This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
District Attorney David Yocom this morning named Murray attorney Michael Martinez as the special prosecutor to try Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman on two felony charges of misuse of public money.
Martinez, who has served as a defense attorney and prosecutor, has
been active in Republican politics. In 2001, he sued a former GOP
county commissioner after she broke a campaign promise and accepted a
severance package. He now has discretion to try the charges against
the Republican mayor, make a plea deal or dismiss the felonies.
Martinez said during a morning news conference that Workman, who is
on paid leave and is continuing her re-election bid, has carried out
a "shrill" political attack against Yocom, a Democrat, blaming him
for a partisan prosecution. Martinez said Yocom had no choice but to
remove himself from the prosecution.
"Ethically, I don't think the District Attorney's Office had a
choice," Martinez said.
He added that he could be ready for a jury trial soon but that it
may not be fair to other incarcerated defendants who already are
awaiting trial. Nevertheless, Martinez said he would not object to
Workman's attorneys waiving other hearings and going directly to
trial if a judge agrees.
For his part, Yocom said he handed off the case because Workman
publicly "intimated" that her new attorney, Greg Skordas, would have
influence on the district attorney and because Workman launched a
"major media" campaign "stating that her legal problems were all
based on politics, inferring that she was the victim of a political
prosecution."
"I've got to eliminate that" allegation, Yocom said. "I've got to
appear above reproach."
Yocom announced Monday that his office would step aside from the
case, a move that brought denouncements by Workman's lawyers that the
district attorney was attempting to delay a speedy trial for the
mayor, who is seeking a second term.
Yocom charged Workman with second- and third-degree felonies for
allegedly breaking state law by tapping Health Department funds to
pay two successive bookkeepers at the South Valley Boys and Girls
Club, where the mayor's daughter is the chief financial officer.
Workman has admitted to bureaucratic mistakes, but says the action
was not criminal.
Skordas said in a court filing Monday that he objected to the
selection of a special prosecutor. He said the mayor has never
alleged "unprofessional or unethical conduct by the District
Attorney's Office, either in her political advertising, in statements
or otherwise."
But Workman did say in a statement Sept. 1 that the findings of a
bipartisan panel of outside prosecutors was tainted because an
investigator working for Yocom was still involved.
"It is regrettable that so many precious resources would be used
for someone's political agenda," Workman said, adding that she did
not know what criteria the panel used to find charges warranted.
"I only spent one-half hour with them [panelists], while the DA's
investigator - the same one that threatened my daughter on the day
before her wedding - spent two months and countless taxpayer dollars
building a case and crafting an investigation to meet the DA's
political agenda."
Workman is referring to an accusation that investigator Craig
Watson threatened to arrest her daughter, Aisza Wilde, for
obstruction of justice during the investigation. Wilde was not
arrested nor charged in the case.
The mayor's latest campaign commercial also features residents
dismissing the charges as a political ploy.
Yocom's office responded to Skordas' filing on Tuesday morning,
saying that Skordas cited a statute dealing with a special prosecutor
in grand jury cases and that the law does not affect criminal
prosecutions.