Supporting Shurtleff Reflected Not Well on Us

   To read Paul Rolly's Saturday piece is to wonder if I have been derelict of good judgement in the past by supporting Mark Shurtleff. To read Rolly is to see that the current scandal is but luggage from a baggage cart Shurtleff has long wheeled around.
   It does not reflect well on us, the public, that we supported a person who refused to press state charges against a man, Rick Koerber, he had a standing with, who had been indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office on fraud charges. The U.S. Attorney's Office needed only for Shurtleff to press those charges.
   Eventually, Francine Giani, head of the Utah Commerce Department, became so frustrated that she took the charges to the federal government, and they brought the case against Koerber, instead of Shurtleff's office.
   Public office is not a place for protecting friends from criminal charges, especially when you are the one charged with pressing the charges. We, as the public, should have seen this was wrong, and demurred. We should have realized that whether we liked him or not, we simply could not in good conscience support him.
   Or, is protecting someone from charges something we do not see as a wrong? If we -- the public -- do not see something wrong with this, it reflects on our own morals.
   (This story rewritten June 4, 2013)
  http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/56387130-82/shurtleff-attorney-campaign-reporters.html.csp