OGDEN -- Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, has filed a criminal complaint against Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, claiming that Dee made threats against Hansen's brother during the last session of the Utah Legislature.
Dee, in addition to his legislative duties, is Weber County director of Human Services. Hansen's brother, Bill Hansen, is a corrections employee of the Weber County Sheriff's Office.
Hansen said the threat took place toward the end of the last session of the Legislature, which passed a new law changing the retirement benefits of government employees.
Bill Hansen is the sponsor of a Facebook social network web page highly critical of those changes, which Dee voted for. The page is called "Tell Gov. Herbert to keep his paws off our pensions!"
Bill Hansen said Saturday the incident was probably sparked by a Feb. 24 post he put on the page demanding that Dee be "outsourced," and calling for people to vote against him in the next election.
Other posts on the site are critical of Ogden Police Chief John Greiner, a state senator, who also supported the pension changes.
Saturday, Dee said he'd been very careful not to respond to Hansen's allegations that originally were made just after the close of this year's Legislature.
"It's just not true," Dee said. "I don't deal well with the spirit of contention."
But Dee said he realizes that Neil Hansen had a "very tough session" this year at the Legislature.
"I know that he is frustrated by that," Dee said. "He needs to heal, and I wish him that opportunity to heal."
Dee said his nonresponse was not about himself or Neil Hansen.
"It's about the people of Utah," he said. "I'm not going to impede his ability to serve or my ability to serve through contention."
The Davis County Attorney's Office is investigating Neil Hansen's allegation. The case was referred there by the Weber County attorney, he said, to avoid any conflict of interest. Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said officials have conducted a number of interviews, including Neil Hansen, and more are scheduled, as well as a review of Internet documents. He said Dee also was being cooperative.
Rawlings said the investigation would not be complicated. He expects to issue findings within about a month.
Neil Hansen said about a week before the end of the session, Dee came to him on the floor of the House, referred to Bill Hansen's Web page, "and said more or less, 'Representative Hansen, I've got a problem with what your brother is putting on the Internet. There's something he needs to understand, that I can make his life pretty miserable,' and when he said that he cut me to the core. I can't believe he would threaten my brother that way.
"And then Brad mentioned 'I haven't gotten involved in your races, and I hope you haven't gotten involved in mine.' and that's where the conversation ended."
Neil Hansen said he called his brother "and let him know that Brad Dee had threatened his livelihood," and told him to talk to Sheriff Brad Slater about the situation.
Bill Hansen said he did talk to Slater, "and he let me know he won't play any part of this. He's not going to mess with my freedom of speech, and I shouldn't worry about anything coming from the sheriff's office."
Neil Hansen said he didn't do anything more about the situation until after the session ended. After he held a news conference calling on House Speaker Dave Clark to step down over the handling of the Kevin Garn hot tub affair, he said he was asked by media if there were other scandals going on, and he mentioned Dee's threat.
When those reporters told him Dee had denied the conversation ever took place, Hansen said he felt he couldn't let it rest.
"I talked to the Weber County attorney about it and I kind of left it in his hands. About four days later I had the Davis County attorney call me."
Neil Hansen said he feels strongly that threats such as he says Dee made are a criminal matter.
"I did sign a complaint. I did give them a copy of my notes, a copy of what the law states, and told them all the facts of what I knew about the situation."
Bill Hansen said he has had no contact from Dee, but said the director of the county's Human Resources department could have power over his job.
"I'm concerned for my job just talking about it," Bill Hansen said Saturday. "He came to the House floor. He hasn't done or said anything to me directly. So far I don't know if he was just barking to get me to stop on Facebook or what."
Standard-Examiner reporter JaNae Francis contributed to this story.
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