Case of former Iron County Sheriff Deputy Edwards moves forward

The case involving the reinstatement of former Iron County Sheriff Deputy Lt. Jody Edwards to the Sheriff’s Office following his wrongful termination moved forward during a status conference Wednesday, Aug. 26, in the Fifth District Court. Both sides agreed to submit briefs by specific deadlines; Iron County has until Sept. 25 and Edwards Oct. 26. After reviewing the two briefs, Fifth District Court Judge John Walton will make a decision on the case. Edwards’ attorney Scott Burns said he believes Walton will come back with his ruling sometime in November.

Burns told The Independent that contrary to other news reports, this case doesn’t have any chance of going to trial since Walton’s roles is that of an appellate court judge whose only responsibility it is to determine whether the decision by the Iron County Career Service Council July 7 to reinstate Edwards to his former position was “arbitrary and capricious.”

The two words are legal terms defined in Black’s Law dictionary as, “a willful and unreasonable action without consideration or in disregard of facts or law or without determining principle.”

During the proceedings on Wednesday, Burns brought up the fact that while the former Iron County Sheriff Deputy had been reinstated by the Council, he had not yet returned to work nor received any back pay.

“From the first day of the appeal the County has maintained that the Council’s order to reinstate Mr. Edwards was stayed since they were appealing the Council’s decision,” Burns said. “But I have done a lot of research on this and have not found anywhere where someone has been reinstated and not been able to return to work … I have done exhaustive research too and can’t find anywhere where the law states that.”

Susan Dunn, an attorney with Dunn and Dunn, a private law firm based in Salt Lake City hired to represent the County, told Walton that there is currently no open position available for Edwards to return to at the Sheriff’s office.

“It is the County’s position that there is no open position available for Mr. Edwards to go back to and the commissioners have not authorized funding for a new position,” Dunn said. “At this point, the County also believes it would be disruptive to reinstate him.”

Dunn also told the judge she felt there was “no harm” in waiting until after the court proceedings were finished.

Walton, however, said that he was concerned that Edwards was not receiving a paycheck.

“You say there’s no harm occurring, but I’m sure Mr. Edwards—who is not receiving a paycheck—would argue differently,” Walton said.

Walton told Burns to file a motion to comply in order to get that part of the case resolved at a “quicker pace.”

Burns told The Independent after Wednesday’s proceedings that he planned to talk with his client and the sheriff to determine what step to take next.

Sheriff Mark Gower promoted Edwards to lieutenant over the ambulance service in November 2012, a move Edwards has stated he would later come to regret as it ultimately led to ending what he had planned to be a 30-year career in law enforcement seven years too early.

The decision to promote Edwards came about after the Iron County commissioners had placed the service under the direction of the sheriff’s office with hopes he could raise morale and lower the $1.8 million debt incurred by the previous administration.

Two years later, with an ongoing debt that had then grown to $2.1 million and conflicts escalating between the sheriff and the commission, the commissioners decided to sell the ambulance service to Gold Cross, resulting in the dissolution of Edwards’ position and ultimately his termination.

Edwards was one of 70 employees terminated at the time as part of a Reduction in Force (RIF). With the exception of Edwards and the secretary of the ambulance service Stephanie Orton, all other employees secured jobs with the new company as part of the terms of the sale.

While the commissioners maintained there was no open position nor funding available for Edwards to transfer back to the sheriff’s office, Gower disagreed, saying he could use the former lieutenant as a bailiff, a position he argued the commissioners had previously funded.

“There were hours for bailiffs that the commissioners approved funding for during the budget cycle but because most of my bailiffs are part-time, there are hours there that have been funded and aren’t being used,” Gower told The Independent. “I figured out a plan where we could bring Jody over as a bailiff for no extra expense to the county, but they still wouldn’t do it.”

The commissioners maintained it was not their responsibility to create a job nor provide funding for Edwards to remain employed with the County.

Yet during the Career Service Council hearing in July, Burns argued that was exactly what the commissioners did for Stephanie Orton, who maintained employment with the County after the RIF by way of two newly created part-time positions. Burns added that the commissioners also located grant money to fund them.

Edwards appealed the termination to the Career Service Council, a three-member committee appointed by the county commissioners and established under Utah law to hear grievance appeals by career-service employees. Edwards also filed a case with the Utah Labor Commission who is currently investigating claims of wrongful termination.
The council ruled that the commissioners overstepped their authority when terminating Edwards since he was still an employee of the sheriff’s office therefore, falling under the jurisdiction of the sheriff to decide whether to terminate him.

County officials appealed the Council’s decision; however, they didn’t stop there.

