Amid affair allegations, Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen resigns

About three weeks after Utah’s top state leaders called for an “independent investigation” into previously investigated and dismissed allegations that she had an affair with an attorney, Utah Supreme Court Diana Hagen resigned from the bench on Friday. 

“It is with deep sadness that I tender my immediate resignation as a Justice of the Utah Supreme Court,” Hagen wrote in a resignation letter to Gov. Spencer Cox, while expressing “profound love and respect” for her fellow justices. “I sincerely regret the disruption my sudden departure will cause the Court and the parties who come before it.”

Hagen’s resignation comes after the Judicial Conduct Commission had already looked into and dismissed the allegations against her by voting not to pursue a full investigation after a preliminary investigator said the complaint against her lacked credibility. 

But that preliminary report came to light after the Utah House released the document to KSL in response to an open records request last month. The day after the report made headlines, the Utah Supreme Court issued a statement saying documents detailing the allegations against Hagen were confidential and “inappropriately released to the public.” The House speaker, in response, argued that his office followed Utah law when releasing the records. 

Utah’s judiciary has been in the crosshairs of Republican legislators over decisions in cases involving abortion and redistricting.

Hagen, in a letter to the Judicial Conduct Commission after the allegations were brought against her in December 2025, said her “ex-husband’s accusations of adultery are false,” and that “the insinuation that I was ethically compromised while carrying out my official duties is patently false.” 

Hagen had recused herself from cases involving the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in the state’s high-profile redistricting case, David Reymann, after she said she rekindled a friendship with him as her marriage broke down in spring 2025. 

But Friday — after Cox and other top Republican state leaders had called for an independent investigation into the allegations against her, not satisfied with how the Judicial Conduct Commission had handled them — Hagen tendered her resignation. 

Hagen wrote that she has “faithfully upheld my oath to the constitution and the ethical obligation that govern our profession,” but she’s resigning because she didn’t want her friends and family to be dragged into the public controversy.

“I also understand that public officials are rightly held to a higher standard and must accept a greater degree of public scrutiny and diminished privacy,” Hagen said. “But my family and friends did not choose public life. They do not deserve to have intensely personal details surrounding the painful dissolution of my thirty-year marriage subjected to public scrutiny.”

Hagen wrote that she would “love nothing more than to continue serving” as a Utah Supreme Court justice, “but I cannot do so without sacrificing the privacy and well-being of those I care about and the effective functioning and independence of Utah’s judiciary.”

The allegations

According to a report detailing the preliminary investigation into Hagen, a Judicial Conduct Commission investigator had interviewed Hagen’s ex-husband, Tobin Hagen, who he noted “did not approve” of the complaint being submitted to the JCC. 

The complaint was submitted by an attorney, Michael Worley, after Tobin Hagen sent him a Facebook message acknowledging their divorce while accusing Hagen of having an affair with Reymann. 

Ultimately, the investigator concluded that the message Hagen sent Worley was “speculative, overstated, and misleading,” and there was “very little credibility to this complaint.” He also concluded that there was “insufficient evidence to support” the allegation that Hagen had an extramarital affair and that there was “conflicting guidance on whether such infidelity by a judge in and of itself warrants discipline.” 

“Additional investigative steps could be taken to further investigate the allegation of infidelity,” the investigator wrote in the report, listing examples like interviewing Diana Hagen’s two adult children, Reymann and his wife, and issuing a subpoena for the text messages. “However, such steps would be intrusive and potentially embarrassing for those involved.”

In line with the investigator’s recommendations, the Judicial Conduct Commission voted not to open a full investigation and dropped the allegations. 

Notably, the JCC’s chair, Cheylynn Hayman, was also on Hagen’s recusal list as a friend, but Hayman recused herself from the JCC vote to dismiss the allegations against Hagen. 

Calls for independent investigation now turn to JCC reforms

Last week, Cox during a PBS Utah news conference called the allegations into Hagen “serious” while reinforcing his support of an independent investigation into her. But at the time, he said state leaders were still working through what that investigation would look like. 

There was a potential the investigation could have been similar to the special investigation committee that the Utah House opened in 2012 to investigate pay-for-play allegations against former Utah Attorney General John Swallow. 

Asked if Hagen’s resignation means legislative leaders will drop the independent investigation into Hagen, Schultz and Adams issued a joint statement saying they would. 

“We appreciate Justice Hagen’s resignation and her willingness to step aside in the best interest of the Institution,” Schultz and Adams said. “We consider this matter related to Justice Hagen concluded and will not conduct any further investigations related to these specific allegations.” 

It is likely, however, that the state’s top Republican leaders will still pursue changes to the Judicial Conduct Commission in the wake of the controversy. 

Cox, along with Utah Supreme Court Justice Matthew Durrant, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz all issued a joint statement shortly after Hagen’s resignation announcement that presented a united front to strengthen “accountability” in the Judicial Conduct Commission. 

“The judicial, executive, and legislative branches are committed to working together on potential reforms to the Judicial Conduct Commission — ensuring it upholds the highest standards of accountability and earns the confidence of the people of Utah,” the joint statement said without elaborating on what those potential reforms could be. 

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Durrant, however, also issued a prepared statement Friday saying he was “saddened” that Hagen “has chosen to resign.” 

“She was a valued member of the judiciary. Justice Hagen has dedicated her legal career to public service. Before joining the bench, she prosecuted the man responsible for kidnapping Elizabeth Smart and fought for justice for crime victims,” Durrant said, referring to one of the most high-profile kidnapping cases to happen in Utah, when Smart was taken from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002. 

“As a Justice, her intellect and abilities are only matched by her kindness and generosity,” Durrant continued. “Justice Hagen took every opportunity to meet with school groups, mentor young lawyers, and connect with members of the public. This is a loss for the judiciary. But I know that Justice Hagen will continue to lift up others in her future endeavors.”

Group raises concerns of political pressure on Hagen

In a statement issued after Hagen’s resignation, Co-Equal Utah — a group of attorneys and other legal professionals that was formed earlier this year to protect the state’s courts from “political interference” — called the events that led up to Hagen’s resignation “deeply troubling.”

“While we don’t have all the underlying facts and thus make no judgments or conclusions therefrom, we respect the findings of the Judicial Conduct Commission, the body the Utah Constitution established to handle exactly these situations. The JCC had already reviewed the complaint and dismissed it as ‘misleading,’” the group said. “That should have been the end of it. Instead, a sitting justice was subjected to a coordinated political pressure campaign until she resigned.”

Co-Equal Utah said what happened to Hagen sends an “unmistakable” message to “every judge in Utah: rule against the Legislature, and this is what follows.” 

“That is how judicial independence dies — not through a single dramatic act, but through sustained pressure designed to make the personal cost of impartiality too high to bear.” 

“When the judiciary becomes a target for political harassment, the pool of people willing to serve narrows, and those who remain are those the political branches prefer, implicitly or explicitly,” Co-Equal Utah continued. “Utah’s courts must be fair, impartial, and free from political pressure, regardless of who holds power. Judges must be able to follow the law without fear of retaliation. That is the foundation of a functioning legal system – and that foundation is now at risk.

Co-Equal Utah called on the Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission and Cox to “honor” Utah’s standard of selecting judges solely on fitness for the position and with no regard to partisan politics or with the aim of delivering “certain desired political outcomes.”

Cox first nominated Hagen to the Utah Supreme Court in 2022, and the Utah Senate confirmed her appointment.

In a news release announcing her resignation, the governor’s office said more information about the process to fill her vacancy will be announced in the coming days. 

Read Hagen’s full resignation letter below:

Hagen Letter of Resignation 5.8.26 final

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