Police Leaks in Smart Case Are Discounted
No evidence exists to support claims that Salt Lake City police leaked information about the Elizabeth Smart investigation to reporters, according to a report by the police chief released on Wednesday.
Chief Rick Dinse and Mayor Rocky Anderson met for about an hour Wednesday to discuss the report, sent by Dinse to Anderson last week and released by the city. Anderson had not finished reviewing the report and had no comment, his spokesman Josh Ewing said.
“The mayor asked the chief for more clarification,” Ewing said. “The discussion is still ongoing. The mayor hopes to finish that discussion in the next couple of days.”
The report, based on an internal review, underscored earlier declarations by police that the department had no role in leaking information about the case to reporters.
An attorney for the Smart family said police and officials from the FBI, Utah Department of Public Safety and U.S. Secret Service leaked information about the kidnapping case to former Salt Lake Tribune reporters Michael Vigh and Kevin Cantera.
Dinse’s report quoted Salt Lake County Dist. Atty. David Yocom’s own probe that said tapes of the Smart family attorney’s interview with the two reporters indicated their sources had been employees of two federal agencies and one state agency.
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