Prosecutors Say Kouri Richins' Trial Was a Bargaining Chip for What

Kouri Richins' own marketing manager told her on a recorded jail call that he was helping a sheriff's reelection campaign because the lead detective on her case had 'helped create this problem' for her. That call sits inside the obstruction case that produced indictments against two Utah sheriffs, unsealed October 7, and it complicates the story her lawyers want to tell.

Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds pleaded not guilty to obstructing justice in State v. Kouri Richins. Investigators allege Rigby tried to force Detective Eric Mainord out of the sheriff's race by circulating thirteen allegations about him, allegations that would have forced prosecutors to disclose them and weakened Mainord as a witness against Kouri. The envelope, the anonymous letter that Rigby's lawyer says the charges accuse him of sending, the records request in Edmunds' name: all of it is in sworn affidavits and court filings, none of it is proven.

Greg Hall met with Rigby for twenty minutes in January and says he offered campaign help for free. Prosecutors seized his phone on day seven of the trial to learn whether he helped use the allegations to hinder it. He has not been charged. Mainord was dropped from the state's witness list, never testified, and appeared only on a video the jury watched of his interview with Carmen Lauber.

Kouri's lawyers argue the sheriffs' case supports a new trial whether the allegations are true or false. Prosecutors answer that the witness never testified and the judge screened the material before trial. Her last filing is due October 16, and a November 4 hearing decides whether the blacked-out indictments become public. Tony Brueski weighs whether any of this can touch a conviction built on fentanyl toxicology, a housekeeper's testimony, and a forged insurance policy.

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