Former Swallow campaign aide decries ‘cruel’ search by agents

A former campaign aide to John Swallow wept on the witness stand Friday, describing how she felt violated when agents raided her home, pawed her gun and sifted through her underwear.

Renae Cowley, who helped run Swallow's successful 2012 campaign for Utah attorney general, testified that she had fully cooperated and been honest with FBI agents and state investigators as part of a probe into public-corruption allegations against Swallow.

The former attorney general faces a dozen felonies and one misdemeanor in a trial that wrapped up its second week Friday.

Much of the previous testimony had focused on Swallow's immediate predecessor, former three-term Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, and his friend and so-called "fixer," the late Timothy Lawson. But Salt Lake County prosecutors zeroed in Friday on Swallow.

Cowley said she cooperated with investigators with the understanding that her identity would be protected. But, under cross-examination by Swallow's attorney Cara Tangaro, the witness started to cry as she described how her name ended up in search warrants and agents in riot gear showed up at her Capitol Hill condominium.

Officers roamed through her apartment and put her gun on the kitchen table. "It looked like each officer wanted to go over there and look at it and hold it." Cowley said they also pulled out her underwear and smirked.

"I was a strong woman and I didn't feel comfortable having all these strangers in my home," she said. "They were cruel in how they treated me that day, like a criminal."

Cowley told jurors that Swallow never promised campaign donors any favors. Rather, she said, he told them that contributions were not "fire insurance" or protection.

Her testimony began with questions about an August 2012 fundraiser hosted by Timothy and Jennifer Bell.

Swallow later made a call on the Bells' behalf to lobbyists for Bank of America, which was foreclosing on the couple's luxury home. Swallow's involvement with the Bells is part of the felony charge of receiving or soliciting a bribe.

The couple received a loan modification after Swallow's call, and Swallow allegedly told bank lobbyists that the state would withdraw its intervention in the Bells' lawsuit over the foreclosure.

Cowley said she didn't know the cost of the fundraiser, but guessed it was about $1,000, based on comparisons with other events. She said she never saw receipts for it, but thought the reported $25,000 tab was unreasonably high. She said there was talk about the actual value and amending the campaign-disclosure report because the high cost would raise red flags.

After conversations with Swallow and campaign consultant Jason Powers, Cowley testified, she called Timothy Bell to ask him to amend the campaign disclosure to $1,000.

Before the jury entered Friday morning, jailed St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson told 3rd District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills that he intended to refuse — again — to testify. It marked the third straight day of Johnson invoking his Fifth Amendment right.

Johnson's lawyers have said he won't take the stand until he reaches an ironclad agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that ensures his testimony won't be used against him for any new criminal investigations or prosecutions.

Salt Lake County prosecutors have offered Johnson immunity, but his attorneys fear it wouldn't shield him from federal actions. So far, efforts to negotiate a deal with the DOJ have been unsuccessful.

Johnson had been in the Salt Lake County Jail since Wednesday after the judge found in him contempt. The judge suspended that 30-day sentence for three days Friday and said Johnson could be returned to the custody of the FBI — in a hotel. The arrangement will provide Johnson's attorneys with greater access to him while they continue to try to hammer out a deal with the feds.

Another Swallow lawyer, Scott C. Williams, told the judge the state should document any interaction Johnson has had — and will have — with his attorneys, FBI or prosecutors during the immunity negotiations. Williams argued the information should be considered discovery — evidence that could affect Johnson's eventual testimony — so Swallow should get it.

Outside the court, Williams said he questions how Johnson is being treated by federal agents.

"Our concern is to get information we're entitled to about the treatment of a witness the state intends to bring, whether it's information about favors they're giving or information about punishment they're applying to him to try to crowbar his testimony out of him," Williams said. "Frankly, our concern is more that he's being mistreated because of the exercising of his rights, and if that's true, we want to know about it."

Williams told the judge that Johnson's refusal to testify left a "giant gaping hole" in the state's case and could cause the defense to pare down its witness list.

He said he intended to put Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes on the stand, but would try to accommodate the Draper Republican's schedule at the Legislature, which is in session.

Hughes' name emerged during testimony by former imprisoned businessman Marc Sessions Jenson, who insists Hughes attended a meeting at a posh California resort in June 2009 with Utah Transit Authority officials as they allegedly plotted to siphon millions of dollars from the development of a Draper train station.

Hughes vehemently denies he was there; the defense wants to call him to rebut Jenson's testimony.

Four of the charges against Swallow are tied to Johnson or his associates. Among those is Travis Marker, an attorney who worked for Johnson when he was fighting both the Federal Trade Commission over the operations of an online company and criminal charges that spun out of the FTC case.

On Friday, Marker testified that he had three meetings with Swallow in 2011, looking for advice or strategies to help Johnson.

During the third encounter on the Utah Capitol grounds, Marker said Swallow, then head of the civil division in the attorney general's office, asked Marker if Johnson had any more money and stated that could help open the door to more "options."

Marker said Swallow seemed nervous because it was during his campaign for attorney general and he feared associating with Johnson could prove risky.

Marker said he couldn't remember how much money Swallow suggested, although he agreed after prompting by prosecutors that it was $120,000. Marker said whom the money would go to and for what purpose were never stated. He also said he told Swallow that Johnson, who had paid for lobbyist work in the past, had no more cash because the FTC had frozen his assets.

Another witness, former telemarketer Aaron Christner, told jurors that he called Swallow in April 2012 because he was "madder than hell" and needed help after the Utah Department of Commerce slapped his business with $400,000 in fines.

Christner said Swallow told him he could set up a meeting with Shurtleff to see if they could resolve the issue. Swallow also told Christner he knew of other issues with Commerce and that, if elected, he planned to move the consumer-protection division into the attorney general's office.