Logan • Cache County’s former victim advocate director says she faced retaliation from the county and was used as a political pawn by her boss, ultimately leading to her resignation from a position she held for two decades.
In a lawsuit filed this month in 1st District Court, Terryl Warner, who began working for Cache County in 1996 and overseeing its Victim Services Department in 2004, alleges she faced pressure from County Attorney Taylor Sorensen to support him politically, then faced retaliation for flagging discrepancies in county finances.
The county’s alleged actions, the lawsuit contends, violated state laws that protect public employees from retaliation.
In a statement, Sorensen said the lawsuit was filed by a “disgruntled former employee” and that the “substance of the allegations contained within it are false.”
Sorensen said last week that the county had not been formally served with the complaint but is “eager for the truth of this matter to be established in court according to employee records, witnesses in this organization, and Ms. Warner’s own recorded statements.”
Political pressure, suit alleges
Warner began reporting to Sorensen in early 2024 after he was appointed interim county attorney. At the time, he was seeking a full term in a race against public defender Cameron Cox.
“Almost immediately after Mr. Sorensen became Ms. Warner’s boss,” the complaint alleges, “he began to pressure her to campaign for him and against Mr. Cox.”
The lawsuit alleges Sorensen sent Warner texts expressing how badly he wanted to win, warning that if Cox won, Victim Services would drastically change. He also pressured Warner to “expose” Cox to the community and news media, according to the complaint.
In February 2024, according to the lawsuit, Cox sent Warner two “threatening” texts. In the first message, according to the complaint, Cox told Warner he knew she was “campaigning” for Sorensen and warned that if he beat the interim county attorney, he would make the next four years of her life a “self-reflecting experience.” The second message, the lawsuit alleges, accused her of misusing tax and grant funds.
According to the complaint, Warner feared for her safety and reported the message to county officials, who did not take action.
Cox has not disputed sending the text messages and told The Salt Lake Tribune he never threatened any county employees.
“They abused their power, abused county resources, misused tax money, and tried to get me both arrested and fired,” he wrote in an email to The Tribune this week. “I only spoke the truth and they lied repeatedly.”
Sorensen then encouraged Warner to send the messages to reporters and the Lt. Governor’s Office to “expose” Cox, according to the lawsuit. Warner, the suit states, ultimately did report the messages to the Lt. Governor’s Office.
After the Lt. Governor’s Office took no action, the lawsuit alleges, Sorensen encouraged Warner to file stalking charges and a formal complaint against Cox with the Cache County Sheriff’s Office. Sorensen then initiated a complaint to law enforcement without Warner’s consent, the suit states.
Prosecutors told Warner no action would be taken, so Warner asked the county to launch a formal investigation, the lawsuit states. County officials initially declined to pursue the matter, but ultimately, the County Council voted to initiate an investigation, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint states an independent investigation found Cox’s texts inappropriate and threatening. The investigation report, according to the lawsuit, also says the county’s top executive should have sent a clear message about such behavior not being tolerated.
The executive, however, chose not to terminate Cox’s public defender contract, and Cox remains employed in the position, the lawsuit states.
Accusations of financial discrepancies
Warner had limited contact with Sorensen after he beat Cox in the primary. In July, Cox continued to publicly malign her, the suit alleges, and when she asked Sorensen to address the hostile work environment, he reportedly said “nothing could be done.”
About this time, according to the complaint, Warner discovered financial discrepancies with the use of federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.
Sorensen told The Tribune the accusations of misusing federal funds are not accurate. A relatively small training expense, he said, was incorrectly flagged for reimbursement through pandemic relief money, but county finance officials quickly caught the mistake and fixed it before any reimbursement could occur.
“Cache County remains committed,” Sorensen said, “to transparency and compliance with all grant funding requirements.”
After Warner reported the funding discrepancy to Sorensen, one of the attorney’s investigators asked if she planned on taking legal action over the hostile work environment allegations, the complaint states. Warner said she was considering her options.
The next day, according to the lawsuit, Sorensen placed Warner on administrative leave and served her with an investigation notice, accusing her of misappropriating funds. He also demoted her and suspended her without pay, the complaint alleges.
Warner appealed this, and a county panel overturned the suspension, calling it “overly harsh” and unwarranted, according to the complaint.
In November, Warner reported the financial discrepancies to the state and filed a complaint with the federal government outlining her accusations of Sorensen’s pressure to campaign for him, according to the lawsuit.
She also asked the county for a new supervisor, saying the stress she endured resulted in strokes and tremors, according to the lawsuit.
Warner provided medical documentation, the suit states, but the county never responded. Instead, she was told to meet with Sorensen or face disciplinary action, the complaint alleges. Faced with this ultimatum, Warner resigned, writing in her resignation email, “It has been clear for the past months that Mr. Sorensen’s goal was to remove me from my position and force me out of Cache County employment.”
