PARK CITY, Utah — Newly unsealed court records show that investigators pulled Verizon phone data belonging to Park City Police Chief Wade Carpenter and former Summit County Sheriff David Edmunds as part of a growing obstruction of justice case tied to Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby.
Summit County detectives filed the warrant back in May, seeking records from three phones — Rigby’s, Carpenter’s, and Edmunds’ — after investigators concluded the devices may have been used to interfere with a criminal case. The filing stayed sealed for months before becoming public on Aug. 11.
At the center of the case is Eric Mainord, a Summit County Sheriff’s Office detective who had worked the high-profile Kouri Richins murder investigation and was seen as a possible witness at trial. Mainord happened to be running against Rigby for Wasatch County sheriff at the same time.
Court documents allege the effort to undercut Mainord started with a records request. On Dec. 22, 2025, Carpenter reportedly called the Summit County Deputy Chief to say a public records request — known in Utah as a GRAMA request — would soon be filed with Heber City Police for Mainord’s personnel file. He also allegedly passed along that Rigby wanted the deputy chief to have Mainord call him directly.
Nine days later, Edmunds followed up personally, calling the Heber City police chief to ask about the status of that same records request. Investigators say the timing lines up with what happened next: two weeks after that call, Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson received an anonymous, unsigned letter — no return address — accusing Mainord of unspecified misconduct and questioning whether he could be trusted as a witness. The letter reportedly repeated the same 13 claims that had been the subject of the earlier records request.
The warrant also details a Jan. 8 sit-down between Rigby and Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates. According to the affidavit, Rigby showed Bates the allegations against Mainord and suggested the information could affect the Richins prosecution — leaving Bates, in her own account to investigators, with the impression that the material would surface publicly unless Mainord dropped out of the sheriff’s race.
Roughly half an hour after that meeting, Bates got a call from Carpenter, who reportedly told her she’d been “ambushed” and pushed her to raise the matter with the county attorney’s office, warning it would be “unfortunate” if the records request affected the Richins trial.
It’s worth noting what a search warrant affidavit actually is: it lays out investigators’ probable-cause argument for a search. It isn’t proof that a crime happened, and it doesn’t mean anyone named in it is guilty of anything.
What’s happened since:
Mainord never testified at the Richins trial and dropped his sheriff campaign on May 27. Rigby went on to lose the June 23 Republican primary to Jeremy Hales. Richins herself was convicted in March of aggravated murder in connection with her husband Eric’s 2022 fentanyl poisoning death.
Rigby has since pushed back publicly. Through his attorney, he said in an Aug. 19 statement, “I acted lawfully and have done nothing wrong.” An attorney representing both Carpenter and Edmunds said the same — that neither man did anything improper.
Meanwhile, Carpenter appears to still have institutional backing at home. Park City’s mayor came out this week saying she has “full confidence” in her police chief, even as the investigation continues. Carpenter has led the Park City Police Department since 2008, while Edmunds served three terms as Summit County sheriff after first winning election in 2002.
As of now, no one — Rigby, Carpenter, or Edmunds — has been criminally charged in connection with the obstruction investigation.
This story is developing and will be updated as new information is confirmed.
