The Wasatch County Council held a closed-door meeting Tuesday evening — six days after charges against the county sheriff were made public.
The county didn’t specify what it was about, only that it was a personnel matter.
But before closing the council chambers, staffers were passing around and inspecting a copy of the redacted grand jury indictment of Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby.
He is charged with second-degree felony obstruction of justice and with making a written false statement, a class B misdemeanor.
Rigby pleaded not guilty Oct. 1 and remains on the job as of Wednesday. He is not being held in jail.
As KPCW has reported, Rigby allegedly sought to discredit a political opponent who also worked for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. He’s accused of interfering with the county’s prosecution of Kouri Richins on murder charges in the process.
But details about why prosecutors think Rigby committed obstruction are hidden within the indictment’s 10 redacted pages.
“It's for a matter of personnel,” Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau said after Tuesday’s closed meeting. “We have been dealing with some high-profile issues with our sheriff's office, and it's a complex situation that we're trying to ensure that we're following all regulations that we're required to.”
Neither Rigby nor his attorney attended Tuesday’s meeting.
Rigby has not said whether he will voluntarily step aside, and his attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
“I think that's something that we'd be open to, if he wanted to remove himself from the situation,” Grabau said. “I think that would certainly help dealing with some of the complexities of this situation.”
A portion of Utah law requires the county council to put the sheriff on leave if he’s charged with a felony “arising from conduct related to the [his] official duties.”
“Some of the challenges, specifically to the applicability of that code, are many of the facts of this case are still redacted,” Grabau said. “We don't have access to all of that information. It's not even clear that, even if we did, if it would rise to that level.”
He said the county’s options are limited because the sheriff is an independently elected official. Rigby’s term ends in January.
In the meantime, Grabau said county officials have been communicating with Rigby, trying to broker a meeting with the county council.
Wasatch County has stressed that there will not be an interruption to public safety services and law enforcement regardless of the case’s outcome.
The grand jury also charged Rigby’s old boss, former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds, with a third-degree felony count of obstruction.
A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 4 in Summit County’s 3rd District Court regarding whether to make the redacted portions of the two indictments public.
