The Utah judiciary held its third-ever Court Connect town hall on Thursday at the Wasatch County Justice Court. Court Connect is an initiative that began in Tooele County in November, allowing residents to connect with their court judges and personnel to ask questions and access resources, with the hope of building public trust.

“Right now is a time where most folks don’t trust institutions,” explained Jonathan Puente, director of the Office of Fairness, Equity and Accountability for Utah State Courts. “If you want to build trust, it’s relationships. And in order to have relationships, it’s (about) communicating. So, we’re going out to the communities and having these dialogues.”

Most of the event took the form of a Q and A with a panel of local judges: Fourth District Court Judge Jennifer Mabey, Fourth District Juvenile Court Judge Brent Bartholomew, Heber City Justice Court Judge Randy Birch and Wasatch County Justice Court Judge Brook Sessions.

The judges answered burning questions — like why one attendee had been called to jury duty several times, while their spouse had always gotten off the hook.

“You hear stories of someone winning the lottery twice. Like, how does that happen?” Mabey said. “But our system is designed to be random because that ensures that jurors are not picked based upon any particular attribute.”

Mabey recalled she’d once gotten a jury qualification questionnaire for her own court.

“I excused myself,” she explained as the audience laughed.

Another audience member asked whether crime was increasing or decreasing in Wasatch County.

Birch said his court had about 3,600 cases in 2012 and 2,327 in 2025. He’s been tracking the number of cases since he became a judge and hasn’t been able to find any correlation between crime and population growth. 

“The other weird thing? Heber is sort of like this ‘Crossy Road’ mecca in the summer, right? You’d think we’d have more cases in the summer,” he said. “Our slowest months for tickets (are) June, July and August.”

Mabey said felonies filed in the Fourth District Court declined from 196 in 2024 to 147 in 2025. Meanwhile, misdemeanor DUIs have stayed “pretty steady,” she said, with “way too many of them in our community.”

The judges also explained how state courts are adapting to the burgeoning world of artificial intelligence. 

Mabey said she’s seen AI-generated pleadings come from pro se litigants and attorneys.

“One of the things that we see is that there are hallucinations in those pleadings, and hallucinations refer to cases that don’t actually exist,” she said. “You have to have case law to support what you’re asking for, but sometimes the case law that’s being cited is not an actual case.”

But what scares her most about AI is the potential for deepfakes. She said that in many cases, particularly domestic and protective order cases, she is given incriminating audio recordings by defendants and plaintiffs.

“They want me to take their phone and listen to the audio and try to figure out if that’s a legitimate piece of evidence,” she said.

She said AI could muddy the waters of determining legitimate evidence even further.

“We have these rules of evidence that have been around for hundreds of years,” Sessions chimed in. “We’re trying to run our courts with the old rules of evidence with the new world of AI. And it’s a challenge every day that I expect is going to get harder.”

When asked how state courts interact with federal courts, the judges brought up immigration. 

Mabey said the biggest thing she’s dealing with right now is immigration holds. 

“The difficulty with that is that if they do go into ICE custody, I’m probably not going to see them again. So, I will have cases that don’t get resolved because they are gone from the jurisdiction,” she said. 

Birch provided an example. 

“I would never obstruct immigration from coming into my courtroom, but I really don’t like it when they do. I remember a few years ago, I had a gentleman who had a ticket of some sort, relatively insignificant. His wife was there. His two kids were there. They looked like they were going to church, and immigration came,” Birch said. “I was pissed. There’s not a dang thing I can do about it. Makes it a little hard to get people to come deal with their tickets when that happens.”

The Court Connect ended with Mabey asking attendees to complete a survey about what topics they would like to see covered at future events. Answers came flooding in, including domestic violence, how to prevent the most common offenses and community resources for legal help.

It was Mabey who facilitated the Wasatch County Court Connect. She wants to continue the dialogue at quarterly events. 

“We’re all trying to figure out how to do what we do better, to serve our communities better, to uphold the oaths that we’ve taken as judges,” she said. “I just appreciate that you’re willing to come and have a conversation.”

The next Court Connect will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City.

The post Wasatch County judges connect with constituents over hot issues appeared first on Park Record.

Attorneys representing a group of landowners who oppose the West Hills township are asking Summit County Third District Court Judge Matthew Bates to decide whether the incorporation process violated the state Constitution before the proposal appears on the Election Day ballot.

The 10 plaintiffs are a mixed group of longtime residents in unincorporated Summit County, near the proposed West Hills boundaries, and second-home owners frustrated with the state’s incorporation procedures. The lawsuit, filed in May, names Salt Lake real estate attorney and town sponsor Derek Anderson and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson as defendants.

Only the 47 registered voters living within the proposed boundaries will have the opportunity to vote on incorporation, preventing second-home owners registered to vote in other states from participating in the decision this November.

The original West Hills map Anderson created was submitted to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office in 2023, but it failed to meet state requirements for incorporation after multiple property owners opted to be excluded from the township. Anderson then submitted a second, revised map, which did meet the requirements.

