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OGDEN, Utah (AP) -- A threatening letter left on a 2nd District courthouse supervisor's desk prompted the woman to withdraw her application for a top administrative job and may result in hate crimes charges.
The investigation by the Weber County Sheriff's office with help from the FBI into the letter, which included racist language, will be forwarded to prosecutors this week.
The letter was left on the woman's desk on March 2 and contained white supremacist rhetoric meant to intimidate the woman, who is Hispanic. She was one of three finalists for the clerk of court job and withdrew her application after receiving the letter. The hiring process is halted pending the outcome of the investigation.
The letter's contents, which included specifics about the job opening and other in-house details, led investigators to believe early on that the writer was a courthouse employee or someone closely familiar with the building. The letter also carried no postage.
"That all goes to why the focus has been internal," said sheriff's detective Sgt. Dale Bridges.
The sheriff's office called in all 70-plus administrative staffers for a meeting March 9 at the courthouse to confirm an investigation joined by the FBI had opened.
The planned review of the investigation by the Weber County Attorneys office is routine in such sizable probes, Bridges said. He would not comment on whether investigators would recommend filing charges.
Officials have said that if a crime were committed, charges could come from the state's hate crime law, threatening or interfering with a government operation, or federal civil rights violations.
Bridges said the two-month investigation is ending after more than 60 interviews of past and present employees and viewing of the buildings security videotapes.
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Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
