"I don't know how revealing what court (a record is filed in) or the existence of the secrecy agreement could interfere with any criminal investigation," he said. "If they've executed the search warrant, then it's not a surprise for the people they've executed it on and it's not a surprise about what's been recovered."

The Standard has filed an appeal of Torgensen's denial with the State Records Committee but still had not been informed of the status of that appeal Monday.

After learning about the existence of the secrecy order, the Standard also filed a second GRAMA request with the attorney general's office seeking a copy of the motion it filed to obtain the order. The motion for a secrecy order is considered a public record under state law.

However, in a letter received late last week, the newspaper was informed that its second GRAMA request had also been denied on the basis that the attorney general's office is not the custodian of the record being sought. The denial letter directed the newspaper to request the information from the state's Administrative Office of the Courts.

The Standard has already tried to find information about the search warrant, which is classified under state law as a public record 20 days after the warrant is executed, in the state's 8th and 3rd judicial districts with the assistance of court clerks and Nancy Volmer, spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the Courts.

The 8th District encompasses Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties, while the 3rd District covers Salt Lake County, a place where the attorney general's office has filed at least one other major criminal case from the Uintah Basin in the past.

Neither judicial district could locate any records related to the search warrant served on the Uintah School District office.

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E-mail: geoff@ubstandard.com