Salt Lake County prosecutor spoke at length with store owner
The recently fired prosecutor, Kent Morgan, talked to Steve Maese for 17 minutes that day, according to phone records obtained by the Deseret News through a public-records request. The conversation was one of 132 calls placed in more than 21 months between the prosecutor and Maese.
But both men insist no top-secret information was revealed.
"Of course not," Morgan said.
The pair are friends who enjoy talking about politics, nothing more, they said.
District Attorney Lohra Miller fired Morgan last month for allegedly leaking confidential information to Maese, who was co-owner of the Doll House.
Maese is scheduled to go on trial April 23 in 3rd District Court on six felony counts, including money laundering, exploiting a prostitute and showing a pattern of unlawful activity.
Morgan is appealing his dismissal to the county's Career Service Council.
Miller's office was "notified by outside sources" that Morgan was "providing confidential internal information to a defendant in a criminal case that the office was prosecuting," according to a letter the district attorney submitted to the Career Service Council stating reasons why Morgan was fired.
Most of those calls were short and unanswered. But the pair did talk for 20 minutes the day of Maese's roll-call hearing in court. That's in addition to the 17-minute conversation the day after the district attorney's office filed charges against Maese.
They also spoke to each other several times the week after police executed a search warrant at the Doll House, according to the phone records obtained by the Deseret News through the Government Records Access and Management Act.
Maese apparently made some sort of statement to police that made them believe he knew information only prosecutors involved in screening the case would have known, according to the letter. The letter does not specify what information Maese supposedly knew that only prosecutors would have known.
"That information was only known within the district attorney's office," the letter states. "Without an inside source he wouldn't have had access to that information."
Maese said Morgan never revealed any confidential information in their many conversations and that the two men are just friends.
Recent comments
Connection, you hit the nail on the head.
Also, Morgan...
You Got It | April 17, 2008 at 2:46 p.m.
Miller fires Morgan for giving the playbook to Maese. Maese hires...
Connection | April 16, 2008 at 12:14 a.m.
Really, Kent Morgan is the one bringing disrepute to the DA's...
To: Not Even Close to the Line | April 15, 2008 at 11:13 p.m.
