A former Davis County prosecutor has been suspended from practicing law for seven months, according to a recent judge's order.
However, the judge's decision to suspend Tyler James Larsen was not put into effect immediately. The former Davis County Attorney's Office prosecutor was granted a stay on the sanction so he could appeal the decision to Utah's Supreme Court, according to court records.
Tyler James Larsen was fired from the Davis County Attorney's Office after alleged misconduct during a 2010 aggravated robbery trial.
According to a Utah State Bar disciplinary complaint, Larsen was terminated for showing the robbery victims a photo of the defendant, but not showing them any other photos as part of a proper photo line-up. This was not disclosed to the defendant's attorney, who asked for and was granted a mistrial when the victim testified that Larsen had shown her the photo.
Third District Court Judge Andrew Stone ruled Tuesday that this incident along with another incident in which Larsen "made a false statement" to a judge about payments made by a defendant to a probation officer warranted a seven-month suspension of his law license.
Last May, Larsen filed a lawsuit against Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings, demanding damages of at least $1 million.
In the lawsuit which has been transferred from 2nd District Court to federal court, and which also names several other county officials as defendants Larsen claims he worked in a hostile environment that involved cover-ups, that he was fired without due process and that Rawlings committed an act of "workplace violence" against him.
Neither Larsen or Rawlings have commented on what the alleged violence was.
Attorneys representing Rawlings and the county attorney's office in the federal case denied the allegations in a June response to the federal lawsuit. They have asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
No trial date has been set in the case, but a Jan. 6 scheduling conference has been scheduled.
jmiller@sltrib.com
Twitter: @jm_miller