Morgan cleared to return to district attorney's office

After being fired by his one-time political rival — and spending more than a year defending himself against allegations of misconduct in a case involving the owner of an escort service — veteran Salt Lake County prosecutor Kent Morgan was cleared of everything but poor judgment Thursday, and deemed eligible for re-employment by a county review committee.

That reinstatement comes, however, with a significant caveat: The one-time deputy district attorney, who has more than 20 years of experience, will rejoin the ranks at the bottom rung as a line prosecutor in District Attorney Lohra Miller's office.

The Salt Lake County Career Services Council, the board tasked with reviewing contested terminations of county employees, concluded that Miller was justified in her decision to fire Morgan in March 2008, based on the evidence she had at the time. Subsequent information, not revealed by Morgan until Aug. 22, 2008, aided in a re-evaluation conducted by the council, whose findings were released Thursday. The panel cleared Morgan of a laundry list of violations, including campaign violations, disloyalty to the office and leaking confidential information. The council did find some of Morgan's actions outside the bounds of professional conduct, to a degree that warranted the demotion.

Miller said Thursday that the council rendered a just result in a complicated and widely publicized matter.

"If you were in the Army and you got demoted from general to private, you would know you did something wrong," Miller said. "Kent's actions warranted this demotion."

At issue in the matter was Morgan's relationship with Santiago Steven Maese, the owner of the Salt Lake escort service the Doll House. According to the council report, Morgan and Maese met in early 2006, and Maese became involved in Morgan's campaign for the district attorney position about to be vacated by David Yocum. Morgan, a Republican, was vying for the slot against fellow GOP candidate Miller.

A subsequent loss at the county convention took Morgan out of the race, but his relationship with Maese had "developed into a friendship," according to the report, and continued after the convention. At about that time, an investigation of the Doll House by both the district attorney's office and sheriff's department was under way. That investigation led to charges being filed against Maese and Tiffany French Curtis, Maese's business partner, in October 2006.