Verhoef's records show Draper Court never notified the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification of the conviction. Bertch says, in a written response to a reporter's questions, that the court always sends the data that are supposed to go to BCI, "especially DUI convictions."

Bertch says he is careful to review the potential to enhance future charges with every defendant. He also emphasizes each must be treated as a unique individual and sentenced on their own circumstances.

Judges are required to weigh individual cases without being "swayed by partisan interest, public clamor, or fear of criticism," according to the Code of Judicial Conduct.

"Those individuals need to know and feel that their cases are not being prejudged out of concern for how a judge might appear in the newspaper," Bertch writes in his statement.

MAY 18, 2000 — Just after 7 p.m., three witnesses report a motorist is driving very fast south on I-15 near Bluffdale. Denis, that driver, swerves, loses control and rolls his Honda Accord down an embankment. He takes out 60 feet of fencing along the way. No other vehicles are involved, and neither Denis nor his female companion is badly injured.

UHP trooper Jamie Maddux arrives at the scene and notices the odor of alcohol. At Alta View Hospital, Denis fails two sobriety tests but refuses to take a blood test to determine his blood alcohol level.

Denis has a valid driver's license at the time.

He is charged with a misdemeanor DUI, pleads guilty and appears before Bluffdale Justice Court Judge A.A. Mitchell for sentencing.

Mitchell, who was unavailable for comment, sentences Denis to one year of probation and a $950 fine. As a condition of his sentence, Denis is supposed to attend an in-patient program at the Gathering Place, an Orem-based rehab center. Court records show program officers are supposed to send monthly reports to the court. It is unclear whether they do. Records show Denis did attend the program.

Because Denis had other DUIs during the probation period, he has been summoned back to court Aug. 22, 2001, says Bluffdale court clerk Vickie Nichols.

Other agencies have trouble tracking this case. Bluffdale never sent a record of the conviction to the Bureau of Criminal Identification, so no information turns up on the main database for tracking DUIs.

Nichols says the court has done nothing wrong. "I don't forward it until the case is closed, and that case isn't closed. As long as he's on probation it's still an open case," she says.

NOV. 9, 2000 — Denis is in the Southern Exposure bar in Murray and gets into an altercation with another patron. He is taken to Cottonwood Hospital and treated. When he leaves, a hospital employee is concerned that he will be driving a vehicle while still intoxicated or may return to the bar "for revenge."