Allegations that Gov. Mike Leavitt stymied release of a domestic abuse study are "ridiculous," and Utah Attorney General Jan Graham needs to focus on the problem, not on the controversy, Leavitt said Thursday.
The governor spent half of his monthly KUED television press conference discussing the timing of a report to be released by the Governor's Commission on Women and Families. Leavitt said Graham knew when the commission would release the study, which included "startling facts" about domestic violence in Utah, particularly about factors that lead to domestic abuse.Over the weekend, Graham threatened to release the data on her own, and said Leavitt had held back the controversial study because of its supposed negative impact on Utah.
These allegations are "just ridiculous," Leavitt said. He called the
study "thoughtful and far-reaching" and said the question is how the commission can best use the information to deal with the critical problem.
"I hope the attorney general will join with us to see what we can do," he said. "No attempt was made by my office to control the data, and the attorney general knows that."
Leavitt also commented at length about a memo Graham released Sunday that detailed the time line of commission, cabinet and governor's meetings.
Leavitt spokeswoman Vicki Varela said the governor's office made several attempts to talk to Graham but had not been called back and heard nothing until the governor got the memo Sunday.
Asked if he thought Graham was trying to "steal the thunder," Leavitt said when he gets a memo on Sunday afternoon in time for Monday morning press deadlines "it always causes me to give pause."
But Graham had said in the memo the data needed to be released and there was "more at stake than a bad headline for the Leavitt administration."
A meeting was scheduled to discuss the subject Thursday afternoon, and the information will be released further by the commission next week.
Graham had no immediate comment when notified by the Deseret News about Leavitt's comments Thursday.
Leavitt seemed genuinely surprised by what is included in the data but said he had no control over when the information was released. He would not say whether it was appropriate or inappropriate that the commission waited six months to release the study.
In Graham's memo to Leavitt she said Bill Loos, an attorney in her office who is also on the commission, confirmed that Leavitt had told the commission not to release the study because it overstated the problem by including emotional abuse.
"It's just not true," Leavitt said.
The controversy isn't about the data, Leavitt said. And Graham should "start focusing on how we use the data as opposed to . . . how it was released," he said.
In the memo, Graham said Lt. Gov. Olene Walker was concerned the study would make Utah look worse that other states.