Sheriff, 4 staff charged after inmates abused with stun guns

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s attorney general has filed charges against a former sheriff and four deputies after prosecutors say at least one jailer used a stun gun on inmates in exchange for soda or as hazing when assigned to a work crew.

Utah Attorney General’s Office spokesman Dan Burton said charges were filed Friday against former Daggett County Sheriff Jerry R. Jorgensen and four deputies.

Jorgensen and a deputy resigned in April. Two more deputies were fired in April and a fourth quit in January.

Phone numbers listed for Jorgensen were disconnected and he did not have a listed attorney Friday.

State officials began investigating the rural eastern Utah jail earlier this year after Jorgensen reported possible mistreatment of inmates.

Utah’s Corrections Department soon emptied the jail, transferring its 80 male inmates other jails and prisons.