Transcription
Sir, are you employed?
I am.
How are you employed?
I'm employed by Salt Lake County. I'm their real estate operations and asset manager. I manage their portfolio of 1,700 parcels and about a $5 billion portfolio.
Um, do you have any other licenses or um Yeah, licenses. Let's go with that.
I do. Yes, I'm a licensed realtor as well as licensed licensed appraiser.
I see.
Um, you are married to Katie Riches Benson.
Yes.
And, um, did you know Eric?
I did.
And Corey?
Yes.
Okay.
Are you familiar with the address of uh, 282 Willow Court Road?
I am.
How are you familiar with that?
That is one of our prior homes and Eric Ridgen's home.
Okay. Um, so you lived in it beforehand?
Yes, we did.
And then what happened?
Uh, we sold the home to Eric Richens.
I see. Um, after uh Eric died, um, where did Corey and and uh the kids live?
Uh Corey and the kids lived at Eric's home at the 282 Willow Court address.
Okay. And then after May 8th, um who was responsible for securing that address?
That was me.
Okay. And what did what did you do to secure that home?
Uh, so on May 8th, uh I arranged for a locksmith to come and change all the locks. Um, I also arranged for a private security company to come out, watch the home until we could get internet service provided as well as install cameras around the property.
Okay. Once you had the internet, what happened then?
Uh, that was when we could install the cameras. The cameras require an internet access in order to record.
I see. And um how long did that take before you got the cameras installed?
That was as quickly as possible. So we had private security there. Um, we had private security there for two days until we could get that until we could get that internet internet up and running.
Was there a person there 24/7?
There was. Yeah.
Um did you take any other efforts to make sure no one entered that home?
the I also taped doors throughout the property so then I would know if door was open and closed.
Okay. Um now did you have any real time notice if if there was some disturbance or something?
I did. So those cameras would send me send my cell phone a notice anytime something was tripped. So that included even something as small as as bug movement would would trigger on the phone. So, I'd be watching that.
So, did you get uh a lot of notices?
It was a lot of notices. Yeah.
Okay. Um what did you do upon receiving a notice?
Uh receiving a notice, I would of course, you know, pull up the footage. I'd review it, make sure there was not a person that was trying to access the home. And at that point, then I would if there was no no one trying to access it, then of course I would close it down. But
Okay. If there was somebody,
I would immediately call law enforcement.
Okay. Did you ever have to call law enforcement?
I did.
Did they show up?
They did within minutes.
Did uh Are you aware aware of any entry to the the house? Let me back up. Is there a se a separate garage?
There is a separate detached garage.
Okay. Um are you aware of any unauthorized entry of the home or the detached garage during the time you were in charge of security?
No, there was no entry.
Um, were there occasions when authorized personnel needed or wanted to make entry?
There was.
Um, who who would that have been?
It would be the sheriff's personnel and they would arrange through me if they needed to access the home.
I see. Were there occasions when you yourself went in?
There was
tell me about that.
Uh, so I would go in the home if the kids if the kids uh meaning Carter Ashton or Weston if they had to if they had requested a specific item uh so they still did have clothing in the home as well as some sentimental items, trophies, things like that that they wanted in the home.
And so how did that how did that work? just you did it and no one else or
uh it was primarily me. Occasionally there was one instance where there was a live animal in the home. Carter did have a lizard. Um, so I had to have help to carry that out of the home. So I had a family member help me do that.
Okay. But always you were there?
Yes.
Okay. And um were there occasions when um I think there's been mention of a Todd Gabler. Do you know him?
Yes.
Was there times when he asked to have entry?
Yes.
Were you with him?
I was.
Okay. How about um defense attorneys or investigators? Did they have access?
Yes, we would uh if they did if they did request access, we would we would go with them to go through the home.
Okay. when you were uh going through the uh house, did you ever not through the house, when you were inside the house on any occasion? Um did you ever see a missionary journal?
I do recall a missionary journal. They had a they had a their master bedroom had a large master closet that was attached.
Who's they?
Uh, Corey and Eric.
Okay.
Yeah. So, the master bedroom had a large closet that was attached and I believe it was on the right side of that closet.
Okay. This journal was
Yes.
Okay. Do you know whether Eric went on a mission?
He did go on a mission.
Um during uh during your time in the home either during this period or other occasions, did you see some written coupons?
I did. Yeah.
Where did you see those?
In the master bedroom.
When did you see that? Do you recall?
I >> approximately
I don't recall when I saw
After May 23. Correct. Yeah. I see. I'd >> like to turn your attention to October or November of 2020. Um, were you present with Katie when there was a a phone call from Eric?
I was.
Okay. And could you hear the the phone conversation?
I could I could she she had it on speaker phone.
I see. Um, you had you had uh met Eric prior to that.
I mean, you had known him for some years before that.
Yes.
Um, so could you tell what his demeanor was like?
I could. He was extremely duress. I mean, he was he was really upset.
Um, angry upset or sad upset or a little bit of both.
I mean,
it was a combination of both.
I see. Um, did he explain to you uh why he was upset?
I'm not asking you what he said. I'm asking
did he explain why he was upset?
Yes.
Okay. Having heard that, um, did you do something uh to to assist with the situation?
I did.
What did you do?
