Prosecuting sex crimes: Utah County attorney touts improvement, but current backlog unclear

UTAH COUNTY, Utah – David Leavitt’s controversial determination to dismantle the Particular Victims Unit within the Utah County Lawyer’s Workplace has change into a key subject in his bid for reelection.

He mentioned information launched by the workplace Friday proves his strategy has been profitable. Jeff Grey, Leavitt’s opponent on this month’s upcoming Republican major election, disagrees.

“The reality is, we’re doing the job,” Leavitt mentioned. “We’re doing a fantastic job at it.”

Underneath his watch, Leavitt mentioned the workplace employed a statistical specialist to trace sure information factors that haven’t beforehand been tracked over time. A few of the information launched Friday reveals a rise in prosecution charges for circumstances involving intercourse crime allegations. It additionally reveals a lower in declination charges.

“These numbers display higher outcomes for victims,” he mentioned.

When Leavitt took workplace in 2019, he mentioned the Particular Victims Unit had a virtually 400 case backlog. He defends his determination to eradicate the specialised crew, saying the transfer has elevated effectivity in prosecuting intercourse crime circumstances and now nearly the entire prosecutors within the workplace have acquired SVU coaching.

What’s unclear is how these adjustments have impacted the present backlog. Investigators requested for that info final February.  Leavitt mentioned he didn’t have specifics.

On Friday, that had not modified.

“The precise variety of particular victims’ circumstances which may be a part of the backlog is one thing we haven’t drilled down but particularly,” mentioned Leavitt.

Whereas he couldn’t present a present quantity, he claimed the backlog has improved.

“There’s all the time going to be some backlog, however it’s not vital and it’s not harming victims,” mentioned Leavitt.

Chief Deputy Sandi Johnson later clarified that the 400-case backlog from 2019 has been addressed. As for the present backlog, she mentioned intercourse crime circumstances referred to their workplace by means of January of this yr have been reviewed by an lawyer and both filed, declined, or despatched again to regulation enforcement for extra info.

Johnson and Leavitt mentioned precedence is given to circumstances during which a suspect is incarcerated.

The KSL Investigators have recognized a number of circumstances involving alleged sexual violence that stalled for months after regulation enforcement despatched them to Leavitt’s workplace for screening. One case involving a teenage sufferer took 5 months to display screen, and data present a now pending sexual abuse case towards Republican Senate candidate Brandon Beckham stalled for seven months.

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“We screened that when a sufferer known as and mentioned, ‘What’s the standing of this?’” mentioned Leavitt, addressing the delay in submitting the case towards Beckham. “And our coverage is, if the sufferer calls and inquires, we pull it up, we display screen it, we get it finished.”

Leavitt says his workplace is forward of most on the subject of prioritizing information assortment, however they’re not but monitoring how lengthy it takes to display screen circumstances involving alleged intercourse crimes.

“That’s an absolute concern,” mentioned Grey, who’s hoping to unseat Leavitt. “These circumstances have to be screened and determined upon in an expeditious and brief time.”

Grey mentioned he’s skeptical of whether or not Leavitt’s workplace has correctly addressed the present backlog and believes the coaching Leavitt says most of his prosecutors now have shouldn’t be adequate. Grey says prosecuting intercourse crimes requires years of expertise and on-the-job studying.

Jeff Grey. (KSL TV)

“It’s a course of that you simply undergo,” he mentioned. “And there’s a motive it’s particular.”

Leavitt mentioned the intention behind the discharge of information on Friday was to let victims know his workplace has made progress in addressing intercourse crime circumstances.

The discharge comes two days after a weird collection of stories conferences involving Leavitt on Wednesday.

Leavitt publicly known as for an investigation into the Utah County Sheriff’s Workplace, to find out if regulation enforcement colluded with a rape suspect in Scotland preventing extradition to Utah, or if the sheriff’s just lately introduced investigation into ritualistic youngster sexual abuse is a politically motivated assault on Leavitt. Throughout that press convention, Leavitt additionally publicly mentioned a 2012 case that was dismissed, sharing that he and several other others are named in a 151-page sufferer assertion alleging the cannibalism and homicide of youngsters.

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Leavitt denounced the claims as solely false and repeatedly known as the alleged sufferer in that case “tragically mentally sick.” Sheriff Mike Smith criticized Leavitt’s characterization.

“These are victims of crime who’ve mustered the braveness to return ahead, and that is what we name them is mentally sick?” requested Smith, throughout his Wednesday press convention.

“I most likely mustn’t have referred to (the alleged sufferer) as ‘tragically mentally sick,’” Leavitt mentioned on Friday. “Does she have large swaths of info fully mistaken? Completely.”

Grey known as Leavitt’s feedback concerning the girl’s psychological state “unforgivable.”

“These are traumatic, traumatic experiences for these folks,” he mentioned. “And we’ve to take these allegations severely and comply with the place the proof leads. And he’s not doing that.”

If elected, Grey mentioned his first order of enterprise shall be to reinstate the particular victims unit and return the workplace to a extra conventional method of prosecuting intercourse crimes.

“That’s crucial that we try this,” he mentioned. “We want skilled and skilled prosecutors focusing in on these crimes.”