(cont)
The abuse of his discretion by willfully ignoring statutory sentencing enhancements, and diminishing the importance of criminal histories in charging decisions, so those who have prior felony convic-tions, those on felony probation, and those on parole from the state prison, can be referred to the Utah County Justice Court for misdemeanor prosecution. (Court statistics show that in 2021, Mr. Leavitt’s office filed 45% fewer cases in the District Court, while increasing the number of cases filed in the Utah County Justice Court by 79%, from the average number of cases filed in each in years 2017-19.)
David Leavitt’s policies have also resulted in the alienation of your law enforcement officers in the county. Due to mistrust in him, your County Attorney’s Office was removed as the primary investigating agency from the county’s officer-involved critical incident protocol. And lastly, according to Utah County budgets, David Leavitt has increased the office’s budget by nearly $5.5 million per year and 15 full-time attorneys, yet he revels in the fact that the office is currently prosecuting about one-half (50%) of the annual number of criminal cases in the district court that it did in 2018 (as verified by Utah Court statistics).
Based upon the foregoing we, speaking as your former prosecutors and not as representatives of any current employers, do not have any confidence that David Leavitt will effectively fulfill his duties as lead criminal prosecutor in Utah County, and we unitedly encourage all residents not to vote to re-elect David Leavitt for a second term in 2022.
/s/ Sherry Ragan
34 years of service
/s/ Mariane O’Bryant
29 years of service
/s/ Curtis Larson
27 years of service
/s/ Lance Bastian
8 years of service
/s/ Kelsy Young
7 years of service
/s/ Lauren Hunt
6 years of service