Legally Speaking

Child Sex Abuse Material or CSAM is a legal definition for what we used to refer to as ‘child pornography.’ It is an important distinction that has been codified into Utah State Law, for very good reasons.

As we speak to our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the CSAM distinction is important moving forward. We’ll examine why in this edition of Legally Speaking as we interview Sete Aulai, Commander of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Our focus on 'Forever Chemicals’ (also known as PFAS) is critical and ongoing because of the health risks that have impacted many people, and for legal cases that have been slow to unfold.

PFAS is the substance that makes Teflon non-stick, fire-retardant chemical foam so effective, and degreasing and stain resistant treatments improve clothing and more. Contamination in the human body is permanent—and that’s where the Attorney General’s Office comes in! Learn more about how we've teamed up with other states and the federal government to seek legal remedies for this pollutant.

On this edition of Legally Speaking, we speak to Health and Environment Division Director Craig Anderson to clarify this issue.

Copper theft is becoming more common and is a costly loss on construction sites, EV recharging stations, utility work sites, among others. The take offers quick cash for thieves.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office is currently prosecuting a unique case in Salt Lake County, where sheriff’s detectives arrested four men—all connected to either stealing copper from Kennecott or buying the stolen property so they could resell it for profit. It's also a heavy case: The copper items weigh more than ten thousand pounds and are valued at $147 thousand.

Big money is our focus today, and on crimes like this. So who better to ask than our detectives who see this kind of thing in our Crimes Against Statewide Economy (CASE) unit everyday?

Legally Speaking talks to CASE Commander James Russell and State Bureau of Investigation Detective Megan Johnson about this costly trend.

Real Estate Workshop (REW), a group that promised to teach people how to make it big in real estate, may have taught potential students a more painful lesson about consumer awareness. REW turned out to be a huge scam that upsold people to the point of depleting bank accounts, retirement savings, and causing debt. A legal case and settlement resulted in a $42.5 million fine being imposed, with $2.8 million going toward restitution.

REW offered ‘free’ seminars but in reality, the training sign up was up-sold and never delivered. That’s when our White-Collar Crime Attorneys and the Division of Consumer Services got involved. Their work resulted in this outcome.

Assistant Attorney General Peishen Zhou and Assistant Director of Consumer Protection Blake Young both explained the details of the complaint and settlement.

For more information, click here.

The State of Utah has filed a significant lawsuit challenging federal ownership of 18.5 acres of land within its borders. Today, the Legally Speaking guest is Solicitor General Stan Purser.

Mr. Purser explains why the lawsuit goes directly to the Supreme Court, where the state will argue the federal government's control of the land is unconstitutional.

At a news conference, Attorney General Reyes pointed out that Utah isn't allowed to watch over more than two-thirds of its own territory because it’s controlled by people who don’t live in Utah and who aren’t accountable or responsive to its citizens. It also isn’t allowed to collect taxes on the land.

It’s a hot-button issue with conservationists, but important to state leaders, who have been fighting this issue for decades. Utah’s national parks and monuments are NOT part of this lawsuit.

Click on this link for valuable information about the lawsuit and perspective on the volume of land involved.

Utah recently received the final settlement payment from the federal government in the 2015 Gold King Mine lawsuit. You may recall the dramatic pictures of bright yellow and orange water flowing down Colorado’s Animas and San Juan Rivers into Utah and Lake Powell. That water was at least 3 million gallons of mine tailings full of arsenic and heavy metals from the Bonita Mine. Utah sued the EPA, which caused the spill, and now the legal case is complete.

Even though the blowout was an accident, the EPA admitted responsibility and a settlement came after some hard work by the attorney general’s office. The state received more than $7 million, and the final payment came recently.

Meanwhile, the pollution in that water was significant enough that Governor Herbert at the time declared a State of Emergency to preserve the health, safety and welfare of citizens as well as the interests of Utah farms and businesses, which led to the lawsuit.

In this edition of Legally Speaking, Craig Anderson, the Director of the Environment and Health Divisions at the Utah Attorney General’s Office shares some details about the case that weren’t available until now.

As the Opioid problem continues to plague our state, a lot of people are curious about how much money the various settlements have brought to Utah. But the reality is that Utah’s Opioid Settlements are best described as works in progress.

Utah has received money from various sources: pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and others. But there is no bottom-line amount to report, since there are important legal actions still pending.

Here is the picture so far: Settlements that have been finalized will return about $495 million to be divided between the state and the counties. ($252 will come to the state, while about $242 million will go to the counties.) Payments will come over different timeframes ranging from immediate payment to payments over up to 17 years. As of August, 2024, the state has actually received about $69 million, while the counties have received about $59 million.

The settlements are important to our state, since the opioid crisis is still taking an unprecedented toll on families and is ruining lives as the problem evolves.

On this edition of Legally Speaking, we’re getting perspective from our top attorney over the Opioid settlements: Kevin McLean, Assistant Attorney General in the White Collar and Commercial Enforcement Division of our office.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office handles thousands of requests for public records every year. The Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) is the way they can get it.

Typically, it is a request from an individual who has a legal interest in a case, or a reporter who requests records in order to complete a story. But not all the documents our office generates are available to the public—they’re specifically not public, due to confidentiality or privacy concerns.

The GRAMA process exists in order for our office to have a process to handle requests with care. Today, the Legally Speaking guest is Lonny Pearson, the GRAMA Coordinator.

Utah and Wyoming teamed up to sue the BLM for skipping a step in the process before they imposed a new rule that significantly impacts land management and restricts your use of millions of acres of federal land.

The BLM Rule restricts access in the interest of conservation but Utah and Wyoming are fighting back saying the new rule was put into place illegally. The States say the BLM Rule doesn't comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires the study of the environmental effects of new rules on federal land.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office is on top of this lawsuit saying the BLM exceeded its authority—limiting access to $245 million acres nationwide of federal public land, including $22.8 million acres here in Utah.

In this episode, we're speaking with Jason Deforest, an assistant attorney general in our office, who is overseeing this lawsuit.

In this edition of Legally Speaking, we examine the legal issues surrounding Taberon Honie’s death sentence, which is set to be carried out August 8, 2024.

Honie has been on Utah’s Death Row for 25 years. In June 2024, he made one last plea for clemency with the Board of Pardons and Parole, but other than that, his death warrant has been signed and his execution set for August 8. We’ll update the case as of July 17, 2024.

Background on this case: In 1999, Honie was convicted of the extremely violent murder of his girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn, in Cedar City. Benn was viciously and repeatedly stabbed, to the point of mutilation. Honie was arrested at the scene, confessing: “I stabbed her. I killed her with a knife.” Benn’s three granddaughters were present during the murder, all had blood on them, and a four-year-old was sexually assaulted.

Graphic details set the stage for our conversation with Daniel Boyer, Assistant Solicitor General in the AG’s Office Criminal Appeals Division.