From Deseret News archives:
Attorney general's office denies request for search warrant information
The district office was searched in July by criminal investigators with the attorney general's office. A source with knowledge of the search said authorities seized records and computers. The individual asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
After learning about the search in late August, the Standard filed a request under the Government Records Access and Management Act seeking the location of the court where investigators filed their application for the school district search warrant. The request also sought the date that application was filed.
The attorney general's office denied the request, claiming that the information sought was protected under state law because it would disclose "an attorney's work product, including the mental impressions or legal theories of an attorney or other representative of a governmental entity concerning litigation."
The newspaper appealed the denial to chief deputy attorney general Kirk Torgensen, arguing that identifying the location where a public record is filed and the date it was filed could in no way reveal the information that investigators and prosecutors were seeking to protect.
Still, Torgensen denied the appeal. He advised the Standard that the information it sought was the subject of a court-issued secrecy order.
State law allows a prosecutor to ask a judge to put otherwise public records under a secrecy order during the course of an investigation. A judge can grant the request if a prosecutor can show that releasing the information would pose a substantial risk of harm to a person's safety; would cause a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy or harm to a person's reputation; or would prove a serious impediment to the investigation.
"I don't think secrecy orders are that unusual in criminal investigations," said Jeff Hunt, a Salt Lake-based attorney who regularly represents Utah media outlets, including The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News. "I think what is very unusual is for the secrecy order to not even be on the docket of the court ... or to get a copy of it so you can challenge it. That's very unusual."
Hunt said one of the fundamental principals of the U.S. justice system is that the public has the right to at least know of a sealed court document or closed proceeding so it can be challenged.
