Former Attorney General Shurtleff Settles With State For $600K
Oct 3, 2019, 6:34 AM
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The state will now pay $600,000 to former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to help pay his legal fees.
Shurtleff and his successor, John Swallow, were charged with public corruption in 2014. Shurtleff’s case was dropped in 2016. Swallow went to trial and had multiple charges against him dropped. He was found not guilty on the remaining charges.
Since the case was dropped, Shurtleff has been fighting to clear things up, he said.
“I’d just like to remind people that the people of Utah paid probably well over $10 million to prosecute me and Swallow,” he said. “So it’s only appropriate, I think, that since the law provides for it, we ought to have our pieces covered — or a portion.”
The settlement comes shortly after state lawmakers approved a $1.5 million payment to Swallow during the special legislative session.
Shurtleff told the Deseret News that this deal does not end a multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit filed in federal court. The suit claims state law enforcement officials falsely charged and maliciously prosecuted him.
He’ll be arguing his case before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta later this year.
