St. George • One of southern Utah’s most high-profile county attorneys is stepping down. Next, he’ll use his expertise and legal acumen to advocate for all of the state’s 29 counties, instead of just one.
Eric Clarke’s last day as Washington County attorney will be Aug. 7. He is resigning to relocate to the Wasatch Front and start his new position as general counsel for the Utah Association of Counties (UAC), according to a statement posted on the county website.
“We are sad to lose him … because we have relied on him heavily on some of our biggest issues,” Washington County Commissioner Adam Snow said of Clark, who was honored as the state’s top county attorney by UAC in 2024. “His service to the county has been invaluable.”
Clarke, who clerked for Judge Ted Stewart of the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, has served in a variety of jobs in the Washington County Attorney’s Office since 2011. He started out as the deputy county attorney in the civil division and then became the lead civil attorney.
In February 2020, county commissioners appointed Clarke to replace Brock Belnap, who resigned as county commissioner to take a job with the Washington County Water Conservancy District. The following November, Clarke won the election to serve out the remainder of Belnap’s term and was re-elected in 2022.
‘A slap in the face’
As county attorney, Clarke emerged as a vocal opponent of what he called federal overreach and mismanagement of the state’s public lands. He was also an outspoken advocate for the Northern Corridor Highway.
The four-lane highway, which was proposed to bisect the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area north of St. George, was initially approved during the first Trump administration. Last December, in the waning days of the Biden administration, that approval was reversed. A final environmental study concluded the highway would spread noxious weeds, stoke more deadly wildfires and destroy critical habitat for Mojave desert tortoises and other endangered species.
Like Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and other state and county officials, Clarke blasted the reversal. He called it “a slap in the face” to decades of good-faith cooperation the county had enjoyed with the federal government. Even today, he told The Salt Lake Tribune, despite his myriad accomplishments, the disappointment over that decision lingers.
“I get an incomplete on that one,” Clarke said. Nonetheless, views it as a temporary setback that he will continue to work to overturn in his new job.
Prosecuting Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt
For his part, county commissioner Snow credits Clarke for his prominent role in prosecuting the case against parenting influencer Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. The pair was arrested and convicted of aggravated child abuse for their treatment of two of Franke’s children.
Clarke’s efforts on that case contributed to the Utah Legislature’s passage of a bill last session that established child torture as a defined crime: a first-degree felony that is punishable by 10 years to life in prison, according to the statement on the county’s website.
As gratifying as such plaudits are, Clarke said he is just as pleased with some of the less flashy things his office has achieved during his tenure. For example, it helped manage prosecutions during the pandemic. That included navigating a COVID outbreak in the county jail and working around the courts not holding in-person hearings and trials for more than a year.
Clarke said he won’t miss running for reelection, but he will miss the people.
“It’s really been an honor and a privilege to have been elected,” he said, “and to have gone to work every day trying to do what’s best for the office and the community.”
In accordance with state statute, members of the Washington County Republican Party Central Committee will meet Aug. 7 to select three possible candidates to serve out the remainder of Clarke’s term. County commissioners will then choose one of the three to serve as county attorney through the 2026 election.