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MANILA, Daggett County — The criminal cases of four former Daggett County sheriff's deputies and the former sheriff accused in an abuse scandal involving inmates at the Daggett County Jail have been moved to Summit County.
On Monday, a judge agreed to transfer the cases of former Daggett County Sheriff Jerry Jorgensen, 64, of Manila; former Lt. Benjamin Lail, 31, of Manila; and former deputy Joshua Cox, 27, of Manila; to 3rd District Court in Summit County because there is a greater chance an impartial jury can be seated there.
Last week, the cases of former deputies Rodrigo Toledo, 26, and Logan Walker, 46 — each charged with official misconduct, a class B misdemeanor — were also moved to Summit County.
All of the men were charged May 5 in 8th District Court by the Utah Attorney General's Office after an investigation by the Utah Department of Corrections uncovered what the department called "a culture of pervasive, unacceptable correctional practices." In at least one case, a deputy is accused of "unbelievably inhumane conduct and a reprehensible miscarriage of justice," said Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.
Jorgensen is charged with failure of a sheriff to keep inmates safe and obstruction of justice, both class A misdemeanors, and official misconduct, a class B misdemeanor. Jorgensen resigned April 23.
Lail, 31, the former commander at the Daggett County Jail, is charged with aggravated assault, a third-degree felony. He is accused of intimidating a female inmate by sparking a Taser at her feet while simultaneously telling her, "OK, you’re done, now get back to class," according to charging documents.
Cox is charged with seven counts of aggravated assault and two counts of transporting a dangerous weapon into a secure area of the jail, all third-degree felonies; plus theft and reckless endangerment, class A misdemeanors.
Cox, who faces the most serious allegations, is accused of "using his personal Taser in drive stun mode on several inmates in the Daggett County Jail, and checking out a Taser from the jail controller and giving it to an inmate for the purpose of threatening another person," according to court documents.
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Sheriff, 4 staff charged after inmates abused with stun guns
Utah's attorney general filed charges Friday against a former sheriff and four deputies in a rural county after prosecutors say inmates were stunned with a Taser in exchange for soda or as hazing when assigned to a work crew.He also brought a Taser into the jail that he had taken from the Smithfield Police Department, charging documents state. And on another occasion, he brought an untrained police K-9 into the jail "and ordered inmates to participate in dog bite training, who were bitten as a result," the motion for a new venue states.
In their motion for a change of venue, prosecutors argued that Daggett County is simply too small, and the case too high profile for the court to seat an unbiased jury.
All of the men lived in the small community and were known by most people in town, prosecutors argued.
"Daggett County is also Utah’s least populated county. On the other hand, Summit County has a population of 39,105 people. Summit County Courthouse is located roughly 143 miles from the Daggett County Courthouse. In addition, the facilities of the Daggett County Courthouse are inadequate for a trial of this magnitude. Due to the low population of Daggett County, coupled with the fact that Daggett County derives about 30 percent of its total revenue from the operations of the jail, it is likely that any potential jurors would be either directly related to any of the defendants, or any potential jurors would be in a business dependent upon the jail. Therefore, finding an unbiased juror pool would be extremely difficult," the motion to move the trial states.
Because Daggett County relied so much on the revenue it received from housing inmates from the Utah State Prison, prosecutors argued that many members of the community "may be angry" at the men for prompting the Department of Corrections to remove all of its inmates, essentially closing the jail.
"A jury selected from Daggett County would be reasonably likely to fall short of the standards of fairness and impartiality. There would be a larger and more impartial pool of prospective jurors in adjoining Summit County," the attorney general's office concluded in its motion.
