Wasatch County councilmembers authorized county manager Dustin Grabau Wednesday, March 12, to direct an investigation into claims the sheriff and undersheriff have retaliated against employees and mishandled investigations.
That authority includes hiring an external investigator with no ties to the county. Grabau has recommended a longtime judge.
“I’ve reached out to retired Judge Richard McKelvie, who is a former federal judge, former attorney general’s office prosecutor,” he said. “[He] has a great deal of experience in these matters, and also, I feel, has a high degree of independence and no connections to Wasatch County.”
Grabau asked the council to grant him and McKelvie the power to gather evidence, issue subpoenas, put witnesses under oath and more.
From here, Grabau said McKelvie will conduct the investigation as he sees fit and produce a written report of his findings. It will be up to McKelvie to decide what to share with the council.
“Largely, we’ll defer to Judge McKelvie’s judgment on what information is most appropriate to share at what point, and those will kind of depend on the scope of what he finds and the urgency that those findings dictate,” Grabau said.
Grabau said he planned to meet with the judge Thursday, March 13, to discuss how to proceed.
The cost of the investigation is yet to be determined, largely depending on how long it takes McKelvie to review the allegations. Grabau said the price tag could be significant.
“I do want to emphasize that there is likely going to be a fair amount of money devoted towards this project,” he said. “I think that it’s worth the money.”
McKelvie most recently served as a judge in 3rd District Court, covering Salt Lake, Summit and Tooele counties, from 2014 until his retirement in June 2024. He was also an assistant U.S. Attorney and an assistant attorney general for the state of Utah.
The county investigation comes amid multiple public allegations of improper behavior in the Wasatch County Sheriff's Office.
Lt. Shane Fredrickson sent a letter to the county council in January alleging department leaders had retaliated against him for filing a formal grievance about the undersheriff. Fredrickson is on administrative leave.
The sheriff's office, meanwhile, contends it’s the lieutenant who behaved improperly, leaving it no choice but to take disciplinary action.
And retired Wasatch County Sheriff Todd Bonner and retired sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Winterton told county councilmembers earlier this month they had concerns about how the sheriff's office was being run.
Few specifics about Bonner and Winterton’s concerns are public. Grabau has said some of the accusations are vague, although he said some could rise to the level of criminal offenses.
In a statement March 6, Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby said the office is committed to finding and correcting any misconduct, and it “will continue to be professional and fair in fulfilling [its] duties.”
Rigby said he also asked the Cache County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the allegations.