However, property owners included in the revised boundaries did not have the chance to opt out because the law governing incorporations states that the exemption window ends after the proposal’s first public hearing.

In West Hills’ case, the first public hearing was held on Feb. 12, 2024, before Anderson submitted the revised map.

Janet Conway, one of the residents’ attorneys, argued during a September hearing that the Utah Constitution, which states that “all laws of a general nature shall have uniform operation,” mandates everyone be treated equally unless the legislation in question explicitly applies to a particular subsection of the population.

Specifically, she said the incorporation process violates the Constitution’s uniform operations clause by inadvertently separating landowners into categories and treating them differently based on when Anderson included their properties in the proposal. If the first group of landowners was able to exclude themselves from the township, then the same option should be given to landowners included in the revised boundaries, Conway said.

Bates ultimately declined to issue a ruling last month. Instead, he said he preferred to wait until voters have a chance to decide West Hills’ future, especially considering the case is likely irrelevant if the incorporation fails.

But approximately 10 days later, Conway and fellow attorney Michael Judd filed a brief requesting Bates to reconsider his position and issue a ruling before Election Day.

“Allowing an election to proceed on a measure — when there is a legitimate challenge to the constitutionality of that measure — goes against judicial policies to expedite consideration and resolve elections disputes prior to elections whenever possible to reduce uncertainty, will harm Plaintiffs and the local community and create practical problems for a community at a crossroads,” the brief said.

The document additionally claimed that voiding an “unconstitutional ballot measure” before the election is both “legally preferred” and less likely to interfere with other election deadlines.

“A decision after an election may thus have an ‘extremely disruptive effect’ and the courts must consider ‘the havoc it wreaks upon the local political continuity,’” the brief stated. “A ruling — at any level — will have meaningful practical consequences. But a pre-election ruling will help mitigate those practical consequences.”

Judd and Conway said they plan to seek expedited relief from the Utah Supreme Court if Bates does not decide to rule on the matter before Election Day.

Meanwhile, Anderson’s legal counsel argued against a pre-Election Day ruling in a separate brief, emphasizing a judge’s right to handle their docket at their discretion and pointing out that absentee ballots have already been mailed overseas.

“Whatever ruling the Court might make now would surely be subject to an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court by one side or the other,” the brief added. “There are less than 30 days before the election. By the time the Supreme Court could rule on the appeal, the election would very likely be over. Because the final outcome of this case will not be determined until after the election, there is no urgency for this Court to rule now.”

Bates has not yet indicated whether he will hold another hearing or make a decision regarding West Hills and the constitutionality of the state’s incorporation process before Election Day.

West Hills is a proposed township covering 3,600 acres along S.R. 248 near Kamas. It has been largely opposed since its creation two years ago, with community members citing concerns over property rights, economic viability and the sponsor’s motives.

Meanwhile, West Hills supporters said they believe the incorporation will give residents more flexibility with their property, help control expected growth in the area and encourage open land preservation.

The post Judge asked to rule on West Hills constitutionality question before Election Day appeared first on Park Record.

Summit County Third District Court Judge Matthew Bates decided to defer his decision on a lawsuit claiming the proposed West Hills incorporation violates the state Constitution until after Election Day.

The 10 plaintiffs are a mixed group of longtime residents in unincorporated Summit County, near the proposed West Hills boundaries, and second-home owners frustrated with the state’s incorporation process. The lawsuit, filed in May, names Salt Lake real estate attorney and town sponsor Derek Anderson and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson as defendants. The state Legislature was also named, but ultimately dismissed from the case.

Only the 47 registered voters living within the boundaries of the proposed township will have the opportunity to vote on incorporation, preventing second-home owners registered to vote in other states from participating in the decision this November.

The original map Anderson created for the West Hills boundaries was submitted to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office in 2023, but it failed to meet state requirements for incorporation after multiple property owners opted to be excluded from the township. Anderson then submitted a second, revised map, which did meet the requirements.

However, the lawsuit alleged Anderson “manipulated the contiguity of boundary requirements” and intentionally included second-home owners who would be unable to vote on incorporation. 

The complaint additionally challenged the legality of Utah’s municipal incorporation process in general, alleging the legislation violates the Utah Constitution by offering only some property owners the chance to exclude their land from being included in the proposed boundaries.

That point in particular took center stage during an evidentiary hearing on Tuesday, in which attorneys representing the 10 plaintiffs asked Bates for a summary judgment, or decision on the case without a trial, regarding the specific claim that the incorporation process is unconstitutional.

Janet Conway, one of the residents’ attorneys, argued the Utah Constitution, which states that “all laws of a general nature shall have uniform operation,” mandates everyone be treated equally unless the legislation in question explicitly applies to a particular subsection of the population.

In the case of municipal incorporations, Conway said, the state law inadvertently separates property owners into categories and treats them differently depending on which group they fall into. The law governing incorporations allows landowners within the proposed boundaries to ask for an exemption, but the exemption window ends after the first public hearing.

