2 Utah sheriffs are charged with obstruction in case tied to Kouri Richins prosecution 

A current and former Utah sheriff are both charged with obstruction of justice in a case tied to the high-profile prosecution of Kouri Richins, the realtor convicted of poisoning her husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail and then writing a children’s book about grief. 

Court records unsealed Wednesday in Utah’s 3rd District Court show Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds were charged by grand jury on Sept. 24. They have pleaded not guilty. 

The criminal case against Rigby was the second filed within a week against a sitting public official in Utah. A Republican state lawmaker from Layton, Rep. Trevor Lee, resigned last week after he was charged with fraud. 

Grand juries are common in the federal court system, but rare in Utah’s state courts, where prosecutors tend to file charges and a judge decides later at a preliminary hearing if there’s enough evidence for a trial. 

The indictments take the place of that preliminary hearing, prosecutors on the case against the sheriffs said in court filings. Under state law, grand juries must include at least nine and up to 15 members, and can only return an indictment if ¾ vote in favor. 

As sheriffs, Rigby and Edmunds have been in charge of law enforcement in Utah’s two most affluent counties. The specifics of the allegations against them were fully redacted from charging documents unsealed Wednesday, an unusual occurrence in the state court system. Prosecutors in Summit County argue in court filings that the indictments should be made public under the First Amendment. 

Attorneys for Rigby and Edmunds said in court filings they don’t want the indictments released without redactions, raising concerns about pretrial publicity given intense public interest in the Richins case. A hearing on those arguments is scheduled for Nov. 4. 

The bulk of available information about the indictment comes from those motions, with Edmunds’ attorneys saying the charge against him arose from a statement he’s accused of making in an interview in March. The indictment also ties the charge to “alleged misconduct involving a sheriff’s deputy, an anonymous letter, and State of Utah v. Kouri Darden Richins,” they wrote in a court filing dated Oct. 2. 

Rigby’s attorneys wrote that the case against him is “predicated on allegations that he interfered in State v. Kouri Darden Richins — a prosecution that received extensive local and national media coverage.”

Wasatch County sheriff under criminal investigation for actions tied to Kouri Richins trial

Both men are charged with obstruction of justice: Rigby with a more severe second-degree felony count of obstructing in a criminal proceeding; Edmunds a third-degree felony of obstructing in a criminal investigation. Rigby also faces an additional charge of making a written false statement, a misdemeanor.

The charges follow coverage of the investigation by the Utah Investigative Journalism Project for Utah News Dispatch, which reported that in January of this year, Rigby “allegedly presented an anonymous letter to Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates” containing severe allegations about a Summit County sheriff’s deputy.

That deputy, Eric Mainord, was challenging Rigby in the race for Wasatch County sheriff and was also a detective on the Richins case, the Utah Investigative Journalism Project reported. 

Rigby lost the June Republican primary election to Jeremy Hales, the county’s emergency manager. Mainord withdrew from the race before the primary. 

Edmunds was Summit County sheriff from 2003 to 2014, KPCW reported, while Rigby started the job in Wasatch County in 2019. Their attorneys did not immediately respond Wednesday to emails requesting comment.

Richins, sentenced in May to life without parole for the murder of her husband Eric Richins, was ordered this week to pay more than $55 million to his estate as a result of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his sister. Her trial was among the highest profile in the nation this year, followed extensively by news media and court watchers across the country.