Sheldon Killpack did not seek special treatment from AG, attorney says

SALT LAKE CITY — A former Utah Senate majority leader appears to be seeking a favor from the Utah Attorney General's Office in his ongoing drunken driving case.

But Sheldon Killpack's attorney, Ed Brass, said that is hardly the case.

"I don't have any strings to pull," he said.

An e-mail last month from Brass to a friend of his, Wade Farraway, in the attorney general's office says, "Sheldon thinks you might be able to persuade (Attorney General Mark) Shurtleff to help w(ith) the length of his license suspension. Anything to that?"

Killpack's driver's license was suspended for 18 months because he refused to take an alcohol-level breath test when he was pulled over on suspicion of DUI in January. The suspension began in February.

Farraway forwarded Brass' e-mail to deputy chief attorney general John Swallow. In response, Swallow wrote, "I don't think Mark would even consider getting involved in this issue, nor would I approach him about it. Sheldon is a friend to all of us here, however, I think it would harm our office and be inappropriate to get any of us involved."

Shurtleff concurred in another e-mail.

"John is correct. No way. Especially with him challenging the stop."

Killpack appealed the suspension in March.

Brass said he was simply trying to see if there was a way to reduce Killpack's 18-month suspension for refusing the breath test, noting that in comparison, a first-time DUI conviction carries only a four-month suspension. He said the prosecutor in the case, Rebecca Waldron, told him she couldn't do that, so he sought someone higher up in the attorney general's office.

"It's nothing. It's my effort to do my job. That's it," he said.

If Killpack were trying to exercise political influence, he wouldn't have done it through his lawyer or leave a paper trial, Brass said.

The Syracuse Republican was charged with DUI, a class B misdemeanor, and failure to signal, a class C misdemeanor, after a Utah Highway Patrol trooper stopped his SUV near 700 East and 3300 South on Jan. 15. Investigators say Killpack smelled strongly of alcohol, performed poorly on a field sobriety test and refused to take a breath test. His blood-alcohol level was shown to be 0.11; the legal limit in Utah is 0.08. He resigned from the Legislature the day after his arrest.

Killpack, 42, appealed the driver's license suspension in March, and a bench trial is scheduled for Sept. 17 in Salt Lake County Justice Court.

In a separate action, he is challenging the legality of the DUI arrest, claiming the trooper did not have cause to pull him over.

e-mail: romboy@desnews.com