David Leavitt is Tough on Crime
David is proud of his record of being tough on crime and punishing violent criminals while reforming our prosecutorial process to be more effective.
One of Utah’s Leading Counties in Sexual Assault Prosecution
Since taking office, Utah County is a leading county on sexual assault prosecution. Even with courts slowing trials with COVID-19 challenges, we continued to work through every opportunity to try cases.
We still have work to do, but the backbone processes, data collection, training, hiring of experienced jury-trial attorneys to replace attorneys who wanted to plea bargain everything is completed. We inherited a 400+ case backlog that was accumulated by the previous SVU Division and we've worked through that.
Improvements Made to Sex Crimes Prosecution
My office put processes in place to work systematically creating checks and balances and increased accountability from getting the data into the system to prosecution decisions.
Next, as a case is submitted to screening, rather than a singular prosecutor being assigned the case and making ALL the decisions from screening to pleading, it goes to a team of screening attorneys who evaluate the evidence and facts. After filing, the case is assigned to a team of attorneys and EACH team has an attorney trained in prosecuting sex crimes.
Specially trained attorneys on EVERY Trial Team
By placing a specially trained attorney on each of the 10 trial teams, and having those teams assigned to each judge and courtroom in the 4th District Court, we are bringing more efficiency and strength to our prosecutions. We have also assigned a victim advocate to those teams.
Improving Prosecution, Victim Sensitivity, and Community Safety
I created a policy that requires his deputies to communicate with victims regularly. We're making sex crime prosecution a focus of every prosecutor in the office. We are making the Utah County attorney's office amongst the most effective sexual assault offices in the state.