Utah’s Judicial Conduct Commission has launched an investigation to find out how and why a legally confidential report into alleged misconduct by Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen — claims the bipartisan commission found to be “speculative, overstated, and misleading” — was made public by the Utah House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, commissioners voted unanimously to appoint three members — Michele Ballantyne, Judge Ryan Harris, and Stephen Studdert — to work with staff to investigate how and why the confidential information was made public.

“I am concerned that there has been irreparable harm done here,” said Cheylynn Hayman, the chair of the commission, “but the best we can do is try to figure out how to instill trust and confidence in the people of Utah and the judiciary and the executive branch and the legislative branch going forward in what we do.”

Under Utah law, records from the conduct commission, which has the constitutional authority to investigate complaints against judges, are strictly confidential unless the Supreme Court acts on a commission recommendation and disciplines a judge.

A complaint, stemming from second-hand information shared by an attorney who knows Hagen’s ex-husband, accused the justice of having an improper relationship with an attorney on Utah’s redistricting lawsuit while the case was pending. JCC staff conducted a preliminary investigation and reported that “the allegations as presented in the complaint are speculative, overstated, and misleading. There is very little credibility to this complaint.”

Based on the staff recommendation, the JCC voted in January to dismiss the complaint.

But the House of Representatives obtained a copy of the investigative report and provided it to KSL News and a host of other media outlets in response to open records requests.

Based on the information in the report, House Speaker Mike Schultz, Senate President J. Stuart Adams and Gov. Spencer Cox said important questions remained unanswered and that they were launching their own investigation into Hagen’s conduct.

Hagen had said in a sworn statement that she renewed a friendship with the lawyer, Dave Reymann, who was a former colleague, five months after she wrote an opinion in the redistricting case. Since then, she recused herself from three cases involving Reymann that have come before the court.

Reymann also represents the Utah Media Coalition, which includes The Salt Lake Tribune, KSL and other media outlets.

It is a class B misdemeanor for anyone to release records that are classified as private under the law.

‘I don’t trust the Legislature right now’

The disclosure of the protected information has ground the commission’s work to a halt.

While staff is still investigating complaints against judges, the commissioners were not provided with any information on the status of those inquiries, at least until there are procedures in place to ensure the material will be kept confidential.

The workaround, at least for now, is for commissioners to receive printed copies of the investigative reports before the meetings, which would then be returned after the commission acts on the complaint.

There are two House members on the commission who legally had access to the report — Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, and Rep. Grant Miller, D-Salt Lake City. Both have said they did not give the Hagen report to anyone.

Miller said working with hard copies of the JCC documents provides a layer of control for the commissioners and avoids a scenario where someone can release confidential material based on a legal analysis, “whether it’s malicious or just patently wrong.”

Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City, who is one of the four legislators on the commission, said she doesn’t want the JCC records “anywhere near my legislative emails.”

“I don’t trust the Legislature right now on this,” Plumb added. “I feel very uncomfortable with what [the Legislature has] done.”

Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, said that when an open records request is made to the Legislature, staff responsible for replying to the request look through members’ email accounts for responsive documents. “The Senate didn’t respond [to the request],” he said. “I wasn’t consulted as far as whether it was going to be produced or not. I didn’t provide an email to them or anything like that.”

Brammer said, in his view, it’s not clear that a member of the commission did anything that led to the release of the file.

The commission’s executive director, Alex Peterson, has said in emails that the release of the report via an open records request “would have been illegal,” a sentiment shared by the Utah Supreme Court, which said the release of the records was improper.

‘We don’t want you anymore’

The JCC investigation comes as the Utah Republican Party leaders publicly campaign to convince Utahns to vote Hagen and Justice Jill Pohlman out of office. Both are on the ballot for a retention elections this November.

“Go find a job in the private sector. We don’t want you anymore,” Utah GOP Chair Robert Axson told delegates last month. “Diana Hagen and Jill Pohlman, see you later.”

Cox said last week the Legislature should hire an independent, outside investigator so it does not appear to be a “witch hunt.”

Hagen and Pohlman were both appointed by Cox, a Republican, and confirmed by the Utah Senate, which has a Republican supermajority.

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