Feds quietly end probe of Cache attorney office

LOGAN (AP) — A federal probe into alleged improprieties inside the Cache County Attorney's Office has apparently ended.

In a statement released Saturday, County Attorney George Daines said federal authorities have advised him in a telephone call that "no further investigation is warranted" and no referral for possible federal charges was made to the U.S. Attorney for Utah.

Daines said the call came Friday from Barbra Bearnson of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In the statement, Daines rebuked the conduct of federal prosecutors and FBI agents who he claims leaked information that an investigation was under way.

"Ms. Bearnson expressed regret that news media reports and other commentary and suppositions have damaged my reputation," Daines later told Logan's Herald Journal.

Word of the probe first surfaced in April after a defense attorney for a northern Utah physician alleged the FBI was investigating Daines for subverting a witness in the March 2007 trial of Raymond Bedell.

Bedell was convicted of misdemeanor sexual battery but acquitted of felony charges. He is scheduled for sentencing in 1st District Court later this month.

The FBI would not confirm or deny the claim, but said two agents had been in Logan conducting interviews.

Daines said he was never questioned or interviewed by FBI agents and didn't know what they were investigating.

Still, speculation about the investigation prompted Daines to ask for an independent inquiry into his handling of the case. Bill McGuire, chief deputy of the Davis County attorney's office handled the inquiry and found no wrongdoing.