Lake County have been receiving declination letters from the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office. A 2News investigation found those letters paint a troubling picture regarding the prosecution of suspects involving domestic violence, theft, weapons offenses, drug offenses and more.
The detectives submitted their cases to the DA’s office recommending felony charges be filed against the suspects. Some of the letters we obtained specifically state that the State is declining to enhance the submitted charge. Under Utah Criminal Code there are certain criminal offenses including drug offenses, theft, DUI’s and domestic violence that are enhanceable, meaning they carry penalties that are above the standard penalties like longer prison sentences and higher fines. They can be enhanced depending on factors that include how much was stolen and prior criminal convictions. When it comes to domestic violence, under the law, the charges can be increased if the defendant has a history of domestic violence-related convictions.
The letters clearly show that the DA’s office has raised its threshold for enhanced theft cases but that they could potentially be filed as felonies but only if the dollar loss exceeds $500. The language they are using in declinations that detectives say are felonies on their face, not due to an enhancement, are being declined due to staffing shortages and pandemic-related case backlogs.
“They tell us that they don’t have time for these cases that they don’t have the personnel to even file these cases, even charge people in them, let alone prosecute them,” says a police detective who spoke to 2News Investigates on the condition that we protect his identity. He spoke on behalf of a collective group of law enforcement officers who are upset with what is transpiring.
“We've got career criminals that are not being charged with their thefts, their frauds. We’ve even got weapons cases that are being declined. There’s one in particular with a man who was high on drugs swinging a machete out in a busy intersection. The excuse written on that declination was a machete is not a weapon and we’re not prosecuting drug crimes at this time.”
In some cases, the screening attorneys who wrote the letters, suggest that the detectives consider going to city prosecutors to see if they will prosecute them as lower-level misdemeanors in justice court. And it’s not just police detectives who are upset, those who prosecute in justice courts expressed their concerns.
GILL OFFERS MEA CULPA TO A GROUP OF PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICIALS FOR MISCOMMUNICATION OVER DECLINATION LETTERS
Instead, the letters regarding thefts, drug possession, weapons offenses and more came across as a flat-out refusal to prosecute their cases. It’s important to note, that the domestic violence declinations are not included in this matter.
They failed to mention Gill intended to allow some suspects to go through a diversion program where they would attend classes and learn to change their behavior and he would halt prosecution until they successfully completed the program. Gill offered a group of public safety officials a mea culpa when he went to their meeting a week ago.
“I said to them when we're doing declinations for deferral, you're hearing hard declinations that is wrong for us to communicate it to you that way. I will rephrase it for what it actually is, that this is a deferral to diversion.” Gill said, “We just have to change the word declination to deferral to accurately capture what we're doing and that was fair of them, and I told them that is absolutely correct because when we decline, we're thinking deferral when you hear decline, you're hearing something else. This language that we're using it means one thing to you, it meant another thing to us we will change that language,” Gill said.
DA Gill says they do not offer diversion programs for domestic violence cases. Domestic violence cases are screened by the Family and Sexuality Violence Unit at the DA’s office while the general screening unit handles the cases mentioned above we obtained for this report.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DECLINATIONS
Several police detectives who spoke to 2News Investigates for this report say there is a dramatic increase in domestic violence declinations with no real explanation. Dozens of declination letters we obtained from various police agencies corroborate what they're saying. They are vague and appear more hesitant to explain why they decline. The verbiage on all of them contains these three words: Interest of Justice.
The letters also reveal that the DA's office is neglecting to use the states enhancement laws if the accused has a prior domestic violence-related conviction.
“Sim has come out over the last few years and said how important domestic violence cases are to him, that he wanted to be on top of these cases. That he wants violators charged and convicted so that they can’t murder their potential victims,” our police detective said.
GERARDO BECERRA-RAMIREZ ACCUSED OF STALKING
Our first example, the case of Gerardo Becerra-Ramirez where the detective submitted his case to the DA's office and recommended they prosecute him for stalking, a domestic violence felony. According to the probable cause statement, Becerra-Ramirez threatened to kill his girlfriend and threatened to kill himself if she left him. Whenever she threatened to call police the PC statement alleged he would take her phone away and prevent her from getting the police involved.
After she severed ties with him, he sent her hundreds of text messages after being told to stop, "with intent to annoy and harass her." Then the detective wrote that he showed up where she worked and waited for her to leave. When she got into her car, he "intimidated her by physically pulling down the window and arguing with *****, who continually asked him to leave." Records show she was anxious, in fear for her safety and her life.
The detective received a declination letter from the DA's office dated July 6, 2022. It said, "We are unable to proceed with the prosecution for the following reason(s):
Interest of Justice
The Office is declining to file felony charges.
The detective is told to try the city prosecutors office and see if they'll file a misdemeanor charge.
