‘TURNED A BLIND EYE’

Utah Sheriff’s Deputy Accuses Her Instructor of Sexual Assault

The woman is suing the department for their alleged negligence in allowing the abuse.

A Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputy is suing the department, alleging that she was sexually assaulted several times by one of the academy’s instructors and that his colleagues knew about, and enabled, it. The abuse started shortly after the unidentified officer joined the academy in April 2021, according to the complaint, which alleged her colleague Brandon Hartley would pull her from trainings or have her stay late before assaulting her. He called her “worthless and nothing but a slut,” the filing alleges. Hartley resigned in 2021 following an internal investigation of a separate sexual assault allegation from another female member of the academy. The lawsuit states she was told she wasn’t the only victim and her case just “slipped through the cracks,” and her lawyer argued the sheriff’s department purposely “turned a blind eye.” The woman told The Salt Lake Tribune she’s tried to get the sheriff’s office and other police departments to open a criminal investigation. “I’m here as proof that they don’t care,” she said. “And I really feel like they will do what they need to to cover that stuff up.”