Workman verdict reinvigorates claims of a political vendetta

Nancy Workman's acquittal this week has many of her supporters reasserting claims that District Attorney David Yocom pursued the case for political reasons.

"What has been known by many for months is now finally publicly established by an impartial jury," said Cottonwood Heights City Councilman Bruce Jones, who chaired Salt Lake County's far-reaching change of government committee. "Mayor Nancy Workman was the victim of a personal and political vendetta and apparent abuse of power."

"The D.A., with his Democratic leanings, was totally out to get her," former Workman communications director Ted Phillips said.

Yocom, however, has strong defenders. Chief among them is Utah County Republican District Attorney Kay Bryson. He served on a bipartisan panel that reviewed Yocom's evidence against Workman, found it credible and recommended charging her.

Bryson disputed contentions that the panel's review was irrevocably tainted because the evidence was gathered by Yocom's investigators.

"As a seasoned experienced prosecutor — and all four of us on the panel were that — we have had experience with police reports that were slanted either for or against prosecution," Bryson said. "You can tell."

"An acquittal doesn't impute any bad motive to the prosecutor," he went on. "It just means a jury didn't find sufficient evidence to convince them beyond a reasonable doubt."

Democratic Salt Lake County Councilman Joe Hatch, an attorney, said that, given the evidence, if anything Yocom would have been derelict had he not charged Workman. Hatch noted that the panel found probable cause to bring charges, 3rd District Judge Robert Hilder found probable cause in an October preliminary hearing, and that the jury itself took nine hours to make up its mind.

"There was every attempt made to depoliticize what was going on," Hatch said. "The D.A.'s honoring the process, so why don't (his accusers?)"

Former deputy county mayor Alan Dayton relates an instance in which Yocom allegedly threatened to "get" Workman. But did the district attorney go so far as to actually carry out his threat?

"We all hope and pray that that's not what he did, but we'll never know," Workman said Friday. "It's an intent thing. It's in his mind."

Yocom himself declined comment for this article, but in the past he has said he would "uphold my obligations without regard to political affiliation of the subject or subjects." He has noted that the Workman investigation started with a whistle-blower complaint and he repeatedly denied charging her for personal reasons.