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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Lt. Gov. Greg Bell will not be charged with any crimes relating to a complaint that he abused his power by intervening in a state family services case for a friend.
After reviewing nearly 40 interviews, thousands of pages of documents and applicable Utah law, Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said he found Bell didn't commit any crimes.
"We have determined, based on fact and law, that criminal charges are not warranted and prosecution would not result in conviction," Rawlings wrote in a letter to the state Thursday.
County investigators and the FBI opened an investigation nearly two years ago into whether Bell commissioned an audit to interfere in a child welfare case allegedly involving the daughter of one of Bell's friends. A family complained that Bell abused government power and taxpayer money when he asked for a review of the case.
While the complaint justified an investigation, Bell's conduct fell outside the parameters of several potentially relevant state laws, according to Rawlings.
"There is no evidence the lieutenant governor benefited personally from the audit. There is no evidence that he received or solicited campaign contributions in exchange for intervention or influence," he wrote.
Rawlings said that although some were "annoyed and frustrated" by the audit and saw it as an inappropriate overreach, others applauded it as a way for the state Division of Child and Family Services to undergo periodic review.
Bell issued a brief statement Thursday maintaining he did nothing wrong.
There is no evidence the lieutenant governor benefited personally from the audit. There is no evidence that he received or solicited campaign contributions in exchange for intervention or influence.
–Troy Rawlings
"Our duty as elected officers is to ensure constituents are well-served by administrative processes. My actions were to simply ensure the integrity of the process and that DCFS complied with the law," he said.
In an earlier statement, Bell said his office was legally authorized to seek an audit of family services' policies and procedures, and that he stood behind his actions.
"My motivation was not to tilt the outcome, and this review did not do so," he said.
Bell said a family contacted him in 2011 to complain about the way the DCFS treated them. He said he passed the information to Palmer DePaulis, the executive director of the Utah Department of Human Services at the time. DePaulis, Bell said, checked on the case and told him it was being handled correctly.
"However, as additional information emerged, I could not reconcile the widely divergent accounts from DCFS and the family," Bell said. "If the family's account was true, I would have been irresponsible not to investigate further."
Bell said he then asked a staff auditor for a recommendation, and the auditor suggested assigning of state-employed auditors to evaluate whether DCFS followed its polices and procedures. It was a "neutral, objective" way to get the bottom of conflicting claims, Bell said.
The audit focused not on the truth or falsity of the claims against the family, but on what policies and procedures DCFS had in place to protect families and whether DCFS had adhered to them, Bell said.
