A culprit in one of Utah's most famous crimes will remain out of view of the Utah public even while a state board ponders whether to free him.

The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole said Wednesday the March 9 parole hearing for Addam Swapp will be in a prison in Florence, Ariz., and the public and journalists can't attend.

"Their determination is there is definitely a safety and security issue with Mr. Swapp," said Sharel Reber, an assistant Utah attorney general.

Arizona corrections administrators are not worried about Swapp hurting someone during the hearing, Reber said. They're worried about someone else hurting Swapp.

The Arizona Department of Corrections declined to conduct background checks on reporters and to search them before entering the prison. The department has a policy prohibiting media from prisons, Arizona corrections spokeswoman Katie Decker said.

On Jan. 16, 1988, Swapp detonated 87 sticks of dynamite in the LDS Kamas Stake Center. Swapp, then a polygamist, believed he could topple the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and resurrect John Singer, a fundamentalist Mormon who was shot and killed by police officers about nine years earlier.

After the bombing, Swapp holed up in a home in Marion for 13 days with a dozen family members including his mother-in-law, Vickie Singer, brother Jonathan and brother-in-law John Timothy Singer while surrounded by officers.

The siege culminated with a shootout Jan. 28 after Utah Corrections Lt. Fred House and an FBI team tried to capture the Swapp brothers as they left the house. John Timothy Singer opened fire, killing House.

Swapp served a 15-year federal sentence for his role in the church bombing. He has served two years of a 15-year state manslaughter sentence for House's death. Swapp's state sentence is being served in Arizona to avoid conflicts in Utah.

But Swapp, 45, is still considered a Utah inmate. Utah parole hearings typically are open to the public, but Reber said the board's rules allow hearings to be closed when there's a security threat.

The Tribune and other Utah news outlets had petitioned for admittance to the hearing. The Utah attorney general's office had worked to allow public access to the hearing.

Pardons and parole said it will release a recording of the hearing after it is completed.

House's widow, Ann House, said she thinks excluding reporters is appropriate.

"I think this is [the Singer and Swapp] family that has loved the media access," Ann House said.

Ann House said she does not want Swapp released.

"Although I hold no ill will toward him, I've just never gotten the feeling that he or other members of the Singer-Swapp family have ever truly been repentant," she said.

Ann House said she and her three children will submit letters to the parole board but will not attend the hearing. Swapp's parents, Ramon and Harriett, and his wife Charlotte, plan to attend the hearing but will not be allowed to speak.

In September, Swapp sent letters to Ann House, Utah officials and The Park Record apologizing for his actions.

He declined an interview request from The Tribune but wrote to the newspaper: "There is a side of me that would love to explain the reasons for what I have done, but the act of justifying myself, I feel, would actually be an attempt, however subtle, to exonerate myself."

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

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* BROOKE ADAMS contributed to this report.