UHP, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to fight release of Sheldon Killpack arrest records

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Public Safety wants a judge to decide whether it must release records to the news media related to the arrest of former Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack.

Killpack, 41, is charged with DUI, a class B misdemeanor, and failure to signal, a class C misdemeanor, in connection with a Jan. 15 traffic stop by a Utah Highway Patrol trooper. Prosecutors say Killpack had a blood-alcohol level of 0.11 at the time. The legal limit is 0.08.

The Deseret News and several other news outlets sought the release of the initial contact report from Killpack's arrest, as well as the dashcam video recorded by the arresting trooper. DPS and the UHP each denied those requests, but on Feb. 11 the Utah State Records Committee ordered that the records be released.

Last week, assistant Utah attorney general Lana Taylor served notice of DPS's intent to appeal the ruling and fight the media requests in court.

"The concern was that the order from the Records Committee went way beyond just the tape, and the feeling was it was so overly broad that if you let that stand as precedent, then it'd create problems in the future," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told the Deseret News on Friday.

Shurtleff added that he would be fine, personally, with the release of the tape alone but said the order also included "other broader categories."

"I mean they've released tapes in the past, for heaven sakes," the attorney general said.

In its order, the committee called for the release of "the initial arrest records and dashboard camera video," both items that law enforcement agencies regularly release and that are typically deemed public by state law. Jeff Hunt, an attorney for the Deseret News, described the order as "a fairly narrow ruling" and called the state's plan to appeal "an awfully expensive way to resolve the issue when the records should be released now."

"Our feeling is that the Records Committee's order is correct," Hunt said. "That it reflects what the law is — that these are public records that the public is entitled to see."

Shurtleff said he was not involved in providing legal advice about whether to appeal the order. He also clarified that his office is not responsible for the decision to appeal the committee's ruling. That decision, he said, rests with the client agency, which in this case is DPS.

Asked Friday whether his agency is involved in any kind of cover-up related to Killpack's arrest, DPS Commissioner Lance Davenport said: "Absolutely not."