Salt Lake County prosecutor spoke at length with store owner

Maese said Morgan never revealed any confidential information in their many conversations and that the two men are just friends.

"I never received confidential information from Kent," Maese said. "He has too much integrity to do that."

The letter also indicates Morgan was involved in confidential meetings in which prosecutors screened the charges against Maese.

"That's crap," Morgan said. "That's horse manure. Steve was an acquaintance of mine and that would have been just totally inappropriate, so I didn't participate in any of those meetings."

The unlikely friendship started during Morgan's campaign for district attorney, which he later lost to Miller during the 2006 county Republican convention.

Maese volunteered to work on Morgan's campaign, and helped set up his Web site, as well as assist with marketing efforts. However, Maese does not show up on any of Morgan's financial disclosures, even in-kind contributions.

He also served as Morgan's sidekick during meet-the-candidate nights across the county, Morgan said.

"Steve was just like many people who were with me through the whole thing and helped me out," Morgan said. "Steve came in to help me out with my campaign. This was long before charges arose. He was kind of an excited guy."

About 30 percent of the calls came in the days leading up to the county Republican convention, where Miller defeated Morgan and avoided a primary battle.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com