This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Imprisoned St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson enjoyed a "get out of jail free" card — at least for one night.
Once dubbed a flight risk by a federal judge, Johnson ate a hamburger and ice cream and spent Monday night at a Salt Lake City hotel after he was released from the Salt Lake County jail without any arrangement by federal authorities to pick him up and take him back to a California prison camp.
Johnson had been transported to Utah to take the stand at the state trial of former Utah Attorney General John Swallow. He was sent to the county jail for 30 days for contempt of court after he refused to testify.
Then, late Monday afternoon, Johnson was told he was being released from the jail before the 30 days had expired.
"I said, 'Don't you have a hold on me? I think I have a federal hold,' " Johnson said Tuesday morning.
The jailer told him there was no hold, and he had to leave. So Johnson said he started walking to his aunt's house in Murray.
He called his attorneys and then went to the federal courthouse Monday evening but it was after hours and closed. Johnson phoned the prison camp at Taft, Calif., where he is serving an 11-year sentence and left a message that he had been released from jail and would turn himself in Tuesday morning.
Johnson got hotel room near the courthouse, had a hamburger with his parents who happened to be in town for a Utah Jazz basketball game and downed a root beer float at a Hires drive-in. His wife also flew up from San Diego.
"I had a hamburger, a very delicious one, and ice cream, twice," Johnson said. "I stayed up all night watching movies that I missed over the last year. Actually, I had the best night I've had in years."
Johnson showed up at the federal courthouse about 8 a.m. Tuesday, surprising security guards when he walked through the front door.
A state investigator on the Swallow case, Scott Nesbitt, arrived within minutes apparently to pick him up.
The FBI declined to comment Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge David Nuffer, who presided over the 2016 trial that resulted in Johnson's conviction by a jury on eight charges of providing false information to a bank, jailed Johnson after the verdict, ruling that he was a risk to flee before his sentencing.
After Johnson turned himself in Tuesday, his attorney Mary Corporon pointed to "the irony of all this" — that all the motions her client made for release were denied because he was deemed a risk to flee.
"Here's a man who was let out 15½ hours ago," Corporon said. "I'm an overweight middle-age woman and I could make it to the Mexican border in 15½ hours, so I'm pretty sure almost anyone could. But Mr. Johnson stayed in town and did exactly what he's supposed to do."
Corporon also expressed skepticism about why a federal hold was not placed on Johnson at the county jail.
"I can't help but wonder in this particular case — high profile with all the intrigue — whether there was some plan on someone's part here to have Mr. Johnson accused of escape," she said, "to have him recaptured in some kind of violent standoff. I don't know what the plan was but this was highly unusual."