SALT LAKE CITY — A grueling week of accusations and mud slinging finally came to an end as the House Ethics Committee ruled in favor of Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, last Friday.

Hughes had faced charges of misconduct but was exonerated on all counts. However, the committee did sign a letter of reproach for his conduct which was considered “unbecoming a member of the House.”

“The conduct is completely unrelated to the bribery charges,” said Utah Republican Vice Chair Todd Weiler. “It is for his personality and his brashness. He’s the kind of guy who if he disagrees he’ll come up and tell you. Hughes needs to learn from that.”

But Utah Democratic Vice Chair Rob Miller sees it differently. “I believe there was enough evidence and response that shows some unethical behavior,” he said. “But because of the lack of conduct guide rules and regulations, that was the best they (the committee) could do.”

Miller said he wasn’t surprised that Hughes would be reprimanded for his behavior, citing an occasion where he swore at another legislator on the floor of the Legislature.

“This is a guy who physically threatened Phil Riesen when he found out he’d leaked information to the media,” said Miller. “He has also been accusing his opponent, Lisa Johnson, for being behind the ethics complaint. I can say I know she had nothing to do with it. In a world of ethics, it’s funny he’s upset about Phil giving information to the media when the Republican party quietly leaked information against Steve Mascaro (R-West Jordan).”

Weiler on the other hand believes the whole thing was a case of dirty politics at its worst.

“It is just unethical for them to wait almost 2 1/2 years and spring serious allegations on a candidate three weeks before an election,” Weiler said. “With Phil Riesen taking a letter that was meant to be private and giving it to KSL, he has established a new low. It was a calculated strategy designed to directly affect the election. He was convicted by the media.”

Both parties point to the other for unethical behavior. Weiler says every effort was made to drag out the proceedings against Hughes but Miller contends that the Democrats had no ulterior motives with the complaint.

As late as last Friday, accusations were still flying when Hughes’ attorney, Thomas Karrenberg, asked the committee to recommend possible perjury charges against Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful for her testimony before the committee last week.

Allen told the committee she had not become involved with the Hughes complaint until July, but Karrenberg contends a letter dated April 30 from attorney Alan Smith, who was hired to draft an ethics complaint against Hughes and others, included Allen.

“This is all part of a deliberate misrepresentation by Hughes’ attorney,” said David Irvine, Allen’s attorney. “He is referring to a letter dated last April that somehow he says Sheryl was mentioned in. But it is completely false. She had no client relationship at that time with Alan Smith.”

“This is just unfounded,” said Allen. “There is nothing more than that.”

Irvine said Allen’s testimony was truthful and that Karrenberg was just trying to distract attention from his client. “It’s just him broadcasting live from Capitol Hill.”

bginos@davisclipper.com