While jurors did not immediately comment Thursday, legal observers say the charitable circumstances of the alleged crimes and the stiffness of the charges were two major hurdles for the prosecution.

"There's always a big difference between passing moral judgment on someone's activities and the realities of convicting someone of a felony for criminal conduct," said Salt Lake City defense attorney Jim Bradshaw, who sat in on portions of the trial.

"Although people may have found what she did distasteful and wrong, it's different to say it was criminal and a felony," Bradshaw said.

Workman was charged with second- and third-degree felony counts of misusing public monies. She was accused of improperly using taxpayer funds to hire two successive bookkeepers for the Murray-based nonprofit South Valley Boys and Girls Clubs, where her daughter was chief financial officer.

Acknowledging that Workman violated county policy by informally arranging the funding without a contract or public hearing, her attorneys argued she did not commit a crime.

William McGuire, chief deputy of the Davis County Attorney's Office, said jurors might have agreed Workman handled the financial situation incorrectly but could have been swayed toward acquittal because the mayor received no personal benefit.

If she had been charged with a misdemeanor, prosecutors might have gotten a conviction, he said.

"One of the difficult things would have been the fact that she was trying to help an agency out," McGuire said.

Steven Shapiro, a Salt Lake City public defender, said the defense made a persuasive argument that her hiring of the bookkeepers was a procedural problem, not a legal one.

"I suspect, at the end of it all, you have a situation where it's pretty tough to figure out where the harm is," said Shapiro, who also observed parts of the trial.

Shapiro said special prosecutor Michael Martinez made a strategic mistake of allowing defense witnesses, during cross-examination, to repeat the defense theory over and over - that Workman violated rules but not the law.

"That's breaking the first rule of cross-examination," Shapiro said.

The case was complicated by politics. Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom, a Democrat, oversaw the initial investigation of Workman, a Republican who accused him of a political agenda.

Yocom then deferred to a bipartisan panel of four prosecutors, who concluded there was probable cause, or sufficient evidence, to support the filing of the felony charges. Yocom filed the counts, then appointed Martinez to prosecute the case.

Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson, spokesman for the panel, said Thursday: "Probable cause is one thing, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is another. Evidently, the jury felt there was insufficient proof beyond a reasonable doubt for a conviction.

"Juries do what juries do. It's not the first time a person has been acquitted after being charged; that happens routinely," Bryson said.

After Workman was placed on leave, Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Jeffrey Hall joined Martinez in prosecuting the case. He said Thursday he had no regrets about pursuing felonies rather then misdemeanors.

"We filed charges that reflected the evidence we were presented with," Hall said. "And that's our duty."

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Tribune reporter Stephen Hunt contributed to this report.