Workman attorney seeks a dismissal

The attorney representing Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman has moved to dismiss charges against her, saying prosecutors have turned the case into a political game that threatens to undermine the state's judiciary.

Attorney Greg Skordas filed a motion in 3rd District Court on Wednesday seeking to have the prosecution of the case transferred to the state Attorney General's Office.

District Attorney David Yocom himself raised the specter of a conflict of interest by appointing a special panel to screen the charges, Skordas says. He calls the later appointment of private defense attorney Michael Martinez as special prosecutor a "sham," saying both Martinez and the panel lacked any kind of real independence.

The motion points out that Martinez and the panel members were sworn in as special deputy Salt Lake County district attorneys, tying them to Yocom's office and doing nothing to diminish the risk of a conflict of interest.

The motion also accuses Martinez of having a personal vendetta against the mayor, whom he has criticized.

"My first reaction is, I guess it's inevitable that they would begin to impugn my character and assail my ethics," Martinez said. "It's just part of the continuing campaign to deflect responsibility." He said the motion raises no new legal issues.

The politics of Workman's case are intricate and tangled. Workman is running for re-election as county mayor. Yocom, a Democrat, has often been vocal in his opposition to Workman's administration. And fellow Democrat Skordas, Yocom's former chief deputy, is running for state attorney general against incumbent Republican Mark Shurtleff.

In court Tuesday, Workman attempted to waive her right to a preliminary hearing, which would have freed the state from the burden of convincing the judge that a trial would be justified. However, Martinez objected to waiving the hearing, an unusual move that he had said earlier Tuesday he would not take.

Martinez's refusal to allow Workman to go straight to trial means the case most likely will not be resolved by the Nov. 2 election.

The new motion will likely delay the case even further, especially if the charges are dropped and the investigation starts over. But that's a chance Skordas said he had to take.

"We think it's a good motion and we need to pursue it," he said. "It's a motion that needed to be filed, and I didn't think we had a choice with the way the case has gone the last couple of days and statements made by the district attorney's office."

The motion notes that in court Tuesday, Martinez said the district attorney's office might move more speedily if Workman would apologize for television advertisements implying Yocom charged Workman for partisan reasons.