"In many cases he has "not" kicked them back to city prosecutors, he has just killed the case and said no one is gonna prosecute this case," our police detective says.
CHARLES VUGA SEBIT: REPEAT OFFENDER
A man twice convicted of domestic violence-related crimes against his wife also dodged prosecution by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office. A detective submitted his case to the DA recommending Charles Vuga Sebit be charged with a felony enhancement.
Police records we obtained from Unified Police and West Valley City Police paint a terrifying picture of domestic violence in the Sebit home. UPD reports show that on January 18, 2016, Sebit threw his wife into the footboard bedframe causing her to hit her head and scrape her knee. It further states that he hit her several times on her legs and arms with a belt and threatened her with a kitchen knife. The report also says she had two large welts on her forehead, a scrape on her knee and wrist, welts from the belt on her arms and legs and her mouth was bleeding and that their two children were home during the assault.
On May 28, 2017, UPD again responded to the Sebit home where they met with his wife who told them she had gotten into an argument with her husband. She said he was intoxicated and punched her in the side of the head and kicked her. Sebit was arrested.
West Valley City Police records reveal a similar pattern but show his behavior was escalating to an even more violent level and he was arrested for violating a protective order she had against him. Later reports show he assaulted his then pregnant wife and bit her on the cheek in front of their children. A probation report from Adult Probation and Parole showed concerns when Sebit failed to report a new domestic violence charge from July 25, 2020. The probation officer wrote: "Probation is concerned for the alleged victims. It is concerning that Mr. Sebit has nearly completed treatment and still exhibiting this type of behavior."
More recently a probable cause statement shows he said to her, "I can just bury you and take the kids," and that "if he couldn't kill her, he would kill himself." And that he became angry the TV was too loud, threw his phone breaking the screen and flipped over a table in front of their four children.
A few months ago a detective recommended Sebit be charged with felony domestic violence. The declination letter dated July 18th says: "We are unable to proceed with the prosecution for the following reason(s):
Interest of Justice
The State is declining to enhance the submitted charges.
"And there’s the district attorney, you tell that victim now this case isn’t important enough to me," says our police detective.
SID VONG CAUGHT IN THE ACT: VIOLATING AN ORDER OF PROTECTION
Sid Vong was convicted of assaulting his elderly parents. He shoved his father who fell into a bathtub and split his head open. He also kicked his elderly mother. They got a protective order against him and he went to their home. The police officer found him inside the home and arrested him for violating a protective order.
"It's shocking that he’s not charging protective order violations right now in many, many cases," our police detective says.
But the DA's office declined to prosecute Vong. A declination letter to the detective dated, July 11, 2022, says: "We are unable to proceed with the prosecution for the following reason(s):
Interest of Justice
The State is declining to enhance the submitted charges.
"Imagine all these domestic violence detectives right now going back and telling the victims of these protective order violations, I filed the case, the district attorney declined it, there’s nothing more I can do," says our police detective.
THE DA'S RESPONSE
"You want to always safeguard victims as much as you can of course, absolutely," says DA Gill. We asked him why there are so many declination letters in domestic violence cases and violations of orders of protection in the last few months. DA Gill said his office declines cases all the time based on evidentiary issues. We asked him why the declination letters are vague and if that's the case, why the letters don't specifically state that there is insufficient evidence to proceed with prosecution.
He said, "But you're assuming they were all based on viable evidence. Now what I'm saying to you, I'm happy to take a look at what you've said right, those declinations should be occurring because of evidentiary issues, and if they're not, then we will correct that."
He also said if there is an issue that he is more than happy to meet with detectives and that they do it all the time.
KRISTEN FLOYD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SAFE HARBOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT CRISIS CENTER
We took concerns about what it does to the victims when their abuser is not prosecuted to Kristen Floyd, the executive director of Safe Harbor Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Davis County. She is not connected to this investigative report in any way, shape or form but agreed to offer her thoughts and expertise from a domestic violence perspective.
"I am extremely saddened by even the thought of us not prosecuting an offender. And I understand that there’s times where that can happen but most of the time it should be happening," she said.
"It causes me a lot of emotion to think about not being able to keep these people safe or help them get to safety, and part of helping them get to that safety is prosecuting their offenders."
She also said, "If they are not prosecuting what it, I think it tells the offender is there are no consequences. Yes, we’ll show up and we’ll arrest you, and yes, we’ll you know tell you that you aren’t supposed to do that but there are consequences at the end of the day. And so, you can come back and reoffend and what that tells the victims are is you’re not as important as the offender is, you’re, you’re safety is not as important as prosecuting the offenders."
Floyd further said, "Unfortunately, the state of Utah is one of the top states in the nation for domestic violence and sexual assault, which clearly indicates that we are not making the moves that we need to in our state to stop violence in our communities and create healthy, safe families. And if not prosecuting these cases is one of those mistakes, we need to correct it."