The first public hearing for the West Hills proposal was held on Feb. 12, 2024. 

However, sponsors can revise the proposed boundaries of the township and submit a modified map to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, even if the first iteration did not meet statutory requirements, as in West Hills’ case. If that happens, property owners included in the second version who may not have been in the first don’t have an opportunity to request an exemption, which Conway claimed violates their constitutional right to uniform treatment.

Anderson’s legal counsel, meanwhile, argued the West Hills incorporation simply followed the law as it was written, with the ultimate goal of clearly defining a map for voters. They said whether homeowners included in the second round have the chance to ask for an exemption is moot because those homeowners can still participate in the democratic process by voting on the incorporation question.

The defense attorneys also argued rendering the West Hills incorporation process unconstitutional affects other proposed incorporations as well. That would force multiple town sponsors across the state, including Dakota Pacific Real Estate’s Park City Tech, to restart the incorporation process.

Conway rebutted that there was no evidence that the other proposed incorporations had a modified map with a second round of property owners included, which means they may not be affected if Bates were to rule in her clients’ favor. She also pointed out that many of her clients are second-home owners who are barred from participating in the ballot decision.

Bates had also previously asked about second-home owners within the proposed boundaries, saying he could see a hypothetical situation in which a town sponsor purposefully includes second-home owners to meet the necessary statutory requirements while still retaining control of the vote because those owners would be unable to participate in the election.

Ultimately, Bates told the courtroom he planned to issue a decision on whether the West Hills incorporation process was unconstitutional after Election Day. He said he preferred to wait until voters have a chance to decide, especially considering the case is likely irrelevant if incorporation fails.

Bates said he would give attorneys 10 days to submit a brief contesting his decision if they disagreed and saw a need for an immediate ruling, but no additional documents had been filed as of Wednesday afternoon.

West Hills is a proposed township covering 3,600 acres along S.R. 248 near Kamas. It has been largely opposed since its creation two years ago, with community members citing concerns over property rights, economic viability and the sponsor’s motives.

Meanwhile, West Hills supporters said they believe the incorporation will give residents more flexibility with their property, help control expected growth in the area and encourage open land preservation.

The post Judge to defer decision on West Hills property rights lawsuit until after election appeared first on Park Record.

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart this week denied a request from West Hills supporters who asked for a temporary restraining order directing the City of Kamas to withdraw its resolution supporting the Kamas Valley Preservation Association, a nonprofit organization that has been campaigning against the proposed incorporation bid.

The Nevada-based law firm Lex Tecnica filed a federal lawsuit against Kamas, Mayor Matt McCormick, the Kamas Valley Preservation Association and three of its members last month. The law firm represents a group called The Preserve, a collection of landowners within the proposed West Hills boundaries who favor incorporating as a new town.

The proposed West Hills site covers 3,600 acres along S.R. 248 near Kamas. The matter of incorporation will appear on the Election Day ballot.

Salt Lake real estate attorney Derek Anderson created West Hills and its boundaries in 2023, but the original map submitted to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office failed to meet state requirements for incorporation after multiple property owners opted to be excluded from the township. Anderson then submitted a revised map in 2024, which did meet the requirements.

To be eligible for incorporation, the state requires the valid signatures of property owners representing at least 7% of the assessed land value and 10% of the land area, based on the value and acreage of each signer’s property.

Eleven residents — who make up 23% of the registered voters within the proposed West Hills boundaries — signed the petition and met the land-related requirements. The Lieutenant Governor’s Office certified the petition on Feb. 26.

A total of 47 registered voters live within the proposed boundaries and will determine in November whether West Hills will be incorporated as a new township.

The Kamas City Council formally declared its opposition to the West Hills incorporation bid in April with a unanimous vote in favor of a resolution supporting the Kamas Valley Preservation Association’s efforts to push back against the proposed township.

Area residents founded the Kamas Valley Preservation Association in March to preserve the rural and agricultural character of the Kamas Valley. The organization the next month told the Kamas City Council its first initiative is to combat the West Hills incorporation, citing negative economic and cultural effects they believe the township will have on the area.

The Lex Tecnica lawsuit claimed the City Council and Kamas Valley Preservation Association’s actions violated state and federal law. Specifically, the complaint accused them of six abuses: a violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, civil conspiracy, a violation of the Utah Pattern of Unlawful Activity Act, deprivation of due process and tortious interference with prospective economic relations.

The complaint asked Stewart to issue an emergency preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order requiring Kamas City to withdraw its resolution.

“Any delay in issuing immediate relief will allow Defendants to continue unlawful electioneering using public resources to influence the upcoming election, further tainting the electoral process,” court documents said.

Stewart ultimately disagreed with the firm’s argument, citing holes in the administrative process and a failure to accurately portray the immediate need for relief.

