SALT LAKE CITY — Despite being sentenced last summer to more than 11 years in federal prison, St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson was fleetingly a free man for parts of Monday and Tuesday after being released from the Salt Lake County Jail, his attorney has confirmed.
Johnson was serving a 30-day sentence at the jail for contempt of court on Feb. 15 for refusing to testify in the criminal case against former Utah Attorney General John Swallow. He had been transported to Utah by federal authorities from where he was serving his prison sentence in Taft, California.
Johnson's defense attorney, Mary Corporon, confirmed her client was told by the jail Monday that he was being released and that he did not have a federal hold on him.
Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Cammie Skogg also told the Deseret News there were no holds listed in Johnson's paperwork and that he was released because he had met the terms of his sentence.
"There were no other documents, no other holds or paperwork in his file, so he was treated as if he was any other typical 30-day commitment, so he was released," she said.
The clerks who processed Johnson likely did not know the details of his case, so it didn't raise any red flags when his file showed he was due for a time-served release, Skogg said.
"There's just no way you could be familiar with every person in every case," she said.
Corporon said she was stunned to learn of what happened to Johnson.
"He was just called up and set out on the sidewalk. ... I can't remember (a case) where there was supposed to be a federal hold on somebody and they walked away ... because they were let go," she said.
Corporon declined to go into much detail about Johnson's activities after he was released.
"All I can say is he stuck very close to downtown Salt Lake and turned himself in at the first available opportunity," Corporon said.
She said that opportunity came at 8 a.m. Tuesday at the U.S. Marshal's Office housed at the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
In March 2016, a jury convicted Johnson of eight counts of making false statements to a bank in connection with his management of iWorks, his online marketing company.
Corporon believes the circumstances of Johnson's release — despite resulting in a measure of unexpected time away from the confines of prison or jail — are worrisome for her client.
"It's just such an unusual occurrence, I can't help but wonder if someone somewhere had a motive that was not in Mr. Johnson's best interests," she said. "Because it certainly isn't in his best interests to be accused of a federal crime and escaping from an institution is a federal crime."
Johnson called the prison in California soon after being released to inform them about his situation and to reassure them he would turn himself in as soon as possible, Corporon said.