Currently embroiled in a courtroom battle and a labor commission investigation, the Iron County Attorney’s office, under the direction of the Iron County Commission, recently sent Edwards’ name to the Utah State Attorney General’s office, asking that they investigate him for allegations of wrongdoing.

According to Burns, the complaint makes allegations surrounding purchases Edwards made while the director of the ambulance service.

The Attorney General’s office questioned the purchase of four boxes of ammunition Burns and Gower said are all still in the box and retained with the sheriff’s office, three holsters also retained with the sheriff’s office, and binoculars that were transferred to Gold Cross with the sale of the equipment.

There are also questions regarding movie tickets and a back massager, both of which Burns said Edwards purchased upon the recommendation of a consultant hired by the County to advise the ambulance service director on issues of safety and morale.

“A couple of the recommendations were, ‘You need to reward them,’” Burns said. “Movie tickets to reward people is something that has been used for a long time. They took the recommendation. They got movie tickets and then they would reward EMS workers that performed in an exceptional manner by giving them the movie tickets.”

The back massager and sensor pads were also bought on the recommendation of the consultant, Burns added.

“The consultant said that back pain and lifting is something common with EMS workers, so it’s good to have this equipment to help,” he said.

During the Career Service Council hearing, Iron County Deputy Attorney Mike Edwards insinuated the back massager was purchased as a sex toy and bought from an online adult store called Naughty Cove.

Burns called the insinuation made by the Iron County Attorney’s office a “lie.”

“[The ambulance administration] got the massage wand for fairly cheap through Amazon. Through the County’s regular purchasing practice they ordered the item,” he said. “So to say that somehow, this was a sex toy—and I’ll call it what they alleged it was—is calling a pen a sex toy. It’s ridiculous.”

Under Utah code 76-8-402 a public official charged with the receipt, safekeeping, transfer, disbursement or use of public money is guilty of misuse of public monies if they personally benefit by the use of the money. However, Gower maintains Edwards did not benefit from any transactions and followed the procurement policy on everything he purchased.

“Everything was bought above board,” Gower said. “It was bought following the county procurement policy. He didn’t go below board or sideways or anything when he purchased it. It was paid for with a credit card. The bills were sent over to the auditor and signed off by the county commissioners and paid for out of the County auditor’s office. He didn’t use a slush fund. He didn’t use cash that was in a slush fund to hide the purchases – nothing.”

The Independent was able to confirm Gower’s statement by reviewing the receipts for Edwards’ purchases.

“And the statute is very clear,” Gower continued. “It has to be used for personal gain. Nothing went to Jody, ever. It never went home with him. He never shot one bullet. He didn’t use any of the movie passes. The massager never went home with him. Yet they send that information to the AG’s office and demand an investigation. That’s beyond ridiculous. It’s vindictive. It’s an effort to destroy a man’s life.”

The previous ambulance administrator, Ron Johnson, was accused of similar allegations prior to resigning in 2012 amid additional claims of excessive retaliation and sexual harassment.

Several months ago, Iron County commissioner Dale Brinkerhoff told The Independent they did perform an investigation into the allegations against Johnson, “but we couldn’t prove anything.”

However, when pressed later for more details about the investigation, Brinkerhoff admitted the County did not formally investigate Johnson but said the Iron County Attorney’s office reviewed the allegations. Brinkerhoff did not provide any additional information about the investigation, nor give any reason why they did not request that the Utah Attorney General investigate the allegations against Johnson.

Gower accused County officials of playing by a different set of rules this time around.

“I can say that I know for a fact that the allegations against Ron were never investigated by the AG’s office or by anybody. There was never a criminal investigation opened,” he said. “They let Ron just walk away, but with Jody, they’re holding nothing back short of, I can’t even compare what they’re doing to him. It’s like a rabid dog. I mean, they’ve got blood in their mouth and they’re not going to let go or stop.”

Burns said he did not understand why the County chose to send Edwards’ name to the AG’s office.

“I don’t know if spite is the right word. I don’t know if they took it to this level to have some means of gaining some advantage in the litigation,” he said. “But either of those are inappropriate purposes and motives that concern me a great deal.”

Burns said he is alarmed at the level County officials have taken Edwards’ case.

“I have to tell you that it is concerning at a level that I don’t know that I can put in context,” he said. “To have an employee who is in the process of exhausting his administrative remedies—as he is required by law to do—and prevail and then have the County, and let’s face it there is great power in the county attorney’s office and elected commissioners to get the attention of the attorney general’s office—and they certainly did that. And what is borderline frightening is that the allegations they made against Lt. Edwards are salacious and baseless.”

The Iron County commissioners did not respond to repeated attempts by The Independent for comment. The Iron County Attorney’s office also refused comment.

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