Former Weber County Assessor Steve Bexell will get to spend Father's Day at home with his wife and two children before having to report to the Weber County Jail on Monday to begin his six-month jail sentence.
The 39-year-old man resigned from office earlier this year when an investigation revealed the assessor wrote about $30,000 worth of bad checks within his office and failed to pay the money back.He was eventually charged with a second-degree felony theft by deception and a third-degree felony misuse of public money. He entered guilty pleas to those charges last month.
On Monday, 2nd District Judge Stanton Taylor sentenced Bexell and gave him a suspended 20-year prison sentence and imposed the six-month jail sentence with work release. In addition, Taylor ordered Bexell to pay back the $30,000 plus half the costs of an internal audit of his office.
Bexell was also ordered to serve 18 months probation and ordered to undergo random drug testing. The judge told Bexell he would also consider reducing the felony charges down to misdemeanors upon successful completion of probation.
Meanwhile, Bexell's former secretary, Joanne Williams, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday before 2nd District Judge Ronald O. Hyde for her involvement in writing bad checks within the assessor's office.
Williams pleaded guilty last month to charges of second-degree felony unlawful dealings with property by a fiduciary and third-degree felony theft by deception. Williams wrote three bad checks totaling about $1,700, but she paid the money back once the investigation began.
Bexell failed to pay any money back until after the investigation. He wrote more than 200 bad checks over a 10-month period and has thus far repaid about $19,000.
During his sentencing hearing, Bexell said this incident was the worst experience he had ever gone through in his life because of the impact it has had on him, his family and his friends.
"There's nothing I can do to take that away," said Bexell. "It's been very humbling to see the support."
Bexell, who currently works for a private assessor's firm, said people in public office are looked upon by the public differently, and elected officials have to behave "above and beyond" the average citizen. He also said he had no idea of what the consequences of writing bad checks would have on him.
The judge told Bexell he spent a lot of time "thinking and worrying" about what sentence he should impose in this case.
"It causes the people to have mistrust," said Taylor. "There is a higher standard expected."
Taylor said Utah has "been blessed" with a majority of elected public officials who have been honest while in office. But he told Bexell the public feels they have been violated by the defendant's actions and they wanted justice.
The judge said that he could in very good conscious send Bexell to prison but that he had sympathy for Bexell's family so he suspended the prison sentence.
Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson, who prosecuted the case because of a possible conflict of interest in the Weber County attorney's office said he felt the sentence was fair.
Wilson said two factors led him to file the charges against Bexell, one being that Bexell should assume responsibility for taking care of taxpayers' money; and that the case was not one of writing bad checks but a case of theft.
Defense attorney John Caine tried to convince Taylor to reduce the jail time and order home confinement for his client.
Caine said Bexell has already been punished because he lost his job and described his client as a "very broken man."
"He's (Bexell) been flogged publicly already," Caine said. "He's been disgraced in the public eye."
Caine referred to Bexell as his friend and told the judge that the former assessor got into trouble because of personal financial problems. "He'll (Bexell) live with this for the rest of his life," said Caine.