“Loyalty to country, always. Loyalty to government when it deserves it.” —Mark Twain
The City of St. George, in particular the justice court, does not deserve your loyalty. In fact, not only does it not deserve your loyalty but you should be afraid of it. Very afraid.
And dare I say angry as hell?
If you’ve not guessed it already, I am yet again dedicating my weekly column to the assault case brought by the city against Varlo Davenport, a case mind you that is predicated by and muddled with the nefarious actions of Dixie State University.
The most glaringly obvious problem is the fact that in spite of a second no-show by Assistant Attorney General Michael Carter, Judge Karlin Myers from Hurricane denied the motion to hold DSU President Biff Williams in contempt.
Let’s break this down. In the last hearing, Carter was not there to argue the motion. In fact, no one from the Attorney General’s Office was. Only St. George City Attorney Robert Cosson and newly appointed counsel at DSU Doajo Hicks were, neither of whom could represent either Carter or the college as they are not employed by the Attorney General’s office.
The judge could have, and should have, ruled in favor of the motion by default. But defense attorney Aaron Prisbrey insisted that Carter have his day to explain himself. The motion was set to be heard Friday, June 10th, and Carter failed yet again to appear. This was clearly by design of some sorts as it is a quantifiable fact that Carter was in Prisbey’s office the previous day. (Side note: Later in the hearing when scheduling for future proceedings a date unbeknownst to all present, Hicks in an off-the-hip reply told the court he thought Carter would be out of town on said date. Interesting how he seemed to already know that, yeah?)
It appears that Carter has been replaced by a new player in the charade, Assistant Attorney General David Jones. Carter likely will not be seen again in this case, or any other for that matter. In fact, I’d wager we’ll be seeing a press release from DSU about his retirement soon. (Side note: In the last hearing where Carter was absent, Hicks told the court that Carter was on sick leave for knee surgery. That could and should be verified.)
But in this case, in essence, Carter just did not show up claiming he did not receive a court notice to appear although the court record clearly shows to the contrary. What is interesting is that Carter never in fact did anything to legitimately answer for his absence. He gave no verbal or written explanation to the court at all. He is letting Hicks do it for him from the sidelines in the courtroom. That’s something that would likely land you or me with a bench warrant, but the new guy just makes all that go away.
So Biff lives to fight another day, because by my count, Myers did not want to touch that one with a 10-foot pole. Addressing the issue as to why that might be, it is fair to say that Myers is in a tough spot. Rulings against the hierarchy here are rare, if they happen at all, and everyone knows it. But this case is not only being done among us; it is being done in front of all of us, and it smacks of collusion. Myers, a former criminal defense attorney and now judge for more than a decade, surely sees this. If he rules against the hierarchy and upsets them, it could conceivably affect him. But if he lobs them softballs and gives them a pass — which his record has shown him otherwise not to give — and the press reports it so that all know it, that could be even worse. Welcome to having an actual Fourth Estate in St. George.
This brings us to the more nefarious topic at hand, the information allegedly being withheld from the defense for the last year.
Last year, in the discovery process, the defense was able to ascertain through discovery that it had not received all of the information duly and legally bound by the college to submit, particularly emails regarding Davenport and his termination, up to and including those by DSU Campus Police Chief Don Reid.
An email from Reid to Cosson stated that Reid had “boxes” of evidence that had not been in any way documented for the record or given to the defense. Cosson claimed at the time that he had reviewed all the evidence and took only what he deemed relevant and returned it to the college. This presumably included said “boxes.”
On Friday however, Cosson changed his tune. He argued not only that he and the school complied by providing the information under last week’s sua sponte order from Myers but that the information was available as public record.
One has to wonder … if that were so, why would he and the city be failing to provide it in discovery and fighting the subsequent subpoena and motion to compel for it for the better part of a year?
In yesterday’s hearing, Cosson told the court, “If he wants to find out why Don Reid said there were boxes and boxes of information, maybe he should ask Don Reid or have Don Reid come in here and testify as to whether or not he was exaggerating or there were actually boxes and boxes and boxes of material brought to his office.”
Cosson should be careful what he asks for. The last time he compelled Prisbrey to address matters of impropriety in the court, a judge ended up recusing himself for unethical and possibly illegal behavior.
Furthermore, I hope I am not the only one wondering if it occurred to the young hipster prosecutor that if Reid emailed him and said that he had “boxes” like the record shows, and only turned over five pages, perhaps he should have questioned that before going forward with his prosecution. Because up until the last proceeding, the impression was that he had seen the “boxes” and only took what he deemed relevant.
One of these two men is lying, because both cannot be right. Either Cosson got the boxes and saw something he did not want the defense to see and sent it back, but got caught or, Reid didn’t really send everything despite his “boxes” email now entered in as evidence. This still leaves Cosson on the hook for explaining either a lack of thoroughness or a lack of competence.
This is where things get thicker, so stay with me.
In a document that was provided yesterday by the prosecution marked with two Post-it notes — one to Cosson from Carter saying “The documents you asked for” and the other assumedly in Cosson’s writing that says “Not previously provided” — is the findings of the initial DSU committee that exonerated Davenport unanimously from any wrongdoing in his acting class. This suggests that Cosson was at least being forthright saying that he had never seen said “boxes.”
