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CEDAR CITY — Iron County Sheriff Mark Gower thinks the three Iron County commissioners tried to get into his email server to gather information for a court case.
Government workers know their emails could be requested by the public at any time. It’s part of the job, especially for elected officials.
"I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to hide with my emails,” Gower said.
He understands how Utah's open records law — known as the Government Records Access Management Act — works. However, as a law enforcement agency, there are some things he can't release.
"We get sensitive law enforcement bulletins that are for law enforcement only,” he said. “A lot of that is very sensitive information they shouldn't be reading."
So, when he said he got word last January that the three Iron County commissioners may have accessed and read his emails without filing a request or asking, he was upset.
“If I want to read someone’s emails, I have to have a legitimate investigation in process with a case number pulled. I have to have probable cause. I just can’t have reasonable suspicion. I have to have probable cause on a warrant,” said Gower.
“I need to have a warrant signed by a judge. None of that happened when they were trying to get into my emails. There was no probable cause, there wasn’t even any reasonable suspicion. Nothing. It was just we want to see," he explained. "I wouldn't say I'm angry more than just very disappointed and concerned that they felt justified that this was OK."
Gower asked his personal attorney, Scott Burns, to find out if the accusations were true, and if so, if it was legal.
"I've never heard of that,” said Burns. “In 32 years of practicing law, I've never heard of elected officials trying to hack other elected officials' emails.”
The Utah Attorney General's Office is now investigating.
Gower said commissioners Alma Adams, Dale Brinkerhoff and David Miller, who recently resigned and moved to Alaska, asked the county IT director for access to his and other deputy's emails.
Gower says it all happened at the same time the commissioners were appealing a judge's decision to re-instate Iron County Lt. Jody Edwards, who the commissioners fired after privatizing the county's ambulance service.
Edwards was in charge of the ambulance service when it was under the sheriff’s office.
Gower fought the commissioners in court to re-instate Edwards and won.
“They were proven wrong. They were told they were wrong, and it took a court of law and some great case law to set them straight,” said Gower.
At the same time commissioners decided to appeal the case, Gower said he found out they were trying to access his emails.
“The only thing I can think is they wanted emails between me, the attorney and the sheriff — my client — to gain some advantage,” said Burns. “I think it was during the appeal process that they started reading the emails. So the only thing I can think is they were trying to gain some advantage. I don’t know. Most of the emails, I think, were pretty boring.”
Adams and Brinkerhoff both said they couldn’t comment on this case during the investigation. They referred calls to their private attorney in Salt Lake City, Blake Hamilton, who hasn’t returned messages for comment.
Iron County attorney Scott Garrett also hasn’t returned phone calls for comment.
“I hope the Attorney General’s office continues with their investigation,” said Burns. “My understanding is the county attorney won’t comment and the commissioners won’t comment. I’ve never heard of elected officials in Utah lawyering up, but evidently they have. So I’m going to wait and see how the investigation comes out and reserve judgment.”
Lt. Del Schlosser is also one of the Iron County Sheriff’s employees who says commissioners tried to get into his emails.
Unlike Gower, who is elected, Schlosser isn’t and is concerned there could be retribution.
“It’s disappointing. It’s disappointing that you can’t trust those that are around you, those that are elected by the people to listen to the people,” said Schlosser. “If the sheriff wants to look at my emails, he can absolutely look at my emails. But when somebody outside our office starts looking at those, for no reason in my opinion, no legitimate reason, then I have a concern about that.”
As uncomfortable as this whole process has been for Gower, he's hoping if something was done and done illegally that whoever is responsible should have to answer why they did it.
“I don’t work for the Iron County commissioners, I don’t work for the Iron County attorney, I don’t work for the treasurer or the auditor,” said Gower. “We all, all the elected officials and all of us, work for the people. We have to have accountability. That’s what I hope for. People being held accountable for their actions.”
