(KCPW News) Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill says he won’t file criminal charges against the Salt Lake City police officer accused of an unjustified shooting in May. Gill sent a letter to Police Chief Chris Burbank today saying a review of the investigation determined there was cause to believe that Officer Mathew Giles’ actions violated the law, but there wasn’t enough evidence to support a criminal case.
“There are many times when we do criminal screenings, we think that they violated the law,” Gill says. “In fact, we may even know that they violated the law. But when we start to Marshall out the evidence that is going to be necessary to meet our criminal burden of proof, sometimes it’s not there because the evidence isn’t there.”
Giles was involved in the pursuit of a vehicle stolen by a juvenile, and fired at it eight times. After an investigation, it was determined the car was 60 to 90 feet away from him, not the 20 feet Giles had reported, meaning his life wasn’t in imminent danger. But Gill says a jury would have found the story incomplete.
“The process worked they way it should have occurred. We couldn’t file any criminal charges,” he says. “The next step is to his department and his chief and any administrative remedies that they may have and any administrative remedies that might be available to the post in relationship to our conclusion of not finding his shoot justified.”
Officer Giles had previously been placed on administrative leave. Chief Burbank’s office declined to comment, and will not release a statement.
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3 weeks ago my husbands 2 adult daughters age 20 and 23 came to our house, parked down the street, 1 knocked on door while the other stayed out of view when I opened the door they both stepped in and started yelling then I was knocked to the ground where they both kept scratching my face and hitting my face repeatedly. Before they ran out the door one of them pulled the phone line from the phone. My next door neighbor saw both girls running away from my house down the street and get in their car and drive away. I had to use my neighbors cell phone to call police. An officer came took my report. I went to the hospital and x-rays for head trauma. Later I found out that the girls called and filed a counter complaint against me saying I attacked them first, then I was told that I could be the one charged with assault, or that no one would be charged. How could this be right? I didn’t hit or even attempt to hit anyone. Both girls have a history of fighting. What can I do, so that they can’t get away with this.