Justice is supposed to be about fairness. Equality.
But it can sometimes be about morality and money.Salt Lake County Attorney David Yocom is often the gatekeeper of justice in the Salt Lake Valley. His office decides which cases merit criminal prosecution and which do not. This week he declined to file charges against a Sandy man who allegedly raped two 19-year-old women who were working as escorts.
Eight attorneys, including Yocom, analyzed the facts of the case. Three of the attorneys were women. All of them said no to taking the case to court, Yocom said.
"The conclusion of several different people after reviewing the case was that it did not meet the standard we use when we file cases," he said. "The standard is whether or not that evidence will support a guilty verdict before a jury of this community."
Trial attorney Brad Rich disagrees.
"It is my belief that Utah juries would be in a position to look at this objectively," Rich said. "From a prosecutor's point of view, you can deal with the (moral) issue straight up. You say to the jury, 'This is a case that involves the issue of whether every citizen of Utah is entitled to equal protection under the law, no matter what.' "
But the decision is more complicated than it seems, says University of Utah law professor and victims' rights specialist Paul Cassell. A system that prosecuted every single case would be immediately overwhelmed both in terms of workload and costs.
"Without knowing all the facts, it's hard to evaluate the prosecutor's decision," he said. "The evidence may in one context be very strong, but in another is simply not sufficient to carry the day in a criminal case where the burden of proof is very high."
In this case, Yocom said, the facts just aren't there. The facts say the women were hired on con-
secutive nights in September to dance and strip for the man, age 32, who is known to the escort agency as "JJ."
"Obviously their trade had something to do with (the decision). You don't usually find people engaged in a conduct where they go to a stranger's room at 2 o'clock in the morning, where you disrobe and dance in front of them," Yocom said. "I suppose if you had eight people that were all employees of their profession, I suppose you would get a conviction, but that's not possible in a cross-section of the community."
About 50 percent of the rape cases tried by the prosecutor's office are lost, Yocom said. In 35 years of practicing law, Yocom said he has never seen a case involving an escort or a prostitute go to trial.
Orem attorney Andrew McCullough is one of a handful of people who have tried these type of cases in civil court. He took a date-rape case after Utah County prosecutors declined to file criminal charges. He lost. As an ACLU board member, he currently represents several of the adult entertainment clubs in the valley.
"These are tough cases," McCullough said. "I think an experienced prosecutor looks down the list of facts and decides if he has a case. In this case, I think he's saying, 'I'm not sure I could convince a jury.' If you go in there and spend all the state's resources and you don't produce a conviction, have you done anything worthwhile?
"That's a question that is hard to answer."
Rich doesn't believe the issue should be winning or losing.
"A good prosecutor shouldn't care about whether they are going to win or lose. They care about whether or not they are pursuing the interest of the state," Rich said. "I think the message they are sending is horrible. It's basically saying, 'Hey, all of you potential rapists out there, if you pick on somebody who escorts, you're not going to be prosecuted.' It's astounding."
McCullough said he proudly counts many women who provide adult entertainment among his closest friends.
"I am angry on a somewhat regular basis that my clients are not treated as decent people in society," he said. "These are nice, decent people. The implication of all of this stuff is that these are people who will not be treated the same as others by the system."
Still, McCullough said he doesn't see that bias coming from the prosecutors office.
Yocom said he isn't worried about the message his decision might send to either escorts or their clients. Criticisms of his decision from law enforcement and the news media won't sway him to change his mind, he added.
"It's unfortunate that we can't please everyone. We certainly would like to make sure that everyone goes away happy, but this is not a happy situation," Yocom said. "You just can't put people on trial for a crime if you don't have enough evidence to convict. That's not my standard; that's the national standard for prosecutors."