3 more judges recused in Trib case

One week after a federal judge in Utah recused herself from a lawsuit between the former and current owners of the Salt Lake Tribune, three other federal judges have also recused themselves.

In all, nearly every judge in the U.S. District for Utah has been recused from one of the several pending lawsuits concerning the McCarthey family, the paper's former owners, and their fight to buy the paper back.

In orders of recusal filed over the past week, U.S. District judges Dee Benson, Bruce Jenkins and David Sam have declined to take the case. Last week, Judge Tena Campbell recused herself after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed one of her decisions. Judge Ted Stewart recused himself from the case in 2005.

The case is one of several pending in a five-year-long legal battle being waged by the McCarthey family to gain back control of the paper they sold in 1997. The family claims they had a "handshake" deal with TCI owner John Malone to buy the paper back. AT&T purchased TCI in 1999 and sold the Tribune to MediaNews for $200 million.

In an effort to buy the paper back, the McCartheys struck a deal with MediaNews to determine the appraised value of the paper. As part of the contract, the appraisal firm MPI was hired, which estimated the paper's value at $355.5 million.

Attorneys for the McCarthey family have protested the appraisal, claiming MPI overstepped the boundaries of the contract to come up with that value. MediaNews attorneys say the MPI appraisal is valid and that the McCartheys must show that MPI deviated from accepted accounting practices or show evidence of fraud.

The latest round of recusals may create the need to have the case transferred to a retired judge or a judge from out of state.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com