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Ogden businessman Val Southwick has been locked up for just six months, but today he got his first chance at getting out when he attended a parole hearing at the prison in central Utah where he's serving his sentence.
Though Southwick has served just a few months, the rules say he is entitled to a parole hearing. That hearing gave him a chance to explain why he should be released early, so former investors and a hearing officer filed into a prison courtroom this afternoon to listen to what he had to say about his crimes.
We first exposed troubles with Southwick's business practices a year and a half ago. For years he'd promised investors nice returns if they'd put their money into his real estate and land deals.
We drove to Las Vegas to check out a truck stop development investors had bought into. There was nothing there.
When it all came crashing down, 800 people had lost $180 million and Southwick pleaded guilty to securities fraud. This summer he was sentenced to at least nine years in prison.
Southwick would never speak on camera before, but in the prison hearing room today he had no choice. "My first real sense of being in trouble came, occurred, in late 2001, early 2002," Southwick said.
He told the hearing officer that over a period of years he misled investors about purchasing properties, hid that his company was in the hole tens of millions of dollars, and repeatedly ignored state orders to come into compliance with securities laws.
Investors who had lost their life savings had heard enough. "Mr. Southwick is a very clever and cunning predator who must not be allowed to bring harm to others ever again," investor Kay Buchanan said.
Brad Hatch, who also invested with Southwick, said, "We need to keep that man in prison the rest of his life."
Investor Adam Titus recalled how Southwick even used his LDS faith to build trust. "He said to me, at the time, that we probably do not need to have a contract at all. We can just go to the temple together and we can consummate our transaction there," Titus said.
Then Southwick testified that his six months in prison have given him ample time to reflect on what he's done and he should be released. "It saddens and hurts me to the very core. Waves of agony and remorse have come on like a tsunami and at times it seems unending," he said.
So now it's up to hearing officer Andy Taylor to recommend to the Prison Parole Board if Southwick should be released early.
We spoke to Taylor after the hearing. If he gets his way, Southwick won't spend nine years in prison after all; he'd spend much more. Taylor suggested that Southwick should sit behind bars another 20 years before he gets another hearing like the one he had today.
E-mail: iteam@ksl.com
