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An April public corruption trial set for former Utah Attorney General John Swallow will be delayed. A judge on Monday canceled the meeting to allow his new defense lawyer time to prepare.
Scott C. Williams was hired in November to replace Stephen McCaughey, who had been Swallow's attorney for more than a year.
On Monday, Williams told 3rd District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills he needs more time to plow through the two terabytes of evidence — known as discovery — he has received from prosecutors. More evidence is expected.
Getting through that volume of data cannot "happen anywhere near soon enough" to be prepared for the April 5 trial that had been scheduled, Williams said.
Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Chou Chou Collins, who did not oppose the request for more time, said she anticipates handing over another 1.5 terabytes of data to Williams by year's end.
Hruby-Mills vacated the trial date and set aside April 4 for a hearing to discuss Williams' progress.
It was unclear Monday when a new trial date might be set.
Swallow, 53, did not appear in court Monday because he was waylaid by the snowstorm, Williams said, and was without power at his Sandy home.
In July, Swallow pleaded not guilty to 14 felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with a bribery and corruption scandal stemming from his time in the attorney general's office. The allegations include counts of money laundering, misuse of public funds, obstruction of justice and falsifying government records.
If convicted, Swallow could spend up to 30 years in prison.
Also Monday, Williams expressed his intention to seek an untold volume of evidence in the hands of the FBI and other entities gathered during a federal investigation of Swallow and his predecessor, Mark Shurtleff.
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to prosecute, but some of that evidence is the basis for Salt Lake County's case against Swallow and the parallel prosecution of Shurtleff by Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings.
Shurtleff's attorneys have joined Rawlings in asking Hruby-Mills to force the FBI and others to hand over the additional evidence.
A hearing on the issue is set for Feb. 17 before Hruby-Mills.
Salt Lake County has not made a similar request for evidence in the federal probe.
"We do not believe there is a need to file a motion to compel," Collins told the judge Monday. "There is no reason for this to track with Mark Shurtleff's case. The two cases are separate, and they are going their own ways."
Separately, Swallow soon may face a civil lawsuit filed by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which last week said it intends to name him as a co-defendant in an elections-fraud case involving St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson.
Johnson is accused of skirting campaign finance laws by using so-called "straw donors" to make $170,000 in contributions to candidates for U.S. Senate.
The FEC contends Swallow aided Johnson in his efforts during the 2009-2010 election cycle by soliciting contributions totaling $50,000 for U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. The agency says Johnson also enlisted straw donors to kick in $20,000 to the campaign of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and $100,000 to Shurtleff's short-lived Senate bid.
Under the law, individual contributions at the time were capped at $2,400.
Williams has dismissed the FEC allegations against Swallow as meritless.