DURHAM

JONES &PINEGAR

DuRHAM Jons & PINEGAR, P.C'1 1 1 East Broadway, Suite 900P O Box 4050Salt Lake City, Utah 84'1 10801,41 5.300080'1 .415.3500 Faxwww.djplaw,com

R. Blake HamiltonAttorney at Lawbhamilton@djplaw,com

May 15, 2015

VIA REGULAR MAIL

Sgt. Todd RoyceUtah Highway PatrolUtah Department of Public SafetYFirst Floor

- South

4501 S. 2700W.Salt Lake City, UT 84II4HAND DELIVERED

Sim GillSalt Lake County District Attorney's Office111 E. Broadway, Ste. 40OSalt Lake City, UT 841 1 1

Re: Neil Green Press ReleaseDear Sirs:

I represent former Trooper Neil Green, I also represented Neil during his internalaffairs investigation at Utah Highway Patrol ('UHP"). I am writing in response to yourrecent public statement" t"grtit g Neil, which local news agencies began airing andquoting on T\resday evening.

your statements regarding Neil's 2014 investigation and resignation from UHP werecallously inaccurate. Youeedleisly and publicly humiliated him, falsely accused him ofdishonesty, and slandered his name without justification. I am writing this letter in orderto preseni ihe entirety of the facts about Neil's experience in order to correct thefalsehoods that are crrently swirling around in the media. Therefore, I will also besending a copy of this letter to all local news outlets'

During his time at UHP, Neil was often recognized for exceptional performance. Hereceived various awards for making the most DUI and drug arrests, received two unitcitations, as well as various letters of commendation from his supervisors. He alsoreceived very positive performance evaluations from his sergeants.

In January 2013, Neil received an offer of employment from another lawenforcement agency. Alihough Neil was very interested in the position, he ultimately

sLC 2201090.1SALT LAKE CITY I LEHI I OGDEN I ST. GEORGE I LAS VEGAS

Sgt. RoyceSim GillMay 15, 2015Page 2

declined the offer due to his concerns that he would not be able to provide care for hisfather, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer'

Neil continued with his service at UHP after declining the offer. In February, anissue arose regarding a report involving one of Neil's DUI arrests' Neil admittedly made anerror on his electroni-c reprt when entering the information about the Field Sobriety Testshe administered. When it

""-" time for him to prepare for his testimony at the driver

license hearing on that matter, Neil reviewed his report and testified consistent with thereport, Later, upon viewing the dashcam video of the arrest in preparation for asuppression hering of thelase scheduled for February 26, 2014, he realized that hisrefrt (and therefore his driver license hearing testimony) were not accurate.

prior to the suppression hearing, Neil attempted several times to contact theprosecutor to noti$r him of the mistake' Nrosecutor on Febiuary 24 at 12:35 p'm., atiZtZS p.m. Unfortunaiely, the prosecutor lled'and did not return Neil's phone calls, JustFebruary 26,2OI4 Neil ws able to locate and notify the prosecutor in person. Therefore,Neil did not give courtroom testimony for the case. The prosecutor later dismissed thecase.

Neil then called his UHP supervisor, Sgt. Brian Spillman regarding this issue onFebruary 26 at2:59 p,m. Later that day, at 5:51 p.m , Neil also called his Lieutenant,Brad Horne, to speak with him about the issue, Sgt. Spillman advised Neil to type a memoof this issue. Neil submitted a memo to Sgt. Spillman the next day.

In response, on March 3, 2074, Lt. Horne informed Neil that he was being placed ontemporary trnsitinal assignment, Neil was to work a desk job while UHP investigatedthe matter. Lt. Horn" *p""ifi".lly informed him that he was not being disciplined or,,under administrative attion." Also, Lt. Horne informed him that if he resigned from UHPduring the investigation, UHP would immediately drop the investigation and nothingfurther would be done on the investigation'

While the investigation was pending, Lt, Horne reassured Neil that his position wassecure and that he did riot believe that he would be terminated, Lt, Horne informed himthat another officer had encountered similar issues with his reports and subsequenttestimonies, and that officer only received a letter of counsel, and was able to keep his joband continue to testifY in court.

In February, Neil was able to make arrangements for his father's care so that hecould accept the jb offer he had received in January, which the other law enforcementagency was still willing to honor. Neil accepted the offer and submitted a resignation letterto UHP on March 20. -Upon submitting his resignation letter to UHP, Lt' Horne informedhim that the investigation would be drpped since he was resigning, that he had not beendisciplined by uHP, and no official findings had been made.

Neil worked for the other law enforcement agency for a short period before theyterminated his employment based upon information they received fiom UHP' After trying

Sgt. RoyceSim GillMay 15, 2015Page 3

to apply to several more law enforcement agencies, Neil realized that UHP had left theirinveiligation open, contrary to what his UHP superiors had told him.

Upon learning that UHP's investigation was still open, I reached out to UHP onNeil's behalf, Neil appeared for an interview, and we received a copy of the finaldetermination frorn-uHP on March 25,2015 (however, the determination was datedSeptember 4,2OI4).

UHp ultimately found that there was not sufficient evidence to determine whetherNeil had knowingly made false statements under oath, or knowingly falsified informationon his report. ThL only allegations that UHP did sustain corroborated Neil's explanationthat he made a mistake on his report. These involved unintentionally making a falsestatement and failing to meet agency standards.

Despite UHp's own findings, UHP held a press conference and announced to thepublic tfraf Ueil ,'was not forthcoming and was not honest in his testimony," Sgt. Royce'somments regarding UHP's investigation gave the distinct impression that, while UHP doesnot have sufficient evidentiary support, it still wants people to believe that Neil had beendishonest. Sgt. Royce also falsely

"t"t"d that "[a]s soon as [uHP] found out there was

some credibility issues among ths trooper he was no longer in a sworn capacity'" This isalso not true: UHP placed Neil on temprary transitional assignment days after Neil hadsubmitted a memo to his supervisor regarding the incident.

District Attorney Gill's comments to the media were also misleading. D.A. Gillstated that the DistriciAttorney's Office had "subpoenaed" Neil to testify in a case but Neilfailed to appear. This ignores the fact that Neil was never actually served with a subpoenaand had tto id"u. he was expected to testify in court on that date.

The District Attorney's Offce also requested the public to come forward with anyinformation they have abot Neil, implying that Neil is suspected of criminal activity' Thisignores t - Office, knowing of Neil's case, determinednot to pr ignores that this was an isolatedincident , and there is no evidence to support anysuspicion that Neil's mistake was part of a pattern of conduct.

Neil,s personal and professional life has suffered enough as a consequence of hissimple and hnest mistake. There is no need to drag him before the media and publiclyhumiliate him, too. Please be sensitive to the impact your words have had and conductyourselves accordingly, which includes stopping with all defamatory statements regardingeil and ceasing thi tontinued witch hunt when he has already been cleared.

Sgt. RoyceSim GillMay 15, 2O15Page 4

Sincerely,

Dunneu JouBs & PruPcen, P.C.

/s/ R,Blake HamiltonR, Blake Hamilton

RBH:amg

cc: Sgt, Troy DenneYPat Reavy, Deseret NewsErin Alberty, Salt Lake TribuneAndrew Adams, KSL Channel 5 NewsRobert BoYd, Fox 13 NewsABC Channel4 NewsCristina Flores, KUTV NewsClient