Legal Fees Stack Up for San Juan County, Utah

After multiple high-profile legal battles over the past two years, legal costs for San Juan County, Utah have reached almost 2 million dollars. That’s according to a reportin the San Juan Record. The newspaper finds the county has spent over half a million dollars on its legal fight against the Bears Ears National Monument, and about $320,000 dollars on other public lands-related issues. Three voting rights cases have also cost the county a total of about $900,000 dollars, not including another $3 million sought by the Navajo Nation after winning several of the cases. Other costs come from a criminal complaint against San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge and a lawsuit against the county’s approval of a wind farm near Monticello. The costs are also expected to rise as some of the cases continue. According to the State of Utah, the county’s combined operating expenses for the past two years were about $46 million.