Man admits to tailing Miller, report says

A new report claims that a former escort service owner has admitted to hiring a former alternative weekly newspaper reporter-turned private investigator to probe the private life of Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller.

The report says that the private investigator, Shane Johnson, who worked at City Weekly as recently as 2006, tailed Miller for months at the behest of Steve Maese, the former co-owner of an escort service named the Doll House.

Maese is scheduled to go on trial this summer for several counts of exploiting a prostitute, money laundering and racketeering.

He believes Miller is out to get him. He's quoted in City Weekly saying his prosecution started out as a personal vendetta by Miller to bolster her weak felony prosecution record. During her 2006 campaign, critics highlighted the fact she never prosecuted a felony.

"I turned the tables on her," City Weekly quoted Maese as saying, referring to the private investigation. Maese refused to confirm the report to the Deseret News.

Miller declined to comment, saying department policy prevents her from commenting on any case that is still ongoing.

In November 2007, Maese hired Rudiger Investigations, a private investigation firm where Johnson is an agent. In its story, City Weekly did not indicate that its former employee was one of the investigators.

Johnson wrote several stories about Miller in the City Weekly during the 2006 district attorney's race. Johnson unearthed allegations of illegal proxy campaign contributions from employees of developer Dell Loy Hansen.

Later, Johnson and Maese worked together to dig up information about the police chief who headed the probe into Maese's former escort service. Documents obtained by the Deseret News through public-records requests show that Johnson, who spent weeks casing Miller's home and following her to private clubs, jointly obtained audio recordings of a City Council meeting with Maese.

The May 2007 City Council meeting included a presentation by Lt. Robby Russo about a controversial move to use sheriff's deputies to provide security at a golf tournament. At the time, Russo was the highest ranked officer over Cottonwood Heights for the sheriff's office, and he now serves as chief of the city's new police force.

Todd Gabler, Johnson's boss, recently revealed that his firm tailed Miller's vehicles, rifled through her trash, videotaped her home and placed a GPS tracking device on her car — all actions Gabler insists are legal and in no way an invasion of the district attorney's privacy.