This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Before becoming Salt Lake County's lead law enforcer, District Attorney Lohra Miller operated a private law office for years without a business license, according to documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
And Miller isn't denying it.
"Honestly, I may have made a mistake in not getting the licenses I should have," she said Wednesday.
Then, responding to questions about those documents, she snapped: "This is just ridiculous. My job is to prosecute criminals. That is what I was elected to do. By continuing to take the time to resolve these baseless allegations, you are taking away my ability to do my job."
But the allegations aren't baseless, according to records obtained from the Utah State Bar and two Salt Lake Valley suburbs where Miller operated a small-scale law firm.
Starting in 2002, the Republican D.A. practiced law, without a business license, out of her West Jordan home, later at her South Jordan home and finally at a private law office on Redwood Road - all of which were listed at various times by the Utah State Bar as primary offices.
"She probably should have had [a license]," said Marsha Lancaster, a business-license coordinator in West Jordan who attributed Miller's error to unfamiliarity with the city's permitting practices.
The first record of a license didn't come until March 2007 - three months after Miller became D.A. - when her husband, Lorenzo Miller, took one out for a law office at 9285 S. Redwood Road in West Jordan.
The business-license revelation - uncovered by Springdale-based private investigator Todd Gabler and confirmed independently by The Tribune - comes off as a high-profile blunder for Salt Lake County's chief prosecutor.
The D.A.'s first term has proved tumultuous: high staff turnover, questionable crime numbers and tiffs with her South Jordan neighbors so incendiary that Miller sicced the Attorney General's Office on herself to disprove their claims of underage drinking, late-night parties and illegal day care services.
An emotional Miller, in acknowledging her license-related legal misstep, said she didn't realize her home offices needed permits.
"We felt our work was done in the courtroom," she said.
While Miller acknowledges that she did work out of her home, she said all interviews were conducted in offices in cities that contracted with her for prosecutorial services. Only paperwork and case research were done at home, she said.
"I never had clients, witnesses, victims or others associated with our practice come to our home," she said.
Even so, as Miller was practicing law without a business license, she was prosecuting a business in Taylorsville for the same offense. The attorney pursued charges against an auto dealership there in 2005 for operating without proper permits, according to justice court documents.
Daniel Medwed, a criminal-law professor at the University of Utah, doubts that Miller intentionally dodged the cities' business-licensing laws. But he said the D.A.'s oversight in the private sector might reflect on her "attention to detail" as a public official - a performance measure that voters must consider at the ballot box.
"It is important for our government officials - especially law-enforcement officials - to be accountable. If we have elected Lohra Miller to enforce the law, it is very reasonable for us to expect her to follow the law personally."
That public accountability is precisely what private investigator Gabler hoped to provide. Gabler - who was hired to snoop into the District Attorney's personal life and occupational past by a client he declined to identify - released to Salt Lake City news-media outlets dozens of documents that also alleged parties and alcohol use at Miller's home.
"We have the right to expect honesty and a fair process from our public officials," he said. "They are not above the law. If they are prosecuting people for perjury, they ought not lie.
"If they prosecuting people for not having a business license, they ought to have a business license themselves."