Candidates for Utah’s AG: Bret Rawson

[UPDATED: added information on Rawson’s family, interests, and employment with Bountiful police.]

Bret Rawson is one of the candidates for appointment by Governor Gary Herbert to replace Utah Attorney General John Swallow, who resigns December 3. This is the second of a series of brief profiles on the individuals who are known to be considering running for the AG spot. As information on each individual comes out, I’ll update the profiles here. 

Among the earliest candidates to toss their hat in the ring for the open spot for Attorney General in Utah is Salt Lake litigator, Bret Rawson.

In fact, he was so early, that I received an email from him announcing his candidacy for Utah Attorney General the night before rumors about John Swallow’s resignation began to circulate widely. (Rawson tells me that it was completely coincidental.)

According to an Rawson’s site, he has “graduate-level training and experience in crisis communications,” and has worked in private sector and the federal government. In addition to an undergraduate degree from the University of Phoenix in management, Rawson earned a masters in mass communication from BYU and his law degree from the College of William and Mary Law School.

Rawson’s resume includes experience defending municipalities in civil rights cases before the Federal District Court, 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and United States Supreme Court.  Rawson also has Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), certified as of August 2010. He was hired June 2011 as a reserve police officer with Bountiful, Utah. Fully certified, he works two to three shifts a month, riding alone and engaging in all typical patrol activities.

Rawson has been married for 22 years, and enjoys spending time in the remote areas of Utah, either hunting, fishing or just hiking with his dog.  He has also recently been a Scout Master for a Sandy BSA troop.

Rawson’s name has appeared in the news most prominently for his advocacy for members of the Utah Fraternal Order of Police, for whom he is General Counsel, in relation to the investigation by Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill into the West Valley police shooting of Danielle Willard.

Prior to defending West Valley police officers for the Willard shooting, Rawson crossed paths with the John Swallow scandal when he reported a threatening phone call from chief deputy attorney general Kirk Torgensen about his then partner, Marcus Mumford, who is Marc Jensen’s defense attorney. Jensen, one of the prominent accusers of Swallow, had claimed that the AG’s office had a “history of threatening and/or suspicious behavior” towards Jensen’s family. Mumford had filed a motion to disqualify the attorney general’s office from prosecuting Jensen due to conflict of interest.

According to a Deseret News article on the call,

In his declaration, Rawson describes a “threatening” phone call he received June 22 from chief deputy attorney general Kirk Torgensen. Rawson said Torgensen told him lawyers representing Jenson “needed to be careful.”

Rawson said Torgensen told him he’s “generally disgusted” with Swallow, and that he and fellow prosecutor Scott Reed are not complicit in any of Swallow’s alleged wrongdoing.

Torgensen said last week that he didn’t make any threats. He said he has known Rawson for years and called because prosecutors in the Jenson case are being unfairly maligned. He said he was just talking to a friend.

This is Rawson’s first campaign for political office.

Learn more about Bret Rawson online:

Related articles

• Candidates for Utah’s AG: Sen. John Valentine (publiusonline.com)
• Review board to help determine if Willard shooting warrants criminal charges (fox13now.com)
• With Swallow out, the list of hopefuls to replace him is long (publiusonline.com)