The Federal Rule of Civil Procedure allows the court to issue a temporary restraining order if the plaintiff includes an affidavit or verified complaint along with a written certification from their attorney explaining their efforts to notify defendants of the motion. In an order published on Tuesday, Stewart said Lex Tecnica had not fulfilled either of those requirements.

“Their Motion asserts only generally that ‘providing advance notice would risk prompting Defendants to take additional actions that could irreparably harm the election,’” the order said. “Such a vague and unspecific assertion fails to ‘clearly show that immediate and irreparable injury, loss or damage will result’ before the Court can hear from Defendants. Further cutting against ex parte relief is that Plaintiff waited several months to assert that the resolution, which passed in April of this year, presents an emergency.”

Stewart then denied Lex Tecnica’s motion for an emergency restraining order. The law firm has 14 days to file a response. Otherwise, scheduling related to the case will proceed as normal. The ongoing litigation additionally does not appear to affect West Hills’ inclusion on the Election Day ballot.

“Our clients are thankful but not surprised by Judge Stewart’s ruling,” said Janet Conway, an attorney representing the Kamas Valley Preservation Association. “Plaintiff’s motion was wholly without merit. We look forward to demonstrating that this entire action is frivolous.”

Sam Castor, an attorney representing The Preserve, told The Park Record that the temporary restraining order would have only lasted 14 days before requiring a preliminary injunction.

“He is considering the preliminary injunction, which is more important,” Castor added. “Once it is fully briefed and the court rules on it, that will be most telling.”

The post Federal judge denies temporary restraining order in West Hills lawsuit appeared first on Park Record.

A group of landowners within the boundaries of the proposed West Hills township are suing the City of Kamas for allegedly engaging with the Kamas Valley Preservation Association to interfere with incorporation efforts.

The Nevada-based law firm Lex Tecnica filed the lawsuit in federal court Thursday morning, naming Kamas City, Kamas Mayor Matt McCormick, the Kamas Valley Preservation Association and Kamas Valley Preservation Association members Jeramy Bristol, Lindy Sternlight and Craig Savage as defendants.

“Private individuals and government officers colluded to engage in unlawful government action under the false pretense of the Kamas Valley Preservation Association,” the complaint said. “(The defendants) conspired to subvert the democratic processes for their own political and economic interests, and persuaded Kamas City … and its mayor … to violate Utah’s Official Misconduct law … and other legal standards by effectively deputizing the KVPA to do its dirty work.”

The lawsuit further alleged the city used “backchannel communications” and “targeted pressure campaigns” that “deceived the public, misused public resources, exploited official platforms and spaces, and built an illegal coalition to manipulate public perception and depress property values, to enrich themselves.”

The proposed West Hills site covers 3,600 acres along S.R. 248 near Kamas. The matter of incorporation will appear on the Election Day ballot.

To be eligible for incorporation, the state requires the valid signatures of property owners representing at least 7% of the assessed land value and 10% of the land area, based on the value and acreage of each signer’s property.

Eleven residents — who make up 23% of the registered voters within the proposed West Hills boundaries — signed the petition and met the land-related requirements. The Lieutenant Governor’s Office certified the petition on Feb. 26.

A total of 47 registered voters live within the proposed boundaries and will determine in November whether West Hills will be incorporated as a new township .

The Kamas City Council formally declared its opposition to the West Hills incorporation bid in April when councilors unanimously voted in favor of a resolution supporting the Kamas Valley Preservation Association’s efforts to push back against the proposed township.

The Kamas Valley Preservation Association is a fledgling nonprofit organization founded by residents in March to preserve the rural and agricultural character of the Kamas Valley. Organization leadership in April told the Kamas City Council their first initiative is to combat the West Hills incorporation, citing negative economic and cultural effects they believe the township will have on the area.

“We will respond to these charges in due time. However, we want to be clear that our clients have done nothing wrong,” said Janet Conway, an attorney representing the Kamas Valley Preservation Association. “They are simply trying to protect theirs and their neighbors’ Utah Constitutional Rights.”

The growing popularity and growth in the Kamas Valley has been a key sticking point for most of the local conversation surrounding West Hills, even before the Kamas Valley Preservation Association’s involvement. 

Twenty-two people spoke at an informational public hearing in January, all of whom were opposed to the township. Many East Side residents also expressed frustration with state law and their inability to decide whether their properties should be included in the proposal, calling the incorporation bid a property rights issue.

West Hills supporters, meanwhile, said they believe the incorporation would give residents more flexibility with their property, help control expected growth in the area and encourage open land preservation.

The lawsuit also touched on growth and its importance in the West Hills conversation. Specifically, it claimed the City of Kamas and the Kamas Valley Preservation Association are afraid of increasing property values by introducing more neighbors to the area and that McCormick and the city “incorrectly fear (incorporation) would dilute their local power, authority and control.”

The litigation additionally criticized Sternlight and Savage, alleging that the two are not full-time Summit County residents and that they recruited Bristol, who is a local, to lobby county and city officials on their behalf.

