Unsealed indictment shows political motives behind alleged obstruction by local sheriffs

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Newly unsealed documents reveal political motives behind Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby's alleged actions that led to criminal charges.
They claim that Rigby sent an anonymous letter related to Kouri Richins' murder case to discredit a detective, and a letter to another opponent pretending to be a co-worker.
Rigby and retired Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds were each charged with obstruction of justice. Rigby was also charged with making a false statement.

PARK CITY — Newly unsealed charging documents give new details about alleged actions that led to the Wasatch County sheriff being placed on paid administrative leave, including claims that there was an underlying political purpose.

They reveal that the anonymous letter related to the high-profile Kouri Richins case, which was allegedly sent by Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby, may have been intended to undermine the credibility of a Summit County detective who was running against him for the position of Wasatch County Sheriff.

Prosecutors claim in the charges that the letter was "crafted to discredit Det. (Eric) Mainord," one of the detectives involved in Richins' case.

Rigby was charged by a grand jury on Sept. 24 in Summit County's 3rd District Court with obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony, and making a written false statement, a class B misdemeanor. Retired Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds was charged on Sept. 24 with obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony.

Following a private hearing on Wednesday in their cases, indictments with significantly fewer redactions were filed in both Rigby and Edmunds' cases.

They say on Jan. 2, Rigby filed his declaration of candidacy and intent to run again for Wasatch County Sheriff. At the same time, Summit County Sheriff's detective Eric Mainord filed his declaration of candidacy on Jan. 7.

The initially released charges in Rigby's case claim he interfered in the Richins investigation by submitting an anonymous letter that expressed concerns over Mainord's trustworthiness as a law enforcement officer.

In the latest redacted version of the charges, prosecutors allege that the contents of Rigby's anonymous letter were "essentially identical" to a public records request that Rigby filled out, but was signed by Sheriff Dave Edmunds.

Charging documents filed against Edmunds said a GRAMA request he signed — and communicated with Rigby about — had 13 typed paragraphs that were "essentially identical" to 13 paragraphs in the anonymous letter. While investigators were seeking to find out where the anonymous letter came from, Edmunds told them he knew who typed it but was "not at liberty to say," according to the charges.

Later, a forensic document examiner identified the handwritten portions as Rigby's handwriting, but the charges say Edmunds had claimed he had filled out the cover sheet.

The public records request was for Mainord's personnel file from when he was at Heber City police. The charging documents allege the file was intended to reveal "issues" from Mainord, including alleged "affairs," bankruptcies and "issues of use of force."

According to the charges, Rigby told Heber City that the records request had nothing to do with his campaign, but then shortly after, he wanted to speak to Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates about his campaign. During that conversation, he discussed his concerns about Mainord and its impact on the Richins trial, the charges said.

Bates told Rigby that "this feels slimy. This feels dirty. I don't like this. I think a campaign should be run on integrity and the ability to do the job and not on mudslinging," the charges said.

Prosecutors allege Rigby knew the anonymous letter was false. While it "purports to convey sincere concern regarding Det. Mainord," the concerns were "insincere and crafted to discredit Det. Mainord as a candidate," the charges say.

The charges claim Rigby intended to hinder the Richins prosecution "to leverage its publicity to either pressure Det. Mainord to drop out of the Wasatch County Sheriff's race prior to the trial or very publicly discredit Det. Mainord during the trial."

Rigby is also accused of writing a fake anonymous email that was sent to Wasatch County Sheriff's Lt. Jeremy Hales, who was also running for sheriff.

The email, sent on Feb. 5, was written as if authored by a coworker complaining that Hales was "intimidating," "belittling," and "should do the right thing and not run for Sheriff." The charges state that the email address was traced back to an account on Rigby's phone.

Hales beat Rigby in the primary in June and won the general election earlier this week.

Rigby, who is on paid administrative leave until the end of this term, has asked the court to disqualify 3rd District Court Judge Richard Mrazik, who is overseeing his case. Mrazik also oversaw the Richins trial, and Rigby claims that, because of that, he has "personal knowledge of facts that are in dispute" due to having seen the anonymous letter prior.

Richins was sentenced to life in prison without parole on May 13 after a jury found her guilty of killing her husband, and attempting to kill him less than a month earlier. Richins is seeking to appeal her case and is also facing a separate case with fraud charges.

At a hearing on Friday for the fraud charges, Richins' new attorney, Kate Conyers, said she is still working on a contract with Summit County for the representation but anticipates she will sign it after a few changes are made. Richins' next hearing was scheduled for April 9, after Conyers asked for a few months.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.