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WEST JORDAN — A judge on Wednesday agreed to release a former Salt Lake police IT employee from jail where he has been held since he was arrested in October and accused of using information he received while working at the department to benefit a human trafficking and prostitution operation.
Third District Judge Chelsea Koch made the decision after assistant attorney general Kaytlin Beckett asked to postpone a scheduled preliminary hearing. Beckett said that there was a last-minute operation that kept the officers whom she planned to have testify from being able to attend the hearing.
Patrick Kevin Driscoll, 50, of Salt Lake City, is accused of endangering law enforcement officers, benefiting a human trafficking organization and giving the impression that he was a police officer in order to intimidate girls who were in the operation and convince them that they could not turn him down, according to police affidavits.
Koch said that she has a policy that she will grant at least one extension to both sides in a case, and rescheduled the preliminary hearing to Jan. 19, 2022. However, she ruled that since Driscoll has been in custody for 60 days and a preliminary hearing is supposed to occur within 14 days of someone being placed into custody that he should be released. She said at this point to keep him in custody the prosecutors would need to prove to her that he was a substantial danger to others.
Defense attorney Greg Ferbrache argued that so far there has not been verified information that Driscoll shared information that he obtained from Salt Lake police and that he should not continue to be held in jail. Ferbrache said they were prepared for the preliminary hearing to proceed.
As a condition of Driscoll's release, Koch ordered Driscoll to wear an ankle monitor, not have access the internet and gave him a daily curfew between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. and warned him to not have any contact with any of the alleged victims in the case or with Michael Joe Ricks who was charged with prostitution and drug dealing and faces 15 felonies and misdemeanors or he will be taken back into custody.
Police say information given to Ricks from Driscoll regarding undercover officers allowed the human trafficking operation to continue significantly longer than it would have otherwise.
Driscoll is charged with three counts of obstructing justice plus engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, second-degree felonies; two counts of computer crimes interfering with critical infrastructure, one a second-degree felony and the other a third-degree felony; aggravated exploitation of prostitution, a third-degree felony; and aiding prostitution, a class A misdemeanor.
Beckett said she anticipates filing an amended information and altering these before the next hearing. Previously, she said that there could be evidence for prostitution charges to be filed against Driscoll.
In early November, a different judge denied bail for Driscoll, noting concern for the victims who Beckett said were fearful.
