The criminal investigation into political operative Brett Randall Minson's campaign tactics has widened and lawyers from one of the country's largest law firms are defending him.
On April 9, police seized four computers, two hard drives and a cell phone while serving a search warrant at the West Point home of Minson, a self-employed political consultant long involved in both state- and county-level issues.
The investigation has widened beyond its original scope of the Davis County Republican sheriff's race to include other races, some going back several years.
Investigators are looking into e-mail rumor mills that include allegations of bogus complaints to the state Police Academy about sexual misadventures in patrol cars and unfounded tales of bankruptcy.
Retiring Davis County Sheriff Bud Cox said he was contacted by the investigation over anonymous complaints made about him to the state police academy, also known as POST, during his 2006 re-election campaign. The complaints alleged sexual misconduct, Cox said, similar to slurs passed to the academy about Solomon Oberg.
Oberg lost his bid at the April 10 Davis County Republican Convention for the nomination to replace Cox.
Like Oberg, Cox strongly denied the smears.
"I understand it was sex in a patrol car, something like that," Cox said of the allegations against him.
John Pitt finished third at the convention in the race for the legislative seat being vacated by Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful. Pitt was endorsed by Allen. He is well known as a former two-term Bountiful city councilman and is also a former president of the Davis Chamber of Commerce.
Pitt has been contacted as part of the investigation.
"They found things there, things on his (Minson's) computer about me that were untrue," Pitt said. "It dealt with a bankruptcy I never filed."
GOP-on-GOP attacks
The political attacks appear to be Republican-on-Republican by the right wing of the party, with one source using the phrase "Taliban Republicans."
No charges have been filed against Minson, who has not returned numerous phone calls and other attempts to seek comment.
The investigation began when Oberg, a Bountiful police lieutenant, reported e-mail smears against him to the Davis County Attorney's Office. He was facing Todd Richardson, a Davis County sheriff's sergeant, for the party's nomination to replace Cox.
Oberg declined to divulge the content of the e-mail since an investigation is under way. "It would be irresponsible (to discuss it)," he told the Standard-Examiner.
Davis County moved the investigation to the Weber County Attorney's Office to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest, since prosecutors work closely with the sheriff's office.
Minson is represented by attorneys from the Chicago-based firm of Sidley and Austin, a team headed by Jay T. Jorgensen, a Brigham Young University alumni and Washington, D.C., partner in the firm that once employed President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.
Sidley and Austin has 1,700 lawyers in 17 offices around the globe.
Jorgensen said his firm is representing Minson pro bono. "This case is very troubling to me," he said. "That's why we're involved."
Just a rumor?
He said his knowledge of the case is largely from Minson, who claims he was only passing on an e-mail rumor he heard.
"If armed officers were sent to his home because he passed on a rumor, they are totally in violation of the Constitution," Jorgensen said. "The whole point of the First Amendment is not to squelch that ... discussing the news with neighbors, to pass along information. So we wonder if it's a political vendetta."
Jorgensen said clients, paying or pro bono, all receive the same service from the law firm -- a partner and two or three associates. The firm also has to employ a lawyer who is a member of the bar in the state of jurisdiction, he said, in this case former Juab County Attorney David Leavitt. Leavitt is the brother of Mike Leavitt, former Utah governor and cabinet member in the administration of President George W. Bush.
Claim denied
Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings disputed Jorgensen's claim that the investigation is politically motivated.
"We do our litigation in court, not through the press," he said. "It's already been relayed to Jay that his assumptions are wrong. No matter who the defense attorney is they can't change the laws or the facts.
"Our office and the Weber County Attorney's Office can go toe-to-toe with anyone on how the law and the facts apply to a given case."
He dismissed Jorgensen's free expression stance. "This case is not about the First Amendment."
Rawlins deferred further comment to Weber County Attorney Dee Smith, whose office is handling the investigation and who will decide whether any charges are to be filed.
