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SALT LAKE CITY — A lawyer for John Swallow told jurors Wednesday that a "political frenzy" led to the charges that put the former Utah attorney general on trial.
"This case starts with politics, and I think you’ll see, continues with politics," Scott Williams told a 12-person jury during his opening statement in 3rd District Court. Wednesday was the first day of testimony in a trial scheduled to last 16 days.
Williams said he doesn't know why anyone would want to be a politician because they have targets on their backs and people want to bring them down. He said investigations into Swallow by a Utah House committee and the lieutenant governor's office as well as stories about pay-for-play politics fueled the frenzy.
The criminal case isn't about a politician but about a man, Williams said.
He told jurors that investigators ignored information, twisted witness statements and encouraged testimony to fit their narrative.
"This case does not involve investigation. This case involves 'inventigation,'" the defense attorney said.
Williams said prosecutors took a shotgun approach with the charges against Swallow and that they're heaping on overstated scenarios in an attempt to bury him.
"Everything has to hit the bull's-eye here," he said, displaying a target peppered with errant shots.
Swallow is charged with 12 felonies and one misdemeanor, including racketeering, bribery, accepting gifts, money laundering and witness tampering.
In her opening statement, assistant Salt Lake County district attorney Chou Chou Collins walked the jury through the now familiar story of tangled relationships Swallow, former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and the late Tim Lawson had with several wealthy businessmen.
Collins showed jurors a chart with Shurtleff at the top and Swallow and Lawson in each corner, calling it a triangle of "power, greed, corruption."
Williams called the state's conspiracy theory "ludicrous."
"The relationships of these people are what they are. There is no cabal," he said.
Collins explained Swallow's alleged activity behind each of the 13 charges, including his dealings with once imprisoned businessman Marc Sessions Jenson and currently imprisoned businessman Jeremy Johnson.
"I know it sounds like a lot, but every count has specific facts behind it," she said.
For example, prosecutors charged Swallow with misuse of public money because taxpayers dollars were allegedly used to fix a broken screen on his personal computer. They charge him with evidence tampering for allegedly deleting emails from his desktop and laptop computers.
Williams described those accusations as red herrings or much ado about nothing. He said Swallow is an "airhead" who has a habit of losing things.
Collins told jurors some of the state's witnesses have criminal backgrounds and that they would be the best judges of their testimonies. She also said the state has other evidence, bank accounts and photographs.
"It's not just the testimony of somebody who has a criminal record," she said.
Jenson was the first prosecution witness, repeating the same testimony he gave at an evidentiary hearing last month. He became emotional at times, especially when talking about the "trauma" of being prosecuted by the attorney general's office.
He described how he hired a bevy of lawyers to stave off criminal fraud charges the attorney general was considering against him in 2005. He said he was frustrated that they weren't making progress.
An acquaintance introduced Jenson to Lawson, who told him he "handled" things for Shurtleff. Lawson became Jenson's conduit to Shurtleff. Prosecutors say Jenson paid Lawson at least $120,000 over two years.
Jenson testified that in late 2007 or early 2008, Shurtleff layered in Swallow as a more "sophisticated" person than Lawson to deal with. Jenson said Shurtleff told him that Swallow needed to make some money before he brought him into the attorney general's office.
"John Swallow was delivered to me by Mark Shurtleff," he testified. He said he was already surrounded by lawyers and couldn't afford another one.
Johnson said Swallow suggested he give him a $1.5 million lot in an exclusive ski and golf resort Jenson was developing on Mount Holly in Beaver County. The project, however, was never completed. Williams said all the lawyers involved in Mount Holly received lots.
Jenson testified that Swallow, Shurtleff and Lawson invited themselves to Pelican Hill on his dime in May and June 2009. Collins had Jenson painstakingly go through receipts for golf, food and apparel that Jenson said the three men charged to him.
Prosecutors ultimately charged Jenson with selling unregistered securities. He went to prison for failing to pay $4.1 million in restitution to two investors.
Williams didn't deny that Swallow traveled to Pelican Hill, including an anniversary trip with his wife, but said the former attorney general was a private citizen at the time.
In his opening statement, Williams brought up Jenson's testimony from an evidentiary hearing last month.
Jenson testified then that Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, and then-U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, attended a "secret" meeting involving UTA officials and developers in his Southern California office in 2009. Hughes was not speaker at the time but was a legislator and UTA board chairman.
Jenson also claims Shurtleff and Swallow extorted him for money and favors on trips that he paid for to the Pelican Hill resort near Newport Beach, California.
"This was a brand new story," Williams told the jury in his opening statement, adding Jenson joined the "FBI team" in 2013 while he was in prison. "It is completely false."
Jenson didn't get to that story Wednesday. His testimony is scheduled to start again Thursday.
