By Katie McKellar | Senior Reporter
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office asked for stronger tools to prosecute gangs for recruiting underage members, and the Utah Legislature answered.
The DA is putting the new law to use, filing charges against three men accused of recruiting minors to gangs. The men — two of them age 19 and one 20 — have not yet appeared in court to face the allegations.
In today’s Dispatch we report on how the DA is using the new law, House Speaker Mike Schultz’s reaction to an audit that was critical of the Judicial Conduct Commission, and construction starting on a centerpiece project at The Point development in Draper.
“We should focus more on general gang prevention efforts in the community instead of punishing people more harshly for gang activity.” — Richard Mauro, executive director of Salt Lake Legal Defenders, on why defense attorneys oppose the state’s new gang recruitment law.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill speaks during a criminal justice and mental health symposium on Sep. 24, 2025. (Alixel Cabrera/Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill has filed charges against three men of soliciting, recruiting or intimidating a minor to join a gang. The cases follow a long investigation focused on a Utah gang’s efforts to bring in young members.
Gill filed the charges using a new state law that says even if a recruit doesn’t join a gang in the end, it’s still a crime to try. It also stipulates that it’s a misdemeanor for one minor to recruit another.
House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, convenes with lawmakers in the House Chamber at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on the first day of the legislative session, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Katie McKellar
In reaction to an audit that was critical of Utah’s Judicial Conduct Commission, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz said he was “extremely disappointed” with its findings, including how the commission handled and dismissed allegations against former Justice Diana Hagen.
The audit shows the JCC “generally followed its established processes” in the Hagen case. But it raised concerns with the recusal of the commissions chair, Cheylynn Hayman, from the vote to dismiss. Auditors said she “commented on the character of the complainant before recusing from further participation.”
A rendering of the Nucleus Institute’s planned Convergence Point. (Courtesy of Gensler and FFKR)
By Alixel Cabrera
Construction is underway at the former prison site in Draper to build the “Convergence Point,” a facility that will be a centerpiece for the massive development.
Thanks to $50 million approved by the 2022 Utah Legislature, state leaders are building what they envision as an innovation hub where university students, researchers and business leaders will team up to help solve the state’s biggest problems.
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