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- The Utah Attorney General's Office seeks dismissal of state charges against Rubicon Contracting.
- A federal investigation into labor trafficking allegations is underway by the Department of Justice, according to the state.
- A Franks hearing was scheduled for next week to assess the validity of search warrants used.
BOUNTIFUL — The Utah Attorney General's Office is asking for state charges against a Davis County general contracting company accused of labor trafficking to be dismissed because of a pending federal investigation.
"The Civil Rights Division-Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit of the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Counter Human Trafficking has initiated a federal investigation into the matter. The state of Utah now defers to the Department of Justice and its pending investigation and moves to dismiss the pending state litigation without prejudice," according to the motion filed Tuesday in 2nd District Court.
As of Wednesday, no federal charges had been filed against Rubicon Contracting LLC.
The motion comes on the heels of a contentious hearing between the judge and prosecutors on Dec. 27, a new judge being assigned to the case and on the verge of a Franks hearing scheduled next week. A Franks hearing is a court proceeding during which the court considers whether a police officer lied to obtain a search warrant.
In November 2023, the founder and six executive members of Rubicon Contracting were charged with 14 counts each of aggravated human trafficking, a first-degree felony. The group is accused of recruiting about 150 people from Mexico to work for the company using H-2B visas. But once in Utah, charging documents allege the victims were paid very little, forced to live in deplorable housing provided by Rubicon while also being forced to pay rent under the threat of deportation.
But during a preliminary hearing in December, 2nd District Judge Rita Cornish had tense exchanges with assistant attorney general Kaytlin Beckett. The back-and-forth came to a head near the end of the hearing when Beckett told the judge, "I'm frustrated that you didn't interrupt defense counsel, but you've interrupted me multiple times when I'm trying to outline a very large scheme."
"Let me be clear," the judge replied. "I find this is an incredibly challenging case. I think some of the things (defense attorney Nathan) Crane has said about the mischaracterization of the evidence in the state's brief is pretty spot on.
"I am very troubled by the approach the state has taken here," the judge continued. "So yes, I've got a lot of questions for the state about the evidence, about what their theory of the case is. I've got 14 counts, and every time I press the state, I get a different answer as to what the theory of the count is."
Cornish said at the time that she hoped to have a ruling on whether the state had met its burden of proof to bind the charges over for trial. But as of Wednesday, no decision had been issued. And according to an entry in court records on Jan. 30, 2nd District Court Judge Blaine Rawson is now assigned to handle the case.
According to a spokeswoman for the Utah Courts, "Judge Cornish began serving as the Business & Chancery Court Judge on Oct. 1, 2024, and Judge Rawson has been reassigned her caseload in the 2nd District. Judge Cornish has been appointed to serve temporarily as a judge of the 2nd District until Feb. 28, to facilitate matters under advisement to be ruled upon."
Nearly a year ago, attorneys for Rubicon requested the 10 search warrants served in the case be voided, claiming the warrants were granted based on false or incomplete information by the state.
A Franks hearing, named after a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a case out of Delaware, is held to determine whether false statements or significant omissions were used by an investigator in an affidavit to get a judge to sign a search warrant. If that is determined to be the case, then all the evidence collected as part of that search warrant would not be admitted in court. That hearing was scheduled to start on Monday for five of the 10 search warrants.
Attorneys for Rudy Larsen, the founder and owner of Rubicon, and his wife Jena Larsen, say they expect to file a response to the motion by the end of the week.
