Facing felony charges, Wasatch County sheriff goes on paid leave

Embattled Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby sent a letter to County Council members Tuesday night offering to go on paid administrative leave until his term ends at the end of the year. 

The letter, obtained by Utah News Dispatch, came ahead of the Wasatch County Council’s 4 p.m. meeting Wednesday, when council members were expected to vote on a resolution calling for Rigby to resign before his current term ends in January. 

But during that meeting, the Wasatch County Council instead voted unanimously to accept his voluntary leave. 

Rigby — and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds — were charged about a month ago 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. 

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

Court records unsealed in Utah’s 3rd District Court earlier this month show Rigby and Edmunds were charged by grand jury on Sept. 24, a rare move in Utah. They have pleaded not guilty.

“It is with the best interests of the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office and the citizens of Wasatch County foremost in my mind that I will step back from my day-to-day duties and take voluntary administrative leave while my case is pending,” Rigby wrote in the letter to the council. 

“My position on the charges has not changed and I will address them in court,” the sheriff added. “The work of protecting this community deserves the County’s full attention and I do not want my case to distract from it.”

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. The specifics of those allegations have not been released.

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. 

“I believe voluntary administrative leave offers a measured path forward, with stability and continuity for the Office,” Rigby wrote in the letter. “I will work cooperatively with the County to make the transition a smooth one.

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

Rigby’s offer to go on paid leave came the day before the Wasatch County Council was slated to consider a resolution that would have upped the pressure on him to resign from his position rather than continuing to serve in the role through the end of the year. 

But in lieu of Rigby’s letter, rather than voting on that Wednesday as previously scheduled, the council voted unanimously to abandon the resolution and instead accept his voluntary administrative leave. 

The vote came after several Wasatch County residents spoke in support of Rigby during Wednesday’s meeting, urging council members to allow him the presumption of innocence before the charges are vetted in court. 

Wasatch County Chair Erik Rowland said after the vote he hopes it will help the county move forward and heal after a contentious election season. He said he also hopes it makes clear “that we’ve always worked under the presumption of innocence and would want to do that for anybody in a similar position.” 

Had Rigby insisted on continuing working as sheriff, his office would have run into several issues. 

The resolution that would have pressured him to resign noted that because of the felony charges against him, Rigby’s access to the Utah Criminal Justice Information System (a network used by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification that contains criminal records, driver’s licenses and other records) had been disabled, disqualifying him from accessing that information. 

The Wasatch County manager is also cited in the resolution as saying Rigby would have to be “100% escorted” around areas in the sheriff’s office that would have access to that network’s data and he’d “need to sign the visitor’s log any time he came in or out.” 

The resolution also notes that county officials suggested he work remotely to “mitigate the risk of UCJIS violations, and Sheriff Rigby has refused that suggestion.” Additionally, county officials “offered to pay out Sheriff Rigby for any compensation that he would accrue the remaining time of his term” if he resigned. 

Rigby refused that offer too, the resolution says. 

While pointing to “at least 50 news articles” or social media posts about the charges against Rigby, the resolution also expressed concern that the pending felony charges against him, “combined with the media coverage are hurting the public faith in the office, and negatively impact the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office, even if Sheriff Rigby were to be found not guilty at some future date.” 

Before Wednesday’s vote, Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau told the council before the vote “that regardless of what you decide today, the county council doesn’t have the authority to remove Sheriff Rigby from his office.”

“What was before you was a consideration of acknowledging his presumption of innocence, but having him consider that resignation,” Grabau said. “I think, in light of this letter with the sheriff removing himself from the situation, it calls to question the necessity of the resolution.”

With Rigby on leave, the county’s undersheriff, Josh Probst, will lead the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office until the newly elected sheriff takes his place.