The following story was reported and written by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah’s $1.04 billion new prison was supposed to be the start of a revolution in how the state deals with incarcerated felons — with a laserlike focus on safety and rehabilitation. Instead, it’s being run...
Category: Law Enforcement
Utah hunting guide faces felony charge for Donald Trump Jr.’s big game hunt
By Eric S. Peterson The following story was written and researched by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah hunting guide Wade Lemon faces five years in state prison for the death of a Carbon County bear killed during a guided hunt on May 18, 2018. But Lemon, a...
A year after Jan.6 protests, Utah law enforcement is still trying to navigate armed protests
The following story was supported by The Fund for Investigative Journalism and was reported by Eric S. Peterson of The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Deseret News. On Jan. 17, 2021, the Utah Capitol was ready for anything. A little over a week after the tumult of the insurrection at the nation’s...
Operation Underground Railroad exaggerated role in child exploitation investigations
The following story was reported by Taylor Hartman for The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake City Weekly, The Standard Examiner, The Park Record and The Daily Herald. It’s been a year since news broke that Operation Underground Railroad, a Utah based anti-trafficking nonprofit that has gained international prominence, was under...
A year after mass demonstrations sparked by George Floyd murder, protesters see double standard in prosecutions
The following story was supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism and was reported by Eric S. Peterson of The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Ty Bellamy is hoarse — not surprising given the amount of time she spends in Utah streets rallying for police reform....
Lawsuit alleges feud-inspired conspiracy by Garfield County sheriff
The following story was reported by Eric S. Peterson with The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Escalante business owners Stephen and Jeanne Seymour have had to deal with a problem many American families have wrestled with: a child struggling with drug addiction. Their son’s on-the-job misconduct forced the Seymours...
Patriots or paramilitary? Armed groups working with police raising questions
The following story was funded by support from The Fund for Investigative Journalism and was reported by Eric S. Peterson of The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Deseret News. It started with a call on social media to “back the blue” in the summer of 2020, urging Utahns to stand together in...
Should SLC police have power to veto recording initial reports after shooting someone?
The following story was written and researched by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Deseret News. SALT LAKE CITY — Put yourself in the place of a police officer. You’re responding to a report of a person with a weapon, tensions are high, and as you move in to help you see...
By the book: How Utah police manuals can give law enforcement the upper hand in use-of-force investigations
The following story was written and researched by Eric S. Peterson and Ria Agarwal of The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Deseret News. SALT LAKE CITY — On TV there seems to be two kinds of cops — the rogue cop who plays by his own rules and the “by the book”...
Utah settles civil rights claims of inmates tortured by former Daggett County Jail guard
This story was reported and written by Rone Tempest for the Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. The Utah Department of Corrections has agreed to award four former Daggett County Jail inmates a total of $122,000 in damages for abuse they received at the hands of a jail guard who...