Maese, who was charged Thursday with class A misdemeanor stalking and third-degree felony witness tampering for allegedly harassing a witness in his case, declined Friday to comment on his relationship with Johnson. Johnson didn't return telephone calls from the Deseret News.

While this doesn't prove that Maese was the driving force behind the private investigation into Miller's private life, it does show that Maese is connected to several controversial players in county politics.

Maese and Morgan are friends who met during Morgan's 2006 election for district attorney — which he lost to Miller. Morgan tapped Maese's marketing background to help him in his campaign.

After he lost, the friendship continued. But both Maese and Morgan insist no top-secret information about Maese's case was revealed.

They are friends who enjoy talking about politics, nothing more, they say.

Miller fired Morgan in March for allegedly leaking confidential information to Maese. Maese apparently made a statement to police in 2006 that made them believe he knew information only prosecutors involved in screening the case would have known, according to the Morgan's termination letter. The letter does not specify what information Maese supposedly knew that only prosecutors would have known.

Morgan had a lot of phone contact with Maese, with 132 telephone calls between them in a 21-month span. The newspaper obtained Morgan's phone records through the Government Records Access and Management Act.

The records show the pair spoke for 17 minutes the day after Maese was charged with the prostitution and racketeering counts, and the two talked for another 20 minutes the day of Maese's roll-call hearing.

And, according to an October 2006 police report obtained by the Deseret News through a public-records request, Maese told police that he knew at least one deputy district attorney had problems with the warrant served on the Doll House, the escort service Maese used to co-own.

"Steve said that he had heard that Howie (Howard Lemcke, Deputy District Attorney) had problems with the warrant," and that there was not enough probable cause, according to a October 2006 police report obtained by the paper through a public records request.

Maese declined comment on the police report.

Morgan is appealing his termination to the county's Career Service Council.

"What I want back is my integrity," Morgan said in an earlier interview with the Deseret News. "This is garbage."

Maese said he doesn't like Miller much. Although he refused to comment to the Deseret News on the matter, he told a detective with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office his true feelings.

"Steve continued to speak stating that Lohra was an idiot and that this was a personal thing against him ... " Detective Dan Bartlett wrote in a police report obtained by the Deseret News.

Miller declined to comment because Morgan's termination appeal is a personnel matter, and Maese's case is still being adjudicated.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com