Um I I knew he was on his way over to our home after overhearing the conversation with Katie. Um in the amount of time it took him to get from where he was to our house, I was able to pull up the Summit County website, the recorder's website, um where I could pull up the property address, um as well as the parcel ID and be able to view all of the recorded documents against the home.
I see. And um when you looked at that, did you find something that concerned you about the 282 willow court?
I did.
And what was that?
Uh I found a $250,000 home equity line of credit that was taken out against Eric's house.
Um did you pass that information on to Eric?
Yes.
Um after that conversation, that passing of that information. Um, can you relate to us Eric's demeanor in that point?
Yeah, his demeanor was still very upset and very sad in general. So
do you know what he did following that?
Uh, what he did following that? So, we had a discussion about divorce attorneys while he was there as a result of finding finding out about that line of credit.
So, how did you suggest a name?
I did.
Okay. Was that on request or you're Were you encouraging?
Uh, it was on request and uh the Yeah. So, I mean, obviously Eric was extremely upset about what was happening and it was just that conversation we were having where it was the next step would be to get a divorce attorney involved. And so did you suggest a name?
I did.
Who was that?
Christina Miller.
Um, did you work out a system of communication between Christina Miller and Eric?
I did.
And what was that? Could you just describe it?
Uh, so I was an intermediary. Um, so I would handle phone calls as well as emails uh back and forth. So Eric, they had requested certain amounts of of information from Eric and I would handle that passage of of information.
Okay.
Let's go back to uh 2012 for a moment. You said that that was when you sold the home. You and your wife sold the home to Eric. Correct.
Correct.
And Eric and Corey were living together at that time. Correct.
I believe so. I can't say for sure, but I believe so.
Well, when Eric moved into the home, Corey moved into the home with him. Correct.
I believe so.
And they were married less than a year after moving into that home together.
Yes, that sounds correct.
All right. So that home was always lived in by both Eric and Corey from the time Eric took possession of it. Correct?
From the time of possession.
Did they live in that home the entire time together?
I >> All right. Yes.
Did they live in that home p as their primary home? not talking about when maybe some of them stayed somewhere else, but was that their primary home together from 2012 until the time of his death?
I am aware that Corey had uh leased a home in Oakley where she was going to live separately for a period of time.
Um, so I can't answer that. I know for certain that they've both lived in that home the entire time.
Are you aware that Corey never did live in another home during that period?
No.
All right.
So, you talked about then at that same Well, not that same time frame. You talked about then in 2020 that you helped Eric hire a divorce attorney.
Yes.
So, two years before his death, you and you talked about it was that he'd found out some information he was upset about with Corey.
Correct. Correct.
And so you reached out to Christina Miller. You sent an email to her. Correct.
Yes, I did.
Asking if she would represent your brother-in-law.
Correct.
I asked if she would be willing to represent him. So
All right. And you set up the appointment for him.
Yes.
Did you attend the appointment with him?
I did not.
All right. But you you uh described yourself as an intermediary, but wasn't it decided that all correspondence would be between you and the attorney, not between Eric and the attorney?
That's incorrect. Eric did attend in-person meetings with Christina that I was not there for.
I understand. My question was not inerson meetings, all correspondence by email, for example.
Yes.
And all documentation that the lawyer requested from Eric was sent by you. Correct.
As far as documentation that I knew about the Eric may have sent additional documentation that I didn't know about, but anything that I was aware of, I did send.
All right. So, as far as you know, all documentation was sent by you.
As far as I know of documentation that I was informed about, I did send that correspondence.
Understood. And you were the one to gather up the documents from Eric. Correct.
It would depend on if it was an in-person meeting or not. If Eric did something in person, I do not know what documentation he brought to Christina.
All right. Let's just take a step back. Did you send the documentation to the divorce lawyer that was requested?
Yes.
All right. And is it fair to say you were doing this because Eric didn't want Corey to know he was considering a divorce at that time?
Fair. Eric was aware that Corey was watching his emails and didn't want her to know.
So, he didn't want her to know he was considering divorce.
I can't speak for him. So, I don't know exactly what he was thinking at that moment.
All right. But he asked all the correspondence be with you and not with him. email and things being anything sent either email or mail was all done by you.
I can't say in general all correspondence. So I've got we got to clarify that. It's only correspondence that I am aware of. So whatever Eric did outside of my knowledge, I can't answer that.
I understand that. And you're not aware of any other correspondence that Eric did? You're just not aware?
No. the divorce attorney would be the best source of the information.
All right. And we'll get a chance to talk to her. So anyway, but ultimately Eric decided that he was not going to divorce Corey. Correct.
Correct.
And nothing came of these meetings and correspondence. Correct.
Uh well, because of the the the trust was created because of this correspondence.
So
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to talk over you.
Yeah. episode. I recommended Christina Miller for as the divorce attorney. She recommended Crystal Bowman to manage and write Eric's trust.
I understand that. But nothing happened as far as a divorce. Correct.
They did not get divorced. No.
Right. Fair to say that at that time you and your family or at least you and Katie were supportive of him divorcing Miss Richens.
Fair.
We were supportive of Eric no matter what the arrangement was. We were supportive while they were married. We were supportive of the divorce as well. So that was his choice.
All right.