Summit County Attorney David Brickey said he has been involved in more than 100 trials as a prosecutor.
And each was uniquely challenging, the Republican added.
“There are victims, and no two individuals have the same set of circumstances,” Brickey said in an interview this week. “When you start having to present evidence ethically, properly in front of eight or 12 jurors, that is always going to be a challenge because the other side, their whole goal, their training and their expertise is to prevent you from doing so.”
Brickey is campaigning this year for his third term in office. He was appointed about five years ago to replace former Summit County Attorney Robert Adkins. Adkins, a Democrat, resigned from the county post to become a judge.
In 2006, Brickey ran unopposed and was elected to a full term.
“The Summit County Attorney’s Office has shown certainly some aggressiveness in representing victims and the criminal prosecution of matters,” Brickey said. “If you commit a violent crime in Summit County our prosecutors don’t shy away by cutting deals, we take it to a jury and get jury verdicts.”
The part of his job that is perhaps most rewarding is prosecuting juvenile offenders, Brickey said.
“One of the highlights of the week for me is juvenile court,” he said. “It’s the one time you can really, hopefully, correct some errors in thinking and help people go in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, under his watch Brickey boasted that prosecutors have filed charges in roughly 90 percent of the criminal cases they have received.
“A majority of these cases end up in some type of conviction,” he said.
Brickey rejected notions that he has been soft on crime.
“It’s absolutely fair to the voters to know that my philosophy is that we charge what we can prove and when we charge crimes we intend to get a conviction,” Brickey said. “The citizens don’t expect dealmakers when it comes to criminal conduct.”
His office has zealously prosecuted drunken drivers, Brickey said.
“We have a lot of bars in our community and people can have fun here but they have to do it responsibly,” he said.
Brickey found himself at the center of controversy in 2007 when the Office of the Utah Attorney General claimed Brickey did not qualify to hold office in Summit County. Brickey had allegedly violated the law by declaring himself a candidate for the elected post even though he lived in Salt Lake County.
State law requires that county attorneys be residents and maintain residencies in the counties they serve during their terms, according to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
But the case against Brickey was dismissed in 2007, which cleared the way for the county attorney to complete his first full term. Brickey had satisfied the residency requirement for candidates when he moved with his family into a house in the Snyderville Basin in spring 2006, a judge in Davis County ruled.