Judge dismisses Ricci's S.L. suit

A federal judge has thrown out a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Salt Lake City by Angela Ricci, whose late husband, Richard Ricci, had been fingered by police as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart.

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart ruled that Ricci's attorney, Bruce Oliver, had gathered no evidence in the two years since the suit was filed that would show that the Salt Lake City Police Department was in any way responsible for Richard Ricci's death.

Ricci died while in state custody on a parole violation in August 2002. Angela Ricci claimed her husband was placed in solitary confinement and treated poorly by prison officials under the alleged direction of Salt Lake police, who wanted to turn the heat up on the man they considered a suspect in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. Nine months later, Smart turned up on a sidewalk with another man, Brian David Mitchell, a homeless man who fancies himself a prophet.

After her husband's death, Angela Ricci sued Salt Lake City, chief Rick Dinse and at least six investigators, alleging false arrest, cruel and unusual punishment, wrongful death and slander.

Morris Haggerty, attorney representing Salt Lake City, said he filed a motion to have the suit dismissed when he sent a request for discovery to Oliver and received a letter back stating that Oliver had no evidence to support his allegations. Haggerty also filed a motion to impose sanctions against Oliver for bringing forward unsupported allegations.