FARMINGTON -- Stating a former Clinton police officer breached the public's trust, a judge sentenced Dean E. Livingston to serve 30 days in jail.
Livingston, 44, appeared Thursday before Judge Thomas L. Kay in 2nd District Court. He had pleaded guilty Aug. 27 to a third-degree felony computer crime.
"I believe you breached the trust of the people," Kay said before he sentenced Livingston.
Kay sentenced Livingston to begin serving time in Davis County Jail at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Kay gave Livingston work release.
Livingston is also sentenced to serve three years' probation and pay $3,362 in restitution and a $500 fine.
Kay suspended a zero- to five-year prison sentence in lieu of the jail time and probation.
Prosecutors and the defense attorney had agreed to recommend that Livingston would serve 60 days of home confinement instead of jail time, but Kay did not agree to that recommendation.
Before Livingston was sentenced, Kay said he was concerned that Livingston was being treated differently by prosecutors because he was a former police officer.
In March, the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training had put Livingston on a three-year suspension. POST investigators said Livingston lied during Clinton's internal affairs investigation into a complaint that he drove an unmarked police vehicle to the home of a married woman.
Livingston admitted to driving the police car but maintained it was a friendship, not an affair, although he said later the two had kissed but nothing else.
Kay said he received a letter from Clinton Police Chief Bill Chilson stating concerns Livingston was receiving special treatment from prosecutors.
Deputy Davis County Attorney Rick Westmoreland read in court an e-mail Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings sent to Kay on Sept. 24 in response to Chilson's letter dated Sept. 16.
Rawlings called Chilson's letter "a ridiculous, hit-piece letter" and wrote that Chilson, as well as Clinton Police Lt. Dave Valentine, had been contacted multiple times by his office "for their input on what they would like to see happen" with the Livingston case.
Rawlings wrote that Deputy Davis County Attorney David Cole "was concerned with their wishy-washy, noncommittal attitude and responses" and had later asked they write what they wanted to see happen in the case.
Rawlings wrote the case was not handled differently from any other nonviolent case and that the negotiations were appropriate.
In a phone interview, Chilson said he wrote the letter to Kay "because I don't think (Livingston) would have gotten anything. I don't know what the judge will do in any case. I wasn't asking for the electric chair or anything like that, but other people, in my view, get a lot harsher treatment charged with the same thing."
Chilson said Livingston had gone into the police's computer system from his home computer, looking for information about an investigation the police were doing on him.
"We don't know how much he got," Chilson said about what Livingston may have found.
Rawlings said after the hearing, "Chief Chilson's letter was the most disheartening and disingenuous experience I've had so far as Davis County Attorney, as far as law enforcement goes, and he knows it.
"We've had multiple officers within Clinton Police Department express concern and disagreement with the chief's letter and wanted us to know it doesn't reflect their opinions."
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