• by Ray Schultz , March 7, 2018

The Utah State Bar is probing how an email blast it sent to state lawyers featured a photo of a topless woman. It also has apologized for what may be the email gaffe of the year.   

“We are horrified,” states John Baldwin, executive director of the Bar. “We are investigating to discover how this occurred. Our goal is to find out what happened and ensure it never happens again.”

The Monday email to attorneys in the state promoted the group’s spring convention in St. