REPORT OF INVESTIGATION

UTAH COUNTY OFFICE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Date: 12 NOV 2019

From: MARK BRADY
To: RALF BARNES, Director, Human Resources
CHAD GRUNANDER, Deputy Utah County Attorney

RE: INVESTIGATION: ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ATTORNEY SITAKE FOR TAKING INAPPROPRIATE PICTURES

Recent complaints that Mr. Sitake had taken pictures of a questionable nature raised by were
brought to our attention. I was assigned to investigate. The original information was that Sitake had
taken pictures of several females without their knowledge (including the complainant) and the pictures
were shared with others via text messaging.

I initially met with in the presence of HR Director, Ralf Barnes. Based on that interview, I
subsequently met with Pona Sitake. The reports of those
interviews are set forth below.

Interview 1 October 2019

was interviewed in Ralf Barnes’ office with Mr. Barnes’ present. was concerned about a
hostile work environment. She has been employed with the County for over a year and a half. She has
worked for about a year with . Around a year ago at a lunch gathering at Provo
Towne Center Mall, a picture was taken of her. Sometime after that, Spanish Fork Police Officer
who was a member of the task force and Pona Sitake’s landlord, sent a picture of
her which he said had been taken by Mr. Sitake at the function. stated that the picture was
back-lit by a window and showed her form, but it was otherwise not revealing. She was upset with
having her picture taken and shared with because had been overly friendly
with her and had purchased unwanted gifts for her.

Subsequently, shared with her some pictures which he said that Mr. Sitake had taken of
women attending court that had been shared on a text-messaging thread with other attorneys including
. said that none of the pictures were suggestive
or inappropriate except that the pictures were taken without the subject of the picture being aware of
it. indicated that there were some comments about the women such as that they were “hot”
or words to that effect. Neither nor reported the behavior at the time. In the past
few weeks employees in the Attorney Office speculated that Mr. Sitake might be the next to be assigned
to the Special Victims Unit (SVU). At that point, reported her concerns about Mr. Sitake’s
behavior to supervisor Chad Grunander. The matter was then referred to the Office of Human Resource
Management.
 Interview, 7 October 2019
was interviewed in my office in the Office of Human Resource Management.
stated that Mr. Sitake had sent group text messages while serving in the Justice Court with photographs
of women in attendance at court who were not aware that they were being photographed. While the
pictures were not particularly suggestive, provocative, or inappropriate, they were accompanied by
statements such as “beautiful,” “looks good for 41” or “could be a model.” reported that there
were pictures of three different women. He did not recall any other person sending pictures or making
comments about the pictures. He indicated that had also been in the
group. Subsequently, in March or April, heard about the picture taken of . He
thought that was odd and then showed her the pictures Mr. Sitake had sent the group.

stated that he did not report the matter at the time. Later, there was discussion within the
office about who might next be assigned to the SVU. Some had suggested that Mr. Sitake would likely
be the attorney assigned to the unit. At that point, discussed the matter and
thought that it might not be appropriate for Mr. Sitake to have that assignment. reported his
concerns to Chad Grunander. He had not saved the pictures. He did say that he would check and let me
know if he could recover them.

He was advised not to discuss the investigation with anyone.

Interview, 8 October 2019

was interviewed in my office. I brought up the issue of pictures being sent on a group
text of women attending Court. He said he did not know anything about any pictures or messages. In
response to further questions he could not recall anything about pictures being sent by Mr. Sitake. He
said he had not heard about any complaints about Mr. Sitake. He will look on his phone to see if he had
anything in his history. He was advised not to discuss the investigation with anyone.

Interview, 8 October 2019

was interviewed in my office. I brought up concerns about pictures of women being sent on
a group text. He said he was not aware of any. In response to further questions he said he did not recall
any pictures or anything like that from Mr. Sitake or anyone else. He said he might have received
pictures from Mr. Sitake but not on the group text but they were of family or something like that—not
what was being described. He stated he did not have any pictures on his phone. He was advised not to
discuss the matter with anyone.

Pona Sitake Interview, 8 October 2019

Mr. Sitake was interviewed in my office. I indicated to Mr. Sitake that I had information that he had
taken pictures at justice court of attendees and that he had shared them with other attorneys on a
group text. He denied this but said he had taken pictures of an attorney while waiting for a jury to come
back. He Identified the attorney as a defense attorney who seemed comical because he always
arrived looking disheveled and “out of it.” He could not explain why others would say that he had taken
pictures of women. He said that while taking pictures of those who attended court or of defendants
would not be illegal, attorneys would be held to a higher standard. He said that would be personally
embarrassed to think that other people in the office thought that he had behaved that way.

I further asked Mr. Sitake if he had taken any pictures of . He said he had not. He did admit
that he had taken a group picture of several attorneys that included at a gathering. He did
admit to sharing the picture with who was on the with
. He said that was (or had been) his .

I asked to see Mr. Sitake’s phone. He handed the phone to me. He had a lot of pictures on his phone.
He had no pictures prior to February of this year. He said that he took a lot of pictures and could not
keep them all saved.

He was advised not to discuss the investigation. The interview was terminated.

Next Steps:
After these interviews I consulted with Ralf Barnes about next steps. I also consulted with Rob Moore at
the Attorney Office. He did not have any other information about the matter. Rob did recommend
further steps.

I left multiple messages with work phone, asking him to call me. He did not
return any call.

I called on 10 October and asked for clarification on a couple of items. was the one
who showed her the picture of herself. She said that had shown her the pictures taken by
Mr. Sitake.

I had Mr. Sitake return to my office on 18 October 2019.

Interview of Pona Sitake, 18 October 2019.

I confronted Mr. Sitake with information that had shown the picture that Sitake
had taken of her. He maintained at first that it was a group picture. And that it had been take at a
luncheon with attorneys that he had been invited to at Provo Mall. Under further questioning he
indicated he had taken it because had a funny look on his face and that was looking at
in the picture. He took the picture he said because he thought expression was
comical. Mr. Sitake admitted that he had shared the picture with .

When asked about , Mr. Sitake, said “I don’t know what’s going on with those two.” I
asked what two he meant? Mr. Sitake responded that he meant “ .” He indicated that
they had a falling out “or something.”

Mr. Sitake continued to deny taking pictures in court, or at court, of attendees and sharing them. He
asked if I had seen the pictures or if anyone had the pictures. He complained that people in the office
were talking about the investigation. He was concerned about his reputation and that people might be
thinking he was a pervert or something. He thought we should be looking into the group of people in
the office that were sending messages on their phone badmouthing Dave Leavitt and that that was
worse than what was complaining about. He also asked why, if people were offended, they
waited so long to report it.

We talked about what would be happening next and I reiterated to him that taking pictures of
coworkers and people at court, whether attorneys or attendees was inappropriate. I told him I would
be wrapping up my investigation soon.
Subsequent Events:
After passing on a draft of my report to Ralf Barnes and to Rob Moore in the Attorney Office, I received
information from Robert Moore that one of the witnesses had more information than he had divulged in
his interview with me.

Based upon the information received, I made an appointment with .

Interview 28 October 2019.

We met in my office. I told him that I had heard that he had more information than he had given me in
our last meeting. He apologized and said that he had thought our previous conversation had been
about being involved.

stated that when Mr. Sitake had been working in Justice Court, (he was not sure of the
dates, whether it was last fall or the first of this year) Sitake had sent “two or three” pictures of
“attractive women” attending court. The pictures were accompanied by text that indicated that Mr.
Sitake found them attractive “cute or pretty.” The pictures were sent to a small group of attorneys that
included Mr. Sitake, . He did not remember being in the group.
He admitted that he had responded that “yes” they were pretty or words to that effect. He did not know
if the pictures were taken in court and he did not know if they were pictures of defendants.

He stated that he never saw any picture that Mr. Sitake had taken of . He said he only heard
about that much later. Because he is in the Civil Division, he doesn’t associate with and
he does not see as much.

Interview 28 October 2019.

We met in my office. said he worked in an office next door to . They work
together on occasion and he was concerned about offending either or his friend, Mr. Sitake.
He said he only recently became aware of the photo of and that they had talked briefly about
it. He was concerned about “her feelings.”

said sometime after I had interviewed him two weeks ago, that had reminded
him of a certain text thread from Mr. Sitake which contained a picture of a woman and
agreed with he— — had received it. Beyond that, told me he had no
independent recollection of it. He indicated to me that he couldn’t remember any other messages with
pictures from Mr. Sitake.

Pona Sitake Interview 29 October 2019.

I confronted Mr. Sitake in my office regarding the new information I had received from and
. His response was basically unchanged. He said he could not remember it. When pressed, he
conceded that it was possible that he took the pictures. But he said that he would never have used
terms like “good looking” or “hottie” to describe women. He admitted that he had taken a picture that
included , but he insisted that it was in a “group setting.” I asked about giving the picture to
. Sitake said I don’t know anything about what’s going on with those two. He said he
meant . I asked if did not want contact with . He said he did
not know and that he had heard it “both ways.” Mr. Sitake said he did not want anything to do with her
and that he doesn’t want to be around her.
He again questioned why it was reported so late if it was so offensive. I indicated simply that our office
had not heard about it until just before I had met with him the first time. He complained that the
behavior was minor and not too serious. I indicated that we have no knowledge about how extensive
and problematic behavior is until can be investigated. He finally questioned the evidence: Essentially, if
we don’t have the pictures and text messages, then we really don’t have a case. I explained to him that
his own behavior in not being forthcoming from the beginning and that his friends seemed to be initially
trying to protect him and then changing their information and the fact that his camera no longer had
pictures from before February of this year all indicated a high likelihood of a lack of veracity. He stated
that he had gotten a new camera near the beginning of the year and that was the reason for no pictures
being on it from before that time.

I told him that I did not believe that the underlying behavior was all that serious. However, his failure to
take responsibility was disturbing.

31 October 2019
I was contacted by who said he needed to talk to me. We met in my office and
disclosed that he had the pictures on his phone that he had discussed in our previous interview. He said
he had heard that Mr. Sitake was “not taking responsibility” for his actions and was not admitting taking
the pictures. showed me his phone and I saw the pictures. They were four images of two
different women. Three of them were taken at court facilities. I also noted comments with the pictures.
Due to other obligations I was unable to spend more time with . I told him to send me the
communications electronically. I received the documents the morning of 1 November.

Interview with 1 November 2019

and I met in my office after I had reviewed the documents he sent. Copies of the text
messages and pictures are attached to the report as Exhibit 1. Two pictures were of a blonde woman
dated November 8th, 2018. Two other pictures were of a dark-haired woman dated December 17 th,
2018. One picture of the dark-haired woman appears to have been from her Facebook page. The
pictures and comments appear to have been shared by Pona Sitake with , and
. There were no responsive texts from the recipients in the messages.

With one of the pictures, Mr. Sitake refers to said that referred to . He
said i was not part of the group receiving the pictures. was the attorney supervisor

I asked why he did not disclose that he had the pictures right away, especially after I asked
him to forward them to me if he had them. said that he was not sure at the first meeting that
they were still on his phone. After he found them, he was hoping that Mr. Sitake would just admit it and
he wouldn’t have to share them. I explained that his refusal to share the pictures with me caused a
significant disruption to the investigation and caused the investigation to take much longer than it
should have. I told him that it was not up to him to decide how the investigation should go and that he
could be expected to be disciplined. He admitted he was in error and that he should have provided the
pictures before.

I also questioned about who he contacted about the investigation. He said he asked
what was going on with the investigation and that refused to talk to him about it. He
also contacted had spoken with a few times about the situation. She
was upset about having her integrity questioned with all the talk going around about the investigation.
He stated that he did not know of anyone, including , being harassed for reporting Mr.
Sitake’s behavior or for being a witness.

Final Interview with Pona Sitake, 5 November 2019

I spoke with Pona Sitake in my office in the morning. I presented him with a Garrity Warning in writing,
which he read and executed. I asked if he had taken pictures of women in justice court last year. He
said that he must have because people said he had. He said he did not recall it personally. Mr. Sitake
said he had already admitted the taking the picture that included which he had shared with
. He agreed that he shouldn’t have taken pictures at court.

I showed Mr. Sitake the text messages I had received from which I had printed out. He
examined the pictures and the text. He then indicated that he did recall at least some of them. Mr.
Sitake indicated that he did not recall them until he looked at them.

We discussed next steps and possible disciplinary action. I indicated that the discipline imposed was not
up to me.

Summary
Four witnesses have stated that that they saw pictures of women with text messages sent by Mr. Sitake
from a court setting. Mr. Sitake finally admitted taking them and sharing them in a group text after
seeing the pictures produced by the investigation. The messages sent with the pictures were statements
regarding the attractiveness of the women, and the images were taken without the subjects’
knowledge.

stated that she had seen a picture of herself, which she was able to identify as being taken at
lunch gathering of attorneys at South Town Mall. She was told by , that it was taken by
Pona Sitake. has failed to respond to my requests to meet. Mr. Sitake also has admitted
that he took a picture that included without her knowledge which he shared with Officer

Conclusions and Recommendations

Mr. Sitake has been less than forthcoming about his participation in these events. His tendency to divert
attention and complain about the conduct of others instead of accepting responsibility is particularly
disturbing. His behavior in any case has been less than professional. Mr. Sitake’s behavior was in
violation the Utah County Office of Human Resource Management Rules and Regulations as it was
conduct which causes discredit to the organization.

While the initial concerns raised by as to hostile work environment are marginal, there is the
serious matter of Mr. Sitake’s failing to answer honestly and take responsibility for his actions. It is
recommended that he serve a one-to-three-day suspension as consequence.

It is also apparent that have been to varying degrees less

than candid under questioning or have withheld information under an official investigation. It is
recommended that each receive at least, a documented counseling and at most, a written reprimand.