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SALT LAKE CITY — Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wants accusations that he received improper gifts tossed from the criminal case against him.
His attorney, Richard Van Wagoner, argued in a new court filing Friday that state law doesn't allow people to be charged with accepting improper gifts when they can be charged under a bribery statute for the same conduct.
Van Wagoner argues that a "collection of very experienced and sophisticated" state and federal investigators and state prosecutors initially acted on the position that the conduct which is now charged as violations of the gift law was "chargeable" as violations of the bribery law. Prosecutors later changed the bribery charges to accepting improper gifts.
Shurtleff is charged with five felonies — three counts of accepting gifts, and one each of bribery to dismiss a criminal proceeding and obstruction of justice — and two misdemeanors of obstructing justice and official misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty and a trial is scheduled for October.
Last week, Shurtleff asked a 3rd District judge to throw out the entire case, arguing he has faced numerous unfair delays and that his due process has been violated.
In the latest filing, Van Wagoner contends the allegations in the improper gifts counts in the amended charges are the same as the bribery counts in the original charges.
Two of the gift charges stem from a trip Shurtleff took the posh Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, California, paid for by Marc Sessions Jenson, who was being prosecuted by the attorney general's office for selling unregistered securities.
The other relates to Shurtleff staying at a home and flying on a corporate jet owned by St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson.
