Ricci suit against Salt Lake is tossed out

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.

In court Wednesday, Stewart found that Oliver had no evidence to show that Salt Lake City was responsible for Ricci's death and found that Oliver's conduct "fell well below the level of professionalism." No sanctions were imposed, however.

In all, Stewart concluded Oliver used "flimsy ammunition" in his suit against the city.

Oliver argued the only evidence Angela Ricci had was what she saw on TV and read in newspapers and books, in particular the book by Deseret Morning News staffers Tom Smart and Lee Benson. Oliver said statements made by Dinse to the media that Ricci was their suspect and that after Ricci's death, the whereabouts of Elizabeth Smart went to the grave with him, were enough to bring a suit.

But Stewart pointed out that Oliver had not bothered to compile any of the news reports, or submit Tom Smart's book, to the court as supporting evidence. Oliver also acknowledged that he had conducted no depositions in the case.