Declaration of No Confidence in Utah County Attorney David Leavitt

An Open Letter to Residents of Utah County,

We, the undersigned, are former criminal prosecutors in your County Attorney’s Office. Collectively
we served you for a total of 111 years. And though we come from different backgrounds, and hold to
differing political philosophies, we’re united in two distinct ways: First, we all prematurely left your County
Attorney’s Office as a result of the prosecution policies and procedures David Leavitt established since his
election in 2018; and, Second, we are united in presenting this public declaration of no confidence in David
Leavitt’s capability and competence to perform his constitutional and statutory duties as the lead criminal
prosecutor in Utah County. We declare that Mr. Leavitt has vacated his responsibilities to provide you safety
and protection in your person and property by failing to enforce criminal laws against offenders and by
prioritizing the protection of criminals from the lawful consequences of their misconduct. His destructive
actions as the county’s lead prosecutor include, but are not limited to:

The disbanding of the office’s Special Victim Unit (which was staffed by experienced attorneys
specifically trained to prosecute adult and child sexual offenses), leaving the prosecution of many of
these cases to less-experienced attorneys who lack trial experience in these types of serious offenses;

The implementation of screening policies and procedures which have resulted in a backlog of well
over 1000 criminal cases waiting to be screened for charges, thus rendering victims of criminal
offenses disillusioned, vulnerable, and without a sense of justice for many months, or perhaps even
for a full year, and leaving potentially dangerous individuals out on your streets without any
accountability; and,

The abuse of his discretion by willfully ignoring statutory sentencing enhancements, and diminishing
the importance of criminal histories in charging decisions, so those who have prior felony convic-
tions, those on felony probation, and those on parole from the state prison, can be referred to the Utah
County Justice Court for misdemeanor prosecution. (Court statistics show that in 2021, Mr. Leavitt’s
office filed 45% fewer cases in the District Court, while increasing the number of cases filed in the
Utah County Justice Court by 79%, from the average number of cases filed in each in years 2017-19.)

David Leavitt’s policies have also resulted in the alienation of your law enforcement officers in the
county. Due to mistrust in him, your County Attorney’s Office was removed as the primary investigating
agency from the county’s officer-involved critical incident protocol. And lastly, according to Utah County
budgets, David Leavitt has increased the office’s budget by nearly $5.5 million per year and 15 full-time
attorneys, yet he revels in the fact that the office is currently prosecuting about one-half (50%) of the annual
number of criminal cases in the district court that it did in 2018 (as verified by Utah Court statistics).

Based upon the foregoing we, speaking as your former prosecutors and not as representatives of any
current employers, do not have any confidence that David Leavitt will effectively fulfill his duties as lead
criminal prosecutor in Utah County, and we unitedly encourage all residents not to vote to re-elect David
Leavitt for a second term in 2022.

/s/ Sherry Ragan /s/ Mariane O’Bryant /s/ Curtis Larson

34 years of service 29 years of service 27 years of service

/s/ Lance Bastian /s/ Kelsy Young /s/ Lauren Hunt

8 years of service 7 years of service 6 years of service