“Claiming to be a ‘non-profit’ to raise funds, but lacking that standing with the IRS, the KVPA, then through collusion with McCormick, took control of the official policy of Kamas,” the complaint said. “They also lobbied members of other local governments, including the cities of Francis and Oakley, as well as Summit County and the South Summit School District, to improperly support or endorse the KVPA-conduct that violated Utah’s Official Misconduct law. … That conduct includes unlawful political advocacy using public resources and participation in a hidden campaign to suppress and subvert the lawful democratic process.”

The complaint also detailed other alleged collusion attempts, including a string of text messages in June 2024 between Sternlight, McCormick and Francis City Mayor Jeremie Forman, in which Sternlight said the three had “to unite or lawyers from SLC will chew us up.”

After the texts, which the attorneys said they obtained through a public records request, representatives of the Kamas Valley Preservation Association, Kamas and Francis began meeting to “generate public opposition” to the West Hills incorporation, according to court documents.

In November 2024, the mayors of Kamas, Francis and Oakley, as well as the superintendent of the South Summit School District, exchanged emails to discuss a drafted letter opposing incorporation, which was written by the Kamas Valley Preservation Association.

“On Nov. 21, 2024, Bristol sent a letter to Oakley Mayor (Zane) Woolstenhulme inviting him to ‘edit, add or subtract whatever you feel is appropriate and return,’” the complaint said. “In January 2025, Sternlight asked Mayor Forman whether the incorporation proponents had sought annexation into Francis. Mayor Forman replied that West Hills had sought annexation, and that he (and) Francis told them, ‘Hell no.’”

Court documents also claimed that Savage is a “wealthy individual” living in the Tuhaye development in Wasatch County, which overlooks the West Hills site in Summit County.

“Tuhaye (aka Talisker Club) is a luxury golf community with no direct connection to West Hills,” the lawsuit said. “Rather, it is owned and operated by the interstate luxury community developer Storied Development, further illustrating the outside influence shaping the falsely claimed ‘local’ opposition.”

The complaint stated the Kamas Valley Preservation Association approached Oakley City about a resolution similar to the Kamas City Council’s in May, but Woolstenhulme ultimately turned the nonprofit down.

“While Oakley officials praised KVPA’s efforts as ‘commendable,’ they declined to adopt the resolution,” court documents said. “On May 20, 2025, Oakley formally refused, stating that ‘it would not be in Oakley City’s best interest to get into the business of formally endorsing community action groups.’ These communications illustrate Defendants’ systematic conspiracy to recruit, obtain funding from and solicit multiple governmental entities to take unlawful positions against the incorporation.”

Court documents further pointed out the Lieutenant Governor’s Office certified the petition and empowered voters to decide whether incorporation should happen by placing the measure on the Election Day ballot. The city’s move to vocally oppose incorporation, therefore, threatens the democratic process, the complaint claimed.

“Defendants engaged in multiple overt acts, including direct communications with municipal officials, delivery of draft resolutions, participation in closed-door planning meetings and the public dissemination of coordinated narratives through media and public comment,” the filing said. “Defendants also organized attendees to public gatherings from outside the affected area to give the appearance of grassroots opposition, despite those individuals having no stake in the incorporation.”

The lawsuit explicitly accused Kamas and the Kamas Valley Preservation Association of six alleged abuses: a violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, civil conspiracy, a violation of the Utah Pattern of Unlawful Activity Act, deprivation of due process and tortious interference with prospective economic relations.

“Plaintiff pleads with the Court to ensure such conduct is promptly and publicly reprimanded and corrected to uphold the integrity and sanctity of democratic processes as well as Federal and State Law,” the complaint said.

It concluded by requesting Judge Ted Stewart issue an emergency, preliminary injunction requiring Kamas City to withdraw its resolution and to enjoin “them from continuing their activities to illegally influence public officials or otherwise interfere with the lawful vote to incorporate” in addition to awarding punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

The City of Kamas has not responded to a request for comment as of Friday afternoon.

The post West Hills supporters sue Kamas over perceived efforts to influence incorporation vote appeared first on Park Record.

An Oakley man charged with attempted murder last summer entered a guilty plea this month, agreeing to a first-degree felony conviction for aggravated sexual assault in return for all other charges in the case being dismissed.

Kevin D. Wilde, 64, faced charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury in Summit County’s Third District Court after attacking his elderly wife and fleeing the state in July 2024. All four felony charges included domestic violence enhancements.

Wilde appeared before Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik on Aug. 8 for a pretrial conference. Wilde’s defense attorney, Clifford Venable, announced he had reached a resolution with prosecutors, and Wilde was prepared to enter a guilty plea.

Wilde then acquiesced to a first-degree felony aggravated sexual assault conviction in return for the dismissal of all other charges, including attempted murder.

The punishment for the aggravated sexual assault charge is 15 years to life in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to Wilde’s signed plea documents. An aggravated murder charge, meanwhile, has a minimum sentence of three years and would have potentially resulted in less jail time.

