Cannibalism. A 'Satanic Panic'-style sex cult. A faked death. Robert Gehrke tries to unravel the bizarre Utah County Attorney race and 'provide some context to what is actually going on.'
Utah County Attorney David Leavitt holds a press conference in Provo on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, where he called for Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith to resign, alleging his office is being used for “political purposes.
A political operative I spoke with last week called Leavitt before the investigation was announced and warned him of what he’d heard. The tactics simply didn’t sit well with the politico. Utah newsrooms had already been tipped off to the existence of a 150-page — uncorroborated and unverified — victim statement given to Provo Police years ago that mentions Leavitt as part of a ritualistic sex abuse, murder and cannibalism cult.
The county attorney made it worse when he referred to the accuser as “tragically mentally ill.” That was a misstep because it could send a chilling message to people with valid claims of abuse and because it stigmatizes mental illness. There are allegations against other named individuals claiming countless rapes by many different people — multiple times in a week. It claims they committed numerous murders, kept human body parts in freezers, toted a head around like a trophy and had a dungeon with dangling corpses in a couple’s home.
The first donations started coming in the day after the investigation was announced. Donors include Hughes and his lobbying partners, Burns, Rep. Mike Schultz, and the Duchesne and Garfield county sheriffs.
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