SALT LAKE CITY — An attorney for John Swallow says prosecutors "ambushed" him in a hearing last week with a key witness' claim that the former attorney general extorted him for years.

As a result, Scott Williams argued Thursday in 3rd District Court that the charges against Swallow should either be dismissed or the Feb. 7 trial date delayed. Williams said Marc Sessions Jenson's testimony makes it impossible to be ready to defend Swallow.

Williams also raised new concerns over how agents handled the investigation and says they hid evidence.

Jenson provided a "wild rendition never before made known to the defense" during nearly eight hours on the witness stand in an evidentiary hearing last week, according to a motion Williams filed late Wednesday.

Jenson testified that Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, and then-U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, attended a “secret" meeting at his Southern California office in June 2009 involving Utah Transit Authority officials and developers working on a train station project. Hughes was not speaker, but was a legislator and UTA board chairman at the time.

Hughes denies attending a meeting there and has offered proof of his whereabouts during that time period.

"Mr. Jenson’s testimony was wholly unexpected. It has never before been provided to the defense. It has generated the need for a great many hours of investigation, witness interviews, obtaining and reviewing materials, and procuring witness availability for trial," Williams wrote.

Williams said the defense is "literally desperate" about its ability to fairly represent Swallow.

"Our true desire is that this case be dismissed for its inherent problems that arise nearly daily," he said after the hearing.

Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills took the defense arguments to delay the trial or dismiss the charges under advisement.

Related

Judge to allow state to present hearsay evidence in John Swallow trial

A judge will allow prosecutors to present hearsay evidence in former Utah Attorney General John Swallow's trial next month to show that he was part of a criminal conspiracy.

Prosecutors allege Swallow, former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and the late Lawson were part of a criminal conspiracy to get or keep their offices and bring in money to stay there. Jenson claims they shook him down for money and favors on trips to the exclusive Pelican Hill Resort near Newport Beach that he paid for.

Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings dropped criminal charges against Shurtleff last year.

Assistant Salt Lake County district attorney Chou Chou Collins told the judge in the hearing Thursday that extortion is among the criminal activities associated with racketeering, one of the charges prosecutors have leveled against Swallow.

Swallow faces a dozen felonies, including bribery, accepting gifts and money laundering.

Collins said the racketeering charge is "completely" laid out in the probable cause statement prosecutors filed when Swallow was first charged in 2014. She said the state is under no obligation to point out every one of the activities on which racketeering is predicated.

Williams also argued that the defense just received from the state 848 pages of agents' mostly handwritten investigative notes. He said he needs time to read, vet and cross-check the notes with reports and track down any potential witnesses.

"There’s absolutely no way we have time to do this with these documents," he told the judge.

Collins said the agents' notes were taken during witness interviews and most were transcribed or turned into reports. She said she never asked the agents for the notes until the defense filed a motion for them last November.

Williams also attempted to poke holes in agents' investigatory tactics and discredit lead agent Scott Nesbitt of the Utah Department of Public Safety. He called the investigation "incentivized" and said investigators bullied witnesses and twisted and misused their statements.

Williams wants the judge to force the state to turn over internal affairs investigations on Nesbitt that he says includes complaints about his conduct in the Swallow investigation filed by Shurtleff and former Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirk Torgensen.

Prosecutors contend the file isn't relevant. Assistant Salt Lake County district attorney Fred Burmester summed up the findings as "zero plus zero equals zero."

Williams also contends that Nesbitt and FBI special agent Jon Isakson hid evidence from prosecutors, specifically statements Lawson made during plea negotiations in his own case. He said those statements contradict Jenson's testimony about what Lawson said to him.

Rawlings asked the agents to provide him with questions for Lawson, who he was trying to get to testify against Shurtleff. Nesbitt and Isakson testified that Rawlings told them he got "great stuff" from Lawson but that they never asked him what Lawson had said.

"There was never any indication that there was pursuit of a resolution that would have Lawson testify," Burmester said.

Lawson faced several felonies in connection with the Shurtleff and Swallow investigation but died before his case was resolved.

Hruby-Mills also took those arguments under advisement.

Related topics