Former Utah AG Files $60M Lawsuit Against FBI, Salt Lake Prosecutor

(CN) - Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff filed a $60 million federal lawsuit Wednesday, alleging prosecutors, police and the FBI violated his rights during a 2014 bribery and corruption investigation that brought felony charges against him that were later dropped.

The charges against Shurtleff were dismissed by prosecutors partly because the former attorney general offered to cooperate in other corruption cases. In his pro se lawsuit, Shurtleff named nearly everyone involved in the investigation as a defendant, including the local prosecutor’s office, the state, FBI, the Utah Department of Public Safety and 30 unnamed individual police officers and prosecutors.

Shurtleff’s 21-page complaint claims that he and his family suffered emotional distress from a raid on his home carried out under a “false, fraudulent and perjured search warrant.” He argues that the FBI and Utah State Bureau of Investigation used excessive force, calling it both “malicious” and “callous.”

“The force used constituted deadly force in that it could have caused death and did cause serious mental and emotional injury,” the lawsuit states.

Shurtleff, a Republican, claims he was a victim of malicious prosecution, calling Salt Lake County District Attorney and Democrat Sim Gill “the chief architect and direct personal leader of the investigation” and prosecuted Shurtleff “for personal and political gain.”

In an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Shurtleff said he has lost job opportunities due to the trial, part of the reason why he is asking for $60 million.

“I don’t think it’s outrageous,” Shurtleff said in the interview. “It will be difficult to recover from, no matter how hard I work.”

Last year, a judge denied Shurtleff’s request for taypayers to pay his $1.1 million legal defense bill. Shurtleff’s successor, John Swallow, was acquitted in a separate bribery trial. Swallow is also requesting taxpayer money to pay off part of his legal bill.

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