Wilde’s sentencing is set for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 24 in Park City.

Wilde was found in Montana about 24 hours after the couple’s adult son reported the assault to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies at the time said incapacitating injuries delayed the woman’s ability to communicate the assault.

Charging documents stated Wilde asked the woman to engage in sexual activity on the afternoon of July 22, 2024, and he became upset when she declined. He then pushed her down a flight of stairs leading to their basement, according to prosecutors.

Wilde assaulted the woman and reportedly strangled her with both hands, court documents said. The woman was able to stand up after Wilde stopped. She picked up a crescent wrench and told him to leave. However, Wilde overpowered her and began “striking her on [the] head and face.”

Prosecutors said the woman fell again, and Wilde continued to beat her.

“[She] believed he was trying to kill her and that she was going to die. She tried to remain motionless during the assaults … until she believed he thought she was dead,” court documents said.

The woman heard Wilde go into their kitchen and suspected he was washing blood off the wrench as well as himself before he left. Wilde took the woman’s phone, and she summoned help using Facebook Messenger.

Deputies observed deep lacerations to the woman’s face and blood covering her upper body when they arrived. Her right eye was also swollen shut. She was transported to a Salt Lake hospital, where medical staff discovered nasal, cheek and dental fractures.

A bag with a large amount of cash, clothes, charging cables, toiletries, medical devices and clothing Wilde was believed to be wearing during the attack was found on the kitchen table. He was not at the scene when law enforcement arrived, and his location was unknown until his arrest in Montana about 24 hours after the alleged assault.

Summit County investigators tracked Wilde using bank transaction information and license plate recognition technology. A tip led them to believe he traveled through Idaho toward Montana, where he was eventually arrested.

The post Attempted murder charges dropped in guilty plea negotiations appeared first on Park Record.

A third contracting company filed a lawsuit against Wohali Land Estates for unpaid debts just days after the luxury real estate developer filed for bankruptcy in federal court.

Sierra Pacific Windows last week submitted a notice in Summit County’s Third District Court alleging Wohali Builders, the construction arm of the development enterprise, ordered and received $162,574 in materials and has yet to pay the cost.

Court documents additionally show the window company recorded a construction lien with the Summit County government in an attempt to force a foreclosure on the Wohali property to finance the unpaid bill.

The company requested payment for the invoice with an interest rate of 18% per annum “from the dates payments were due, until paid in full, plus attorney’s fees and costs,” an agreement Sierra Pacific Windows’ attorneys said was included in the initial contract between the company and Wohali management.

“To permit Defendants to retain the benefit without compensating Sierra would result in the unjust enrichment of Defendants at the expense of Sierra, which should not be allowed,” the complaint added.

The lawsuit is the fifth filed this year against the embattled luxury real estate developer, which filed for bankruptcy with a reported debt totaling more than $13 million earlier this month. Court documents indicated Wohali Land Estates hopes to reorganize the business to handle, and eventually pay off, its existing debt rather than disbanding the company — and abandoning the project altogether.

Shortly after the bankruptcy filing, a group of “concerned owners” who had invested in Wohali petitioned the court to allow the company to continue paying for “certain administrative expenses.” Specifically, they asked for an emergency approval of $161,689 in payments to “key employees of the golf course and resort” because payroll was due on Aug. 15.

“Keeping this golf course alive and operating is a top priority to preserve the value of the estate,” the emergency request document said. “If payroll is not made, key employees would likely quit and move on, and, as a result, the resort and golf course likely would be seriously degraded or cease to function.”

The landowners offered to pay the $161,689 amount from their own pockets as part of a one-time agreement, and Judge Peggy Hunt granted their request on Friday, the same day payroll was due.

Wohali Land Estates estimated it had between 100 and 199 creditors who were owed between $100 million and $500 million in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in federal court, providing an additional list detailing that the company owes approximately $12,908,637 to its top 20 creditors alone.

Sierra Pacific Windows was included on the list of the top 20 creditors.

Two of the other companies listed as top creditors — Eave Solar and Knight Trucking — had already filed lawsuits against Wohali Land Estates this summer, demanding payment for provided services.

Eave Solar, a company committed to “delivering cutting-edge solar technologies” in Utah, filed its claim in July with allegations that the business was owed approximately $489,492 for work on six different lots within the development.

Knight Trucking, meanwhile, similarly claimed in a separate filing that Wohali failed to pay around $119,255 for the business’s work hauling materials to and from the construction site between Jan. 10 and May 28.

Thomas Cottone, who is a founding member of Wohali Builders, also filed two lawsuits against the company, a key executive and one of the business’s investors. In addition to financial mismanagement allegations, Cottone claimed the executive and investor engaged in coordinated retaliation efforts to defame him and remove him from his position on the board after he attempted to voice concerns and reestablish oversight through further financial controls.

The post Third company sues Wohali days after company files for bankruptcy appeared first on Park Record.

