She didn't get it - at least not yet.
Instead, District Attorney David Yocom announced Monday morning that he will hire a special prosecutor to try the embattled Salt Lake County mayor on two felony charges.
Yocom, a Democrat, said he had to step aside because Workman, a Republican, repeatedly has accused him of playing politics with the investigation. Yocom's latest move may fan those allegations, because naming a special prosecutor could hold up the case.
"I can't think of any reason for the District Attorney's Office to have done this today, except to delay this trial beyond November," said Workman's defense attorney, Greg Skordas. "We were ready to go. They've had this case for two months; we've had this case for a weekend. Give us a trial date."
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Yocom plans to announce this morning whom he has selected as special prosecutor.
Skordas - the Democratic candidate for Utah attorney general and a former top deputy of Yocom - attempted at Monday's initial appearance in 3rd District Court to waive all other hearings so the mayor could plead innocent to second- and third-degree felony misuse of public funds and land a quick jury trial.
Deputy District Attorney Jeff Hall objected, saying the special prosecutor would have to decide whether to agree to the waivers.
Late on Monday, Skordas filed a challenge to the appointment of a special prosecutor, saying that even if the "rhetoric" were true that there was unprofessional conduct on Yocom's part, it would not meet the requirement of conflict of interest.
Workman "has never alleged unprofessional or unethical conduct by the District Attorney's Office, either in her political advertising, in statements, or otherwise. Rather, . . . [Workman and Skordas] believe the District Attorney's Office to be fully competent, capable and professional in its prosecutorial duties."
The mayor, who is on paid leave but continuing her drive for a second term, previously alleged that Yocom is on a political vendetta. Her latest campaign ad features supporters dismissing the charges as a partisan ploy.
"It's just politics. They should let her do her job," says one woman in the new television ad.
Yocom, citing those ads and other comments by the mayor, said in a statement he had to hand off the case:
"I realize that the appointment of a special prosecutor will be an added burden on the taxpayers, but when the defendant in a criminal case alleges, as the mayor has alleged here, that I and my office have engaged in unprofessional conduct, and that the investigation and prosecution of this case [are] being done for partisan political reasons, I have no choice but to take this action."
Yocom charged Workman with the felonies after a bipartisan panel of prosecutors found "sufficient credible evidence" to sustain the criminal charges. Court documents allege that Workman illegally funneled about $17,000 in Health Department funds to two successive bookkeepers to work at the South Valley Boys and Girls Club, where her daughter, Aisza Wilde, is chief financial officer.
Skordas said his client is innocent and looks forward to proving it at trial. He added that announcing the special prosecutor Monday morning was "absolutely wrong."
''That decision should have been made two months ago, before we got to this place, instead of filing a case that may or may not have merit and then handing it off to another prosecutor and saying, 'Here, you try it.' Maybe the special prosecutor wouldn't have even charged the case, how do we know?''
Skordas said it was unfair to Workman, who has been plunging in opinion polls and trails Democrat Peter Corroon by double digits. "If she's acquitted after elections, the voters will feel very badly, like they've been cheated."
Workman campaign manager Chris Bleak called Yocom's decision "horrendous" and "ludicrous." Yocom ''has no incentive for it to be heard before the election," Bleak said. "With this hanging over the mayor, it is incredibly damaging. So if you buy our line that it's political, then his actions on delaying it make sense."
But Democratic County Councilman Joe Hatch blamed Republicans for making the dispute partisan. "The whole situation just stinks of politics from their end," he said.
Given the tone of statements by Workman and other prominent Republicans along with the mayor's latest campaign commercial, Hatch said, Yocom had no choice but to toss the case to a special prosecutor.
''She's running [$125,000] in ads on TV, saying this is political, political, political. She gets up and says it's political, political, political. And so . . . he tries to say, 'OK, let's have some third party out there take a look a this and come forward and prosecute it, and get that off of the arena.' How can they have it both ways? That's simply inappropriate.''
tburr@sltrib.com
