Provoan sues over search

PROVO — A lawsuit filed against district court judges in Salt Lake and Utah counties could change the way Utah courts handle search warrants.

The suit was filed by an attorney representing Provo resident Brian Anderson, who says police executed a search warrant at his house on Oct. 8 but did not explain why they were there or what they were looking for.

When Anderson went to Provo's 4th District Court a few days later and asked for a copy of the search warrant and the affidavit supporting the warrant, he was told that neither document was there.

Now Anderson's attorney, Brian Barnard of the Utah Legal Clinic in Salt Lake, wants to expedite the process in which a search warrant becomes public information.

Currently, a search warrant and supporting affidavit are signed by a judge and then turned over to the law enforcement officials who will execute the search.

Barnard has filed two lawsuits — one against the judges in Provo's 4th District Court and one against the judges in Salt Lake's 3rd District — that essentially ask the courts to keep a copy of the warrant and affidavit from the time it is approved by a judge.

"A judge takes drastic action when issuing a search warrant authorizing the invasion of a person's home," Barnard wrote in a recent motion. "Yet the clerks and the judges in the 4th District Court maintain no record that a search warrant has been issued and no record as to the factual basis of that action. No other court order is treated as nonchalantly as search warrants."

Barnard said that while records of temporary restraining orders and protective orders are kept at the court, search warrants and affidavits are not. No record is kept at the court until the police officer returns the warrant.

The warrant and affidavit are not returned to the court until they have served their function. Sometimes warrants aren't returned to the court for weeks.

"If someone comes knocking down my door with a battering ram I want to know why," Barnard said. "Some people may be willing to wait around for two weeks for the police to return the warrant, but I don't think they should have to."

Brent Johnson, general counsel for the administrative offices of the state's district courts, says state statute requires law enforcement officers to return search warrants promptly.

"When the court issues a warrant (police) have to seize evidence before it disappears," Johnson said. "There has to be secrecy to protect law enforcement. Once the warrant is served and has fulfilled its purpose, it's public."