A woman who was hit by a vehicle on Kilby Road two years ago is suing Summit County and High Valley Transit over the intersection’s “negligently designed” crosswalk, which she claims contributed to the accident.

Luana Aparecida Vera Santana, a resident of Santa Catarina, Brazil, said in Third District Court documents filed last week that she was a passenger on a High Valley Transit bus traveling from downtown Park City to a transit stop on Kilby Road on Aug. 3, 2023. She exited the bus around 10:16 p.m. and approached the nearby crosswalk, where she was then hit by a car traveling eastbound on Kilby Road.

“Due to the dangerous and negligently designed condition of the crosswalk — including but not limited to lack of adequate lighting or signals, poor visibility caused by its placement at the crest of a hill on a high-speed road, and the absence of advanced warning systems or signage — an eastbound vehicle struck Plaintiff (Santana) as she crossed,” the complaint says. “As a result, Plaintiff sustained serious and permanent injuries, including a fractured skull, brain injury, broken nose [and] broken ankle.”

The original report from the Sheriff’s Office on the date of the accident said the driver did not show any signs of impairment.

“He (the driver) told me that he had been driving and had not seen her in the crosswalk until his vehicle hit her,” the responding deputy said in the report. “He said that he ‘heard her first,’ then his vehicle hit her. I asked him what he meant by that, and he told me that he wasn’t sure but knew he heard a sound before his vehicle hit her. It had been raining heavily, and he said he had not seen her until he was unable to stop.”

The driver then backed up his vehicle to prevent Santana from being struck by other cars.

The police report said deputies later spoke to Santana at the hospital, and she said she’d exited a High Valley Transit bus on Kilby Road across from Powderwood Drive and had been crossing the street toward her apartment. Deputies also noted in their report the “possibility of the incident to result in a fatality” because of the severity of Santana’s injuries at the time of the accident.

Santana’s lawsuit states the decision to name Summit County and High Valley Transit as defendants because they “were responsible for designing, placing, approving and constructing the roads, crosswalk, warnings (or lack thereof), signage and signals.” 

Alyssa Wood, a personal injury attorney representing Santana, said her client chose to not include the driver in the lawsuit because he has “already taken accountability.”

“The driver was willing to resolve the case pre-litigation, but my client has extensive injuries,” she said. “This road is unsafe, and this crosswalk is unsafe. If the county doesn’t make changes to this crosswalk, other people are going to get injured. For us and for our client, one of the most important things is ensuring that, in the future, changes are made so that this doesn’t happen again to someone else.”

The court filings similarly mention the County Courthouse’s and bus system’s responsibility to “ensure that the condition of the road and crosswalk was not defective, unsafe and unreasonably dangerous at night or under low-light conditions.”

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges the crosswalk and bus stop location were “negligently selected” because of poor visibility, a lack of proper lighting and a lack of warning systems for approaching cars.

The complaint further claims Santana has incurred more than $3,000 in medical bills as a result of the accident and “will continue to suffer from injuries into the future.”

Santana and her attorneys demanded a jury trial in addition to relief in the form of damages to cover her medical expenses, lost wages, future care and compensation for her “physical pain and suffering.”

The County Courthouse declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, and High Valley Transit representatives have not yet responded to a request for comment as of Monday afternoon. There are currently no scheduled court hearings related to the case.

The post County Courthouse, High Valley Transit sued over Kilby Road crosswalk safety appeared first on Park Record.

A solar panel company in Salt Lake County is suing Wohali Builders for unpaid debts totaling almost half a million dollars in the fourth lawsuit filed against the luxury real estate business this year.

The 5,000-acre Wohali property is located approximately five minutes west of Coalville and Echo Reservoir. Interested homebuyers can select semi-custom units of varying sizes, floor plans and architectural styles intended to serve as the pinnacle of luxury real estate, according to the company. The largely undeveloped private valley boasts 3,400 acres of backcountry trails in addition to a golf course.

But behind the scenes, the community promising to help property owners imagine their “perfect living experience without compromise” is embroiled in legal troubles.

Eave Solar, a company committed to “delivering cutting-edge solar technologies” in Utah, filed a lawsuit in Third District Court on Thursday. The complaint alleges Wohali Builders and Wohali Land Estates — the two companies in charge of the construction and management of the property — owe Eave Solar approximately $489,492 for work on six different lots within the development.

The complaint details documentation of the company’s attempts to contact Wohali for payment, including six preliminary notices filed in February and March with the State Construction Registry, a government agency intended to “protect public health, safety and welfare by promoting a fair working environment for construction projects in Utah.”

Eave Solar requested a judgment as part of its lawsuit against Wohali for “the principal amount of $489,492.63 plus interest at the rate of 10% per annum” and a foreclosure on all properties the company reportedly worked on without receiving payment.

