Mark Shurtleff

Education and early career

Shurtleff attended Brighton High School (Cottonwood Heights, Utah), Brigham Young University, University of Utah College of Law, and University of San Diego School of Law. Shurtleff served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Peru. He served four years in the United States Navy as a Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG).

Career

Shurtleff was the Deputy County Attorney and a Commissioner of Salt Lake County and later became an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Utah. Shurtleff was elected Attorney General in November 2000, and re-elected in 2004 and 2008. He is the first Attorney General in Utah to win re-election for a third term.

As Attorney General, Shurtleff issued an official legal opinion stating that under a second law (HB174), private school vouchers would still be funded even if voters rejected the primary voucher bill (HB 148) in a November referendum. In May 2007, Shurtleff testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee as a Republican in support of the Constitutionality of granting full representation in Congress for residents of Washington DC. That year Shurtleff co-founded the Utah Meth Cops Project and raised money to provide detoxification treatment to police officers.

On May 12, 2009, Shurtleff disclosed, via a Twitter message, that he planned to enter the 2010 Republican primary. On November 4, 2009 Shurtleff ended his campaign for U.S. Senate in order to spend more time with his daughter, who was experiencing health problems. That year, he co-founded the Utah Pharmaceutical Drug Crime Project, an unprecedented multi-agency, multi-disciplinary task force to combat the serious problem of prescription drug abuse. Partners included the DEA, FBI, Utah Departments of Public Safety and Human Services, and the Salt Lake City Police Department.

In September 2010, Shurtleff testified before the House Judiciary Committee in support of the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act, an act that seeks to reverse the effects of Granholm v. Heald, a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled unconstitutional state laws that permitted in-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers, but prohibited out-of-state wineries from doing the same. Shurtleff's remarks were drafted by the general counsel of the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

In April 2013, Shurtleff testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in support of comprehensive immigration reform during the Hearing on the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, S.744

In February, 2013, Mark Shurtleff spoke on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on "The Role of State Attorneys General in Enforcing Federal Law" to Congressional staffers at the Civil Justice Caucus Academy run by George Mason University School of Law

In July 2015, Mark Shurtleff with his brother Kevin Shurtleff, started a business called MicromistNOW. This company's first product is the QuickNic Nicotine Inhaler. While attorney general Shurtleff made multiple public statements critical of the tobacco industry.

Allegations of Criminal Misconduct

In 2008 several articles from local news sources accused Shurtleff of corruption and bribery regarding his prosecutorial decisions. These allegations were investigated by the FBI but the United States Department of Justice took no action. In 2014 the Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill filed 10 felony charges against Shurtleff. Davis County District Attorney Troy Rawlings took over the Shurtleff prosecution when Shurtleff's criminal case was severed from former Attorney General John Swallow's. In July 2016 the state criminal charges against Shurtleff were dismissed without prejudice.

Personal life

Shurtleff is married with five children and seven grandchildren. He is an Eagle Scout and is fluent in Spanish. Shurtleff was honored by the Boys and Girls Clubs with their 2012 Living Legacy Award.