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SALT LAKE CITY — Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wants prosecutors to turn over information from all government investigations in the criminal case against him, including an FBI sting operation targeting a man who he says offered him a bribe.
The sweeping motion filed Wednesday in 3rd District Court by Shurtleff's lawyer Rick Van Wagoner seeks material gathered by the Utah Department of Public Safety, FBI and any other investigative agency. It also requests any Department of Justice documents authorizing the FBI to continue working with the state on the criminal investigation after the DOJ dropped its probe.
More specifically, it seeks audio and video recordings of a sting aimed at a former employee of Marc Sessions Jenson named Paul J. Nelson that Shurtleff and the FBI conducted in October 2007.
"In or about September or October 2007, Mr. Shurtleff notified the FBI Mr. Nelson had approached him on behalf of Marc Jenson and proposed to Mr. Shurtleff what Mr. Shurtleff believed was a bribe," according to the motion.
Nelson, who provided security services for Jenson for seven years, denied the accusation Wednesday.
"It's not true. I did not try to bribe him," Nelson told the Deseret News in a brief telephone conversation.
The sting operations were carried out at Shurtleff's parents' house and in his hospital room on Oct. 12 and Oct. 19 in 2007, respectively, the motion says. Shurtleff was recovering from surgery to his leg after a motorcycle accident during that time.
Not well known is that Marc Jenson, his head of security, was sent by him to my hospital room the day after the surgery to repair my leg to try to bribe me while I was on pain medication.
–Mark Shurtleff
Shurtleff brought up talking with Nelson during a hastily called news conference on the day in July when he and former Attorney General John Swallow were arrested on public corruption charges.
"Not well known is that Marc Jenson, his head of security, was sent by him to my hospital room the day after the surgery to repair my leg to try to bribe me while I was on pain medications," he said.
Shurtleff said he immediately called the FBI and helped agents set up a sting in his parents' home. He said Nelson during that time "reiterated on camera to the FBI his bribery attempt."
Shurtleff said he was later surprised and dismayed "that the very taping under the direction and coaching of the FBI, at the request of the FBI in my parents' home, is considered by them evidence of my committing the crime of soliciting a bribe."
Prosecutors charged Shurtleff with 10 felonies, including pattern of unlawful activity, soliciting a bribe and evidence tampering. If convicted, he faces as many as 30 years in prison.
The attorney general's office prosecuted Jenson in 2008 for selling unregistered securities.
The legal battles begin for Swallow, Shurtleff
Investigators spent nearly two years building a criminal case against former Utah Attorneys General Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow, and now they have to prove it.Shurtleff personally arranged a plea deal for Jenson so lenient that a judge rejected it, according to the charges. The judge accepted a second agreement that also allowed Jenson to avoid jail but imposed $4.1 million in restitution. Jenson failed to repay investors and is now serving a 10-year prison sentence.
Shurtleff and Swallow are accused of traveling to the lavish Pelican Hill Resort near Newport Beach, California, on Jenson's dime while he was on probation. Jenson claims they shook him down for money and favors.
The motion also seeks investigators' files on Nelson, Jenson and his brother Stephen Jenson, Tim Lawson, assistant attorneys general Kirk Torgensen and Scott Reed, businessmen Darl McBride, Mark Robbins and Jonathan Eborn.
Nelson filed a court declaration last year in an ongoing criminal fraud case against the Jenson brothers related to the failed billion-dollar Mount Holly resort project. In it, he said he confronted Shurtleff twice in 2007 — at the state Republican convention and at a rehabilitation center after the motorcycle accident — about payments Lawson, Shurtleff's self-described "fixer," was demanding from Jenson.
Shurtleff "assured me something to the effect of, 'Yeah, Lawson is my man, and Jenson should continue to pay him,'" Nelson wrote in the declaration.
As an example, Mr. Stahura explained how, after he donated to Mr. Shurtleff, the attorney general's office had largely stayed away from his call center business.
–Paul J. Nelson, former employee of Marc Sessions Jenson
Nelson said that Rob Stahura told him in 2007 "that the key to resolving matters with the attorney general’s office was to donate to Mr. Shurtleff’s campaign," according to a sworn declaration. A longtime friend of Jenson, Stahura was a major Shurtleff fundraiser.
"As an example, Mr. Stahura explained how, after he donated to Mr. Shurtleff, the attorney general’s office had largely stayed away from his call center business," said Nelson, who worked as Jenson's head of security for seven years.
Nelson also said Stahura introduced Jenson to Lawson.
Jenson, in a declaration included in the court filing last year, said Lawson got Shurtleff on the phone during one of their first meetings.
"In that conversation, Mr. Shurtleff described Mr. Lawson as his 'conduit' and instructed me to pay Mr. Lawson for his 'consulting services' whenever he asked," Jenson said. Jenson claims he paid Lawson $200,000 over a two-year period.
Nelson personally cut some of the checks to Lawson, typically $5,000 every several weeks, according to his declaration.
Last week, Shurtleff filed a motion to keep his trial separate from Swallow's because they are not jointly charged in any of the offenses.
Swallow faces 11 felonies and two misdemeanors, including pattern of unlawful activity, bribery and falsifying public documents. He has not filed any motions in his case to date.
The next hearing for both is Oct. 20.