Furthermore, the solar company claims Wohali is obligated to pay “all reasonable attorney fees, expert fees, costs and expenses incurred,” as well as “reasonable costs of travel, legal research, investigation and copying,” due to a provision in all six of the signed contracts related to the company’s work on the Wohali property.

Knight Trucking, a transportation services company with a terminal in Salt Lake City, filed a similar lawsuit last month. The trucking business claimed Wohali hired it to haul materials to and from the construction site between Jan. 10 and May 28 of this year, but Wohali allegedly failed to pay for the services, which totaled approximately $119,255.

The lawsuit additionally alleged Wohali was paid by a third-party service for the work Knight Trucking performed, but the development company “failed” to pay despite having the money in hand. The complaint then accused Wohali Builders of outright refusing to pay the bill.

Thomas Cottone, a founding member of Wohali Builders, also filed two separate lawsuits against the company and two key executives earlier this year. In addition to financial mismanagement allegations, Cottone claimed the executives engaged in coordinated retaliation efforts to defame him and remove him from his position on the board after he attempted to voice concerns and re-establish oversight through further financial controls.

John Kaiser and Matthew Galioto, the two executives named as defendants in Cottone’s litigation, have been working to bring their vision of the multi-million dollar project to life in eastern Summit County for the past eight years. Cottone, however, claimed Kaiser and Galioto accused him of misconduct “in a series of emails, meetings and calls with the project’s investors” after Cottone encouraged the development company to agree to an audit, improve financial controls and provide transparency regarding business transactions.

Cottone said his reputation was “irreparably tarnished” as a result, and he was subsequently removed from his leadership position with the project.

Throughout the lawsuit, he also alleged that Kaiser has a history of fraud connected to similar development projects across the country, including a 2015 civil case in Arizona in which Kaiser was ordered by a judge to pay defrauded investors $515,000.

In 2013, Kaiser testified against his former business partner, who was ultimately convicted of defrauding investors in New York. The criminal case was Kaiser’s introduction to Galioto, an FBI investigator who worked the case and used him as a source and witness.

“On information and belief, it is highly irregular and against standard practice for a law enforcement officer and his former source — in a complex fraud action involving real estate developments — to enter into a substantial business relationship, also involving a development project, with a key witness,” the lawsuit said.

Cottone became involved with the project in 2017. He grew the investor pool to 65 members and $25 million in contributions, as well as securing a $79 million loan, before he voiced concerns about financial mismanagement in late 2022. He was then ousted from the company and the project in retaliation for becoming a whistleblower, Cottone’s lawsuit alleged.

“Cottone would later learn that months before Kaiser shut him out, he also tried to inhibit Cottone’s ability to maintain the required checks and balances — and justify his own obstruction — by initiating a smear campaign against Cottone amongst Wohali Builders employees, generally accusing Cottone of being a bad guy who was untrustworthy and committing nefarious and potentially ‘illegal’ acts,” the complaint said.

Cottone asked for a total of $195 million in damages — $65 million for each claim of defamation, invasion of privacy and interference with Cottone’s economic relations — as well as attorneys’ fees.

The libel lawsuit involving Kaiser and Galioto has a motion hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on Nov. 18. No dates are set in the other three cases as of Monday afternoon.

Attorneys representing Wohali Builders have not yet filed responses in court to any of the ongoing litigation.

The post Second company sues Wohali for unpaid debts in fourth lawsuit plaguing developer appeared first on Park Record.

A professional tennis instructor is suing Summit County’s three major news outlets — The Park Record, KPCW and the Town Lift — in a defamation lawsuit, claiming the media publications damaged his reputation and career by reporting on a criminal case accusing the instructor of sexual exploitation of a minor.

The charges were later dropped after Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik determined the photos in question were age-appropriate images of the man’s daughter and that the charges were the result of a misunderstanding between police and the family.

The tennis instructor, Bogdan Badiu, on Tuesday filed the lawsuit, which centers on the judge’s conclusion that the photos were not child pornography.

“The police had lied about Mr. Badiu having hundreds of pornographic images of young girls,” the complaint states. “The false assertions about Mr. Badiu that were published or disseminated by the police were repeated by the media through multiple outlets, including all defendants in this pending case.”

The lawsuit further alleges Badiu’s career, which involved teaching tennis lessons to children, “has suffered irreversible reputational and career damage,” including the loss of his job.

“Defendants’ publications remain online and otherwise available with any accompanying clarifications or updates doing little to alleviate damage done from anyone searching the internet for Mr. Badiu’s name and not reading in detail,” the complaint says, adding the media attention damaged Badiu’s relationship with his daughter and caused both of them to suffer “lifelong trauma.”

The Park Record published one article related to Badiu’s case, which was then updated on Nov. 13, 2024, reporting the sexual exploitation charges had been dropped.

The lawsuit requested a jury trial to order the three publications to stop “continuing to disseminate the false allegations” and to award Badiu all costs and attorneys fees incurred as a result of the litigation.

The post Tennis coach sues Wasatch Back media outlets for defamation appeared first on Park Record.