Doors shut on Bryson case

PROVO — Utah County officials say they intend to go behind closed doors to address allegations of improper use of county equipment and personnel that surfaced recently in the high profile divorce proceedings involving Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson and Rep. Katherine Bryson, R-Orem.

Katherine Bryson revealed recently that Kay Bryson had enlisted the aid of a Utah County sheriff's deputy to install a county-owned surveillance camera last year in a Salt Lake City condominium she owns and has been renting to her son.

She contends the intent was to invade her privacy in an effort to show she was involved in an affair. She said both her son and her estranged husband were aware that she sometimes used the condominium.

Kay Bryson said the intent was simply to determine if a burglar was stealing items from his son's residence. He said it was merely a coincidence that his wife's meeting with a man at the condominium was recorded.

In the meantime, Salt Lake City police continue to investigate a complaint filed by Katherine Bryson on Sept. 1 involving the privacy violations and what she calls a misuse of public office by Kay Bryson.

Paul Murphy, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said Katherine Bryson has also contacted that office to request they look into "other allegations."

Murphy said the Attorney General's Office has the option to investigate the allegations or pass them on to another agency if appropriate.

Utah County Commissioner Jerry Grover declined to comment about the allegations — or voice his personal feelings about the matter — because the situation is being treated as a personnel matter involving county employees.

"The County Commission has no authority to investigate anything other than the personnel issue," Grover said. "That's all I can say."

Katherine Bryson will leave the Legislature at the end of the year after withdrawing her initial filing for re-election in March. That decision followed a contentious public spat sparked by Katherine Bryson's public testimony during a floor debate involving a domestic violence bill. She told fellow legislators that she, too, had been the victim of non-physical domestic violence and intimated that Kay Bryson was responsible.

Kay Bryson responded with allegations of improper use of family finances, saying that Katherine Bryson had forged his name on loan documents.

Utah County Sheriff James Tracy said he was unaware that the surveillance was set up to record meetings between Katherine Bryson and a man she allegedly was seeing in the condominium without her son's knowledge.

"I know Katherine Bryson found it (the camera). She brought it back and dumped it on Dennis Harris' desk," Tracy said.