Lawsuit: Appellate attorney says his free-speech rights were violated after he was fired for speaking out about funding issues in Utah death-penalty case

An appellate attorney is suing Weber County, saying county officials violated his free-speech rights when they terminated his contract for speaking publicly about a lack of funding in a death-penalty case.

County officials in November ended their contract with attorney Samuel Newton to handle appeals for indigient defendants, saying the attorney’s comments in the media and to the courts had been “harmful to the county’s reputation.”

Newton made several comments about payment issues as he represented Douglas Lovell, a death-row inmate sentenced in 2015 to be executed for killing 39-year-old Joyce Yost in 1985 to keep her from testifying that he had previously raped her.

The Montana-based attorney withdrew from Lovell’s case over payment issues in September, and county officials later terminated a second contract he had to handle the appeals of all other Weber County defendants who could not afford an attorney.

Newton on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging county officials cut his contract in retaliation for his public comments. This action amounts to a violation of Newton’s First Amendment right to free speech, his attorney, Karra Porter, wrote in the lawsuit.

“Newton is an independent contractor with no confidential relationship or duties of loyalty to the county and no role in the county’s internal operations,” Porter wrote in the lawsuit, adding that any “harm” to the county’s reputation did not outweigh Newton’s free-speech rights.

Newton has expressed concerns over payment both in court and in recent Salt Lake Tribune news articles, saying the dispute left him feeling like he “had to choose” between supporting his family financially and zealously representing his client. He also penned a commentary about how the capital punishment system is unfair to defendants and attorneys, which was published in The Tribune op-ed section.

County officials did not cite any specific statements leading to Newton’s dismissal, but Commissioner James Harvey said in November that he felt Newton was spending too much time trying to create relationships with his clients in prison, when “all the state wants to know is if the appropriate decision has been made” in a conviction.

The lawsuit says that Newton’s statements to the media were not made on the behalf of any defendant, and noted that the articles included statements from “a wide range of concerned citizens” who were not connected to Lovell’s case. Any comments made after he withdrew from Lovell’s case were done as a “concerned citizen,” the lawsuit states, not as legal counsel.

Commissioner Harvey on Wednesday said he had not seen Newton’s lawsuit, and referred comment to county attorney Chris Allred, who did not respond.

The funding dispute centered on a now-delayed multiday evidentiary hearing, where witnesses were to be questioned about what work Lovell’s trial attorney did on the case — and whether The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints interfered with the trial by limiting what bishops who worked with Lovell at the prison could say on the stand during the penalty phase of trial.

Lovell is currently appealing his conviction to the Utah Supreme Court, which had sent the case back to the district court for the evidentiary hearing.

Newton had argued in court papers that the hearing would require hundreds of hours of investigation and preparation, which he estimated would cost more than $37,000. The county, however, had authorized additional payment of only $15,000. The attorney said concerns about inadequate pay on Lovell’s case and another death-penalty appeal were causing him stress-related heart problems.

County officials have disagreed with Newton’s assertions, saying a “soft cap” for funding was in place, but that Newton could have asked for more money if he could show it was needed.

Weber County has hired a new attorney, Colleen Coebergh, to take over Lovell’s appeal. The county contracted a “soft cap” of $100,000 for Coebergh, according to commission minutes. Newton’s cap had been $75,000, according to court motions. The previously delayed evidentiary hearing is now set for April.

Lovell is one of nine men who are currently on Utah’s death row.