Henriod recused himself on March 6 in the middle of a trial in which co-defendants Kola Pouha and Siona Pouha were charged with attempted aggravated robbery and aggravated robbery, respectively. That same day another judge was assigned to the case.

Shortly after, Henriod was reassigned to Tooele - a less desirable location among judges - by Presiding Judge Robert Hilder. Henriod, a 14-year judicial veteran, starts his new job April 30.

Hilder said this week that no formal request had been made for Henriod to resign from the cases. Henriod's recusal was instead based on what Hilder called "a comment" the judge made. But he said he did not know the specifics of the comment, nor the context in which it was made.

"Defendants or some parties felt that this was not going to be a fair trial ultimately," Hilder said. "The lawyers may want to talk about it or not, but I have nothing in writing."

Calls to the defendants' attorneys, Brennon Fuelling and David Mack, were not returned. Prosecutor Vincent Meister declined to discuss Henriod's comment, saying one of the cases is still pending.

Formal statistics on the removal of judges from cases are not maintained by the court, Hilder said. But it is unusual for judges to recuse themselves, especially during trials.

In 2006, Hilder said he heard about 30 motions to remove judges, most of them based on charges of conflict of interest or bias. Of those cases, Hilder said he granted the motion and removed the judges only two or three times.

After Henriod stepped down from the cases, Hilder said they had a discussion about Henriod going to Tooele. Hilder said some judges don't like working at the courts in Tooele and Summit counties because there's only one judge, the workload is rapidly increasing and "it's remote and lonely."

Hilder said he was in the process of filling a vacancy in Tooele and Henriod agreed to go.

Attempts to reach Henriod were unsuccessful.

jsanchez@sltrib.com