CACHE COUNTY – With minimal discussion, Dane Murray was named acting county attorney at a regular meeting of the Cache County Council on Feb. 10.
The pro forma vote was unanimous, with Murray replacing former county attorney K. Taylor Sorensen until the Cache County Republicans Party can take action to forward its recommendations for an interim replacement in early March.
Murray has worked at the Cache County Attorney’s Office on and off since May of 2015. During that time, he has served as a deputy county attorney, chief prosecutor and as interim county attorney from November of 2022 until January of 2023, when he briefly left the office to pursue opportunities with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Council member Mark Hurd read a proclamation saluting the outgoing Sorensen, who resigned effective Feb. 8 to return to private practice, for “his dedicated and irreplaceable service to the county” as attorney from January of 2025 to February of 2026.
The council’s vote on Feb. 10 completed the first step in a complicated three-part process to find a permanent replacement for Sorensen, according to County Clerk Bryson Behm.
With Murray temporarily “minding the store” as acting county attorney, the Cache County GOP is already accepting applications from the local legal community for lawyers seeking appointment as interim county attorney.
Thus far, that field of candidates includes Murray; J. Brett Chambers of the law firm of Harris, Preston & Chambers, LLC; and Chris Daines of the local firm of Daines, Thomas & Smith Attorneys.
The Cache County Republicans will meet to review those and any additional candidates on Saturday, Mar. 7 at Sky View High School in Smithfield. They will select up to three candidates whose names will be forwarded to the Cache County Council to assume the role of interim county attorney for the remainder of Sorensen’s unexpired term of office until the end of 2026.
Finally, Cache County voters will pick a permanent county attorney during the midterm election balloting in November.
During the filing period for candidates in the upcoming 2026 election that closed Jan. 8, Chambers, Daines and Murray all signaled their intent to run in that countywide balloting.