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Search warrants relating to Shurtleff’s phone records unsealed

Posted at 9:45 PM, Dec 18, 2013
and last updated 2013-12-18 23:45:30-05

SALT LAKE CITY -- We are learning more about the investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and others in his office. Search warrants for Shurtleff’s phone records were unsealed Wednesday afternoon.

The fifteen page search warrant was unsealed in 3rd District Court and demand the phone records of Shurtleff, his Chief Deputy Kirk Torgensen, and Tim Lawson, an associate of Shurtleff’s who describes himself as a political “fixer” for the attorney general.

The document states obstruction of justice, bribery or offering a bribe, tampering with a witness, and misusing public money among other crimes that could be found within the phone records.

The document details the case of accused criminal Marc Sessions Jenson, who prosecutors said paid to get access to Shurtleff to help facilitate a plea deal for the charges he was facing.

The document indicates Assistant Attorney General Charlene Barlow “… reported that she had heard rumors that Marc Jenson offered to help Mark Shurtleff with his election if Mark Shurtleff would make the case go away.”

It goes on to read, “Attorney General Criminal Division Chief Scott Reed approached Ms. Barlow a week before Marc Jenson’s trial was to begin and told her that Mark Shurtleff told  him to offer Marc Jenson anything to make the case go away. Ms. Barlow refused to participate in any plea negotiations to make the case go away.”

When further pressed, the document states, “Ms. Barlow refused to offer the plea in abeyance and told Mr. Reed that she would quit her job before she would do so.”

The search warrant continues, stating that while on a trip Jenson funded, “Mark Shurtleff apologized for what happened to him. Mark Shurtleff told Marc Jenson that if he had contributed to him before the charges were filed, none of this would have happened. Mark Shurtleff also told Marc Jenson that if he had been a contributor to his campaign, he would never have been in trouble in the first place.”

Shurtleff’s attorney did not return FOX 13 News' calls. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said the search warrant is part of an ongoing investigation, and there are other factors that are still open in the case.

Records from Shurtleff’s phone would be from February 14, 2013 through and including the present. For others in the search warrant, records could go back to January 1, 2007.