A Bluffdale City Council member and former mayoral candidate is suing the city’s mayor and her husband, alleging that they repeatedly harassed and threatened him when he was running for mayor in 2021.
Jeffrey Gaston, whose City Council term expires in 2024, said in his complaint filed Thursday that Mayor Natalie Hall’s husband, Jason Hall, also attacked him with campaign signs at a public event in 2021.
Jason Hall was charged in 2022 in connection with the attack. He faces a single count each of threatening an elected official, stalking, and making threats to influence official action in connection with the threats, according to court documents. That case is slated to go to trial in December.
In the lawsuit, Gaston accuses Jason Hall, as well as Natalie Hall, Woodcraft Mill & Cabinet, and George Schliesser of assault, saying that their “threatening” communications intended for Gaston to fear for his life. Jason Hall is an owner of Woodcraft, according to LinkedIn.
Gaston also accuses all of the defendants of intentionally inflicting emotional distress, alleging their harassment and intimidation is “outrageous and intolerable.”
He specifically accused Natalie Hall of portraying him in a false light by saying that he hadn’t suffered an attack by Jason Hall, and that the allegations of threatening communications sent by Jason Hall to Gaston weren’t true.
Scott Sackett, Gaston’s attorney, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Trinity Jordan, who is representing the Halls as well as Woodcraft, said that his clients look forward to “setting the record straight” regarding the “meritless” claims that have been made in the lawsuit. He said it appears the allegations are “politically motivated.”
“We also expect to hold those accountable that have participated in this ridiculous narrative as it is unfortunate that the anyone would use the court system for political purposes,” he said.
The allegations
On March 5, 2021, Gaston received an email from someone who said they had “high hopes” for him at the beginning of his political career but now thought Gaston was a “schoolyard bully,” according to a charging document filed in the criminal case against Jason Hall. The email stated that Gaston “should know that the wheels are in motion to render you irrelevant.”
Though the email did not include the name of an author, the charging document states the author was Jason Hall. The investigator who wrote the charging document noted that Jason Hall “admitted in a noncustodial setting to me to having sent said email.”
Days later, on March 9, 2021, Gaston received a package to his home address that contained a children’s book about anger management and two notes.
One note read, “Hey Imbecile !!!!!! Move out of Bluffdale, apologize or kill yourself,” according to the charging document. “It’s time for you to start watching your back. This is your final warning. We are moving to the next phase. Do what we ask, or we will do what must be done.”
The same day, a separate package containing “gag gifts” such as a baby’s bottle and pacifier was addressed to Gaston and the other members of Bluffdale’s City Council.
On June 14, 2021, Gaston received an email referencing the “gag gifts,” calling them “brilliant.”
Two months later, on Aug. 14, 2021, Jason Hall rented a booth near Gaston at Bluffdale’s Old West Days celebration, where Gaston was promoting the mayoral campaign of John Roberts, Natalie Hall’s opponent.
Once Gaston started to put up signs at his booth, Jason Hall began to act “erratic,” the charging document states.
Jason Hall “threw political signs of John Roberts at [Gaston], striking him, causing piercing of the skin and bruising, and persisted in a long discourse of berating, insulting and demeaning [Gaston],” the charging document states.
Civil complaint defendant George Schliesser is an employee of Woodcraft, attorney Trinity Jordan confirmed, and as part of his employment, Schliesser would run errands and deliver packages. Some of those packages were “hand delivered” by Schliesser to Gaston’s home, the lawsuit alleges.
Schliesser was aware of the content of the packages and communications directed at Gaston, the lawsuit alleges, and also disguised his appearance when making the deliveries.
Woodcraft’s computers and software were also used in the creation of some of the threatening communications, the lawsuit states, adding that the defendants destroyed a Woodcraft computer used in the creation of the threats once they learned that police had connected them to the communications.
On July 27, 2022, at a Bluffdale City Council meeting, Mayor Natalie Hall stated that the allegations against her husband were untrue, and that he never attacked Gaston, the lawsuit states. Gaston was present at the meeting.
Those statements have kept Gaston from pursuing a career in politics, the lawsuit states.
As of Monday afternoon, none of the defendants had filed a response to the complaint.
— Tribune reporter Jacob Scholl contributed to this story.