Sheriff Indicted For Letter That Tried To Sink His Own Rival
A Utah grand jury indicted Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby on obstruction and false-statement charges, accused of trying to discredit the detective running against him for sheriff.
Jared Rigby — Wasatch County Sheriff (Utah)
indictedJared Rigby, the sitting Wasatch County Sheriff, has been indicted by a grand jury on felony obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor false-statement charge. Prosecutors say he tried to discredit the detective who was running against him for sheriff - and who was a potential witness in the Kouri Richins murder trial.
PROOF
A Summit County grand jury indicted Rigby on a second-degree felony count of obstruction of justice in a criminal proceeding and a class B misdemeanor count of making a written false statement [S1]. Former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds was indicted separately on a third-degree felony count of obstruction of justice in a criminal investigation [S1]. Both men pleaded not guilty in Summit County's 3rd District Court [S1]. The charges follow a criminal investigation by the Summit County Attorney's Office that became public in May [S1]. At the center of it was an anonymous letter the office received in January, shortly before Richins' murder trial began, containing 13 allegations about Detective Eric Mainord's credibility as a potential witness [S1]. A motion filed by Rigby's attorney indicates that the charges accuse Rigby of sending that letter, which allegedly contained false information [S2]. Prosecutors have said, according to KPCW, that Rigby sought to discredit Mainord and had help from Edmunds and other top law enforcement officials [S2]. The indictments themselves remain redacted, and do not publicly identify the specific item Rigby allegedly used or the writing he allegedly submitted, nor the false information Edmunds allegedly gave investigators [S1]. Rigby, who lost his reelection bid in June, remains sheriff until January [S2].
PUBLIC OPINION
Richins' attorneys pointed to the investigation into Rigby as part of their effort to challenge her conviction [S1]. In September they asked a judge to delay her new-trial request while the Rigby investigation's impact was explored; Mrazik denied that request but gave her more time to file arguments [S1]. KPCW reported prosecutors' own characterization of the scheme: that Rigby sought to discredit Mainord with help from Edmunds and other officials [S2].
BULLSHIT DEFENSE
Rigby has pleaded not guilty [S1][S2]. No further explanation, statement, or defense from Rigby, his attorney, or a spokesman appears in the sources.
A sheriff used an anonymous letter to try to take down the man running against him, weeks before that man was due to testify in a murder trial. The redactions come off November 4th. Until then, the public gets the charge and not the details - which is, by itself, a hell of a thing for a sheriff's office to be sitting on.
Sources — 2 articles
Reported independently by 4 separate outlets. No single newsroom getting it wrong would put it here. Of those, 2 could be downloaded and read, and only those are cited below — the rest would not serve us the article. Every fact here was checked against text we actually hold.