In the DSU committee findings from a panel of his peers, it is revealed that Davenport provided numerous support letters and, most importantly, syllabi from some 15 universities across the country whereby the methods he used in class with the alleged victim are described as standard pedagogic practice in like classes at the universities.
These findings were given to Reid for his “investigation” early this year yet months afterwards in an excerpt from the transcript of the interview with the alleged victim’s parents, Reid states the following:
Don Reid: The truth is I might get into it, and I might not file the charges, if I get into it and find a syllabus —
Parent: Uh-huh.
DR: — that says, “This is theatre,” and then I find out — and we would. We would go to other universities, and we’d want to look at this same class category there and see what’s in their syllabus.
Parent : Uh-huh.
DR: And if I were to find out that this is done in acting class at other universities, I’d realize I don’t have a case.”
The charge was nevertheless filed March 7, 2016.
Either Reid did not read the findings whereby it was clearly laid out that evidence the method was routinely practiced at other universities existed, he did not investigate himself, or he ignored evidence — all of which are very damning to the prosecution who have opted to take the case. Did Cosson know about this or do any investigative work himself as to the pedagogic methods used in acting classes? And further, did he really not see this document he marked as “not previously provided”?
But more importantly, he has seen it now and yet he still seems intent upon proceeding with prosecuting Davenport.
Another issue at hand is the fact that on Friday, Myers ordered the school to go back to its servers and provide all emails regarding Davenport, including deleted emails, in their native format. (Davenport states that he received an email ordering him to give the alleged victim an A in the class, which if provided would imply that the she was given a grade in return for her cooperation.)
The school, and Reid in particular, turned much of the email data over in an interesting and suspect format: emails with no metadata. Metadata authenticates the date, time, and contextual relevance of the communication. This is in the best interest of everyone in the case as it prevents anyone from inserting information into a case after the fact. It is common in most courts if not prevalent that any unauthenticated email is inadmissible.
In this case, however, Myers stated he was not very computer-savvy and appeared not to understand the relevance of the need for native format. Come again? He ordered it nonetheless.
But you know damn well that the prosecution knows the relevance, because they sure as hell would not allow an unauthenticated communication that hurt their case to go forward. They would demand proof, and so should the defense. That they try to pass this off as legitimate jurisprudence should scare the shit out of anyone facing a court proceeding in St. George. In essence, by their method, emails can be fabricated after the fact to support their case and there would be no way to prove it one way or another. This is as heinous as it gets, folks, and the judge, computer-savvy or not, should not have allowed it. Period.
Furthermore, Myers’ order allows for the same people who appear to be trying to hide evidence to search DSU’s servers on their own. At this point, would it not be prudent for an outside party to conduct the search rather than the college?
Fortunately, the judge granted Prisbrey’s additional request for a certification of service with asignature from whoever does the search. This way, if contradictory evidence to the search exists and manages to find its way to the defense and prosecution, the person will be accountable to answer for presence or absence of said evidence, perhaps even being charged with evidence tampering if it is missing. This is serious, folks.
Let’s also not forget that not a few months ago in this case, Judge Ron Read and the now-elusive Assistant Attorney General Michael Carter, who by default works for the Utah Attorney General’s Office and represents the State of Utah, engaged in what could be criminal misconduct under Utah Criminal Code 76-8-510.5 by appearing to be conspiring to tamper with evidence during an ex-parte communication that was recorded and cannot be disputed. The gravity of this in the grand scheme of this case cannot be understated.
People who have listened to the audio of the conversation between Read and Carter have had visceral responses to the egregious nature of the conversation, even more so when they compare the recording with what Read told Prisbrey in court about the communication. He flat-out lied in a court of law. A seated judge in the justice court of St. George lied to an attorney about the nature and outcome of a communication with the opposing counsel ex parte. How this case is able to proceed is beyond comprehension.
But what was perhaps most telling in yesterday’s hearing was the sight of the courtroom. On the left sat Davenport with his attorney. On the right were three — count them, three — attorneys representing the prosecution of a Class B misdemeanor. That has got to be a record. But it is for sure a sign that these folks want so badly, despite any evidence to the contrary, to convict this man. And the reason may not be that they are interested in justice for the citizens or the alleged victim.
(Incidentally, if you are interested in listening to the audio and do not have the means or know how to GRAMA request the city for it, you can email me at dallas@suindependent.com and I will send it to you free of charge.)
Last but not least, consider one more thing. How many people have been subjected to similar proceedings by DSU, the city, and perhaps other entities of surreptitious appointed or elected power within Washington County, their voices silenced by the malignant barrage of pseudo-legal proceedings where the bearers of the badge, officers of the court, and triers of fact work outside the confines of actual constitutional law to carry out vicious and hostile personnel agendas on your dime and your time while they think no one watches or cares?
It may very well be time for the Department of Justice to take a keen and thorough look at this city and this school.
That said however, let me throw this out there. If you have been subjected to any proceeding by either DSU or the city where you felt something was possibly amiss, where policies were not followed, or where laws were possibly broken and your civil rights may have been violated, it is time for you to speak up. Again, you can email me at dallas@suindependent.com.