"Two plain-clothes investigators executed the search warrant," Smith said in response to Jorgensen's characterization of the case, particularly the April 9 warrant at Minson's West Point home.
"The warrant was signed by a judge who found probable cause to support the warrant. Beyond that I'm not going to try the case in the media and won't comment any further."
Sealed affidavit
Farmington 2nd District Judge John R. Morris signed the warrant and has since sealed it and its accompanying affidavit.
Jorgensen said he's known Minson for years, meeting him in Republican political circles around 2002 when Jorgensen ran for Congress but was defeated in convention.
Jorgensen said neither he nor his client will comment further at this point in the proceedings.
"We are confident in Randy Minson's innocence and would love to discuss the issues surrounding this matter," he said. "However, out of deference to the court's secrecy order, we do not feel it appropriate to discuss anything that might be construed as violating that order."
Morris, in addition to sealing the warrant and its affidavit, has also sealed the investigative subpoenas and supporting documents generated by the investigation.
Jorgensen's page at www.linkedin.com, a social networking website, states he hired Minson in 2002.
"Randy is a top campaign consultant in Utah. He has a deep understanding of Utah's primary and general election process and years of experience working with all of the key individuals," Jorgensen said on his LinkedIn page endorsing Minson. "He is also extremely creative and hard-working. He masterfully crafts and disseminates a campaign message. I would recommend him to any top-notch candidate."
Long involvement
Minson has long been involved in Davis County Republican Party politics and has worked on many campaigns, said Allen, the current candidate for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket. Allen said she has never used Minson's services.
Layton Mayor Steve Curtis met with a Weber County detective regarding the e-mail about Oberg. Curtis said the e-mail mentions that he endorsed Oberg for sheriff.
"I don't have any ties to Minson other than supporting Sol," he said.
Richardson is now effectively sheriff-elect, since no Democrat filed for the office. He ran unsuccessfully against his boss, Cox, in 2002 and 2006.
Sheriff's race
Cox said Minson was heavily involved with Richardson in both of those campaigns, and he suspects Minson was behind some defamatory rumors about him. "His name doesn't mean anything really good to me," Cox said. "I can't prove anything, so I don't say much about it.
"I know he was involved in Todd's campaign both of those times. And I was the recipient of some pretty heavy stuff a time or two."
Richardson said he has been contacted by the investigation. Minson has been with his campaigns from 2002 on, he said, but he denied Cox's claim that Minson's wife was his campaign manager in 2006, and denies any knowledge of improprieties by Minson. Richardson said his wife has always been his campaign manager.
Minson helped with campaign mailers and general logistics, Richardson said.
"I've known Randy a long time" Richardson said. "It would kind of surprise me to think he would do anything like this.
"My whole goal is to be cooperative with the investigation and make sure they have any information I have," he said.
Minson wasn't as involved in his current campaign as in the past, Richardson said, because of work he was doing on another campaign.
Richardson was scheduled for a face-to-face meeting with an investigator in the Minson probe May 12, but hasn't returned phone calls seeking comment since that date.
POST Deputy Director Kelly Sparks said he had considered running this year for Davis County Sheriff, but decided the timing wasn't right. He said he knows of Minson, but doesn't recall ever talking to him.
Sparks said his decision not to run came after consultation with family and friends, and not in reaction to anything else.
Contacted by the investigation, Sparks said he was told "they (Minson's camp) were devising a way to keep me from running, or to defeat me if I did run. They didn't give me any more detail than that. I would like to know at some time. I'm kind of dying to know myself."
Information gathered so far by the investigation has come only from Minson's cell phone and through interviews.
Data is still to come from the four computers and the two hard drives in the hands of the Utah State Crime Lab for examination.
Prosecutors have issued a subpoena to Minson's cell phone provider. They hope to recover data they believe Minson deleted from his cell phone the night the search warrant was executed at his home.
This topic is being discussed at The Weber County Forum.
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