See you out there.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misspelled Doajo Hicks’ name.
RELATED ARTICLES
An honest judge in the Varlo Davenport case!?
The Varlo Davenport circus is an abomination of the highest degree
The Varlo Davenport debacle: It’s getting beyond surreal
Thank you Mr. Hyland for continuing to highlight the appalling level of sleaze exhibited by DSU, the State of Utah, and the City of St. George in this matter. “Charade” is indeed the correct term for this salacious use and abuse of the law in pursuit of what appears to be nothing more than a personal vendetta on the part of DSU officials. In any other locale the original judge would have laughed this mess out of court after the initial hearing, and Varlo Davenport would have been reinstated.
This prosecution/persecution is not just a miscarriage of justice, it’s an offense unto itself. The judges, prosecutors, and DSU officials involved in this case have shown that ethics are a foreign concept to them. Yes, they should be investigated by the Justice Department!
Sincerely,
Waid Reynolds
Fear is the mother of violence. No self defense is all you need. Peter Gabriel, former lead singer of the band Genesis, said these words. I guess people are scared to speak out at this point – this article makes it so obvious and yet the powers that be, continue to push their agenda without a care in the world – what more can be said. I understand. Yet Peter Gabriel also wrote a song about Stephen Bantu Biko at a time when South Africa was under an Apartheid government. Peter stuck his head out, and could have been easily assassinated for his blunt criticism let alone had rocks thrown through the windows of his house. The song Biko, which he wrote, became the anthem of freedom, and brought the attention of the entire world on the injustice occurring in South Africa. St George is also a place on this planet. Regardless of geographical size, the concept of justice also exists HERE. I realize the retirees don’t want to rock the boat. I realize Dixie students may be afraid of retaliation from their professors if they protest. I realize people nowadays would rather just ignore what is going on, as they have their own issues. Who wants problems? I get it. However we must ask ourselves WHEN does it matter? At this point it is IN YOUR FACE – we can do anything – nobody cares – justice is irrelevant – WE HAVE THE POWER TO DO ANYTHING and get away with it – local government institutions – we are not held accountable – and we will get our way with our inside manipulation of the system – screw you all = YOU CAN’T STOP US. This is what is defined as a powerful cabal. The sad part is this cabal is attached to a religion, and that religion does not deserve to be brought into the equation, because truly what the cabal is doing is against the precepts of that said religion. TO ALL THOSE getting into this for the first time. HERE IS THE BASIC REDUCTION OF THE SITUATION, and why it is so ridiculous that it has gotten to this point. Simply a professor pulled a student’s hair while teaching principles of acting. Now as strange as this sounds to those who are unfamiliar with acting – (and many are – no doubt) – part of acting is to get the actor to be REAL in the context of portraying a character. There are many ways acting is taught, and one method involves waking up the body in order to make the mind manifest real emotions. Pulling someones hair is not uncommon, in fact that is nothing compared to other methodologies, such as outright slapping an actor in the face. Has this occurred? Look it up. Regardless of method, this incident should never, and I mean NEVER have gone into the judicial system. Gee, I guess every time Billy in 2nd grade pulled Jenny’s hair into the inkwell, it should also have been prosecuted. The Administration at Dixie State clearly mishandled this, and did so on the level of Nazi Gestapo tactics. It is clear that their lawyers have mishandled it as well to the point of being disbarred in theory. I said a long time ago in a previous post, this would get ugly if it was not handled correctly. Dallas Hyland is one of the most courageous people I know in these parts. I have never met him or communicated with him directly. But what he has done by following this case to the end is for use of a better word, NOBLE and Truly AMERICAN in spirit. I HAVE BEEN TO PURGATORY JAIL. I went there, not because I had committed a crime, but because of FEAR. I went there to face the FEAR of the worst thing that could happen to me. I have never been to jail in my life. I went there because after my 1st and 4th amendment rights were violated , I HAD NOTHING TO LOSE after I DIED. Yes – you can experience death while still alive. And yes – even Angels come to the rescue. I have nothing more to say. This case represents all of US. This is my last post on this. I will be seeing the Dalai Llama next week in Salt Lake City. God Bless the people of Washington County. I hope JUSTICE prevails. Rest assured a true Prophet is never blind. Amen
And you’re proud of the “NOBLE and Truly AMERICAN” spirit? What a compliment to Mr. Hyland.
This is the reality of what we all face here in Washington County. Hire an attorney. It doesn’t matter. This place is run by those with the heaviest gavel… and the tightest hand cuffs.
It is disgusting and we ALL need to stand up to the corruption that is happening here… whether or not we are currently involved in the disfunction occurring. At some point we might be, and it should strike terror in our hearts.
Power is a strong motivator. Those who have it want others to know and will continue along an irrational path to make sure they can keep it. Cronies all. As a citizen of Ivins I feel helpless to do anything that would persuade the courts to stop this insanity. DSU administration should be ashamed. Having the right to do something does not make it right to do. How condescending to treat other professors’ and students’ support of one of their own with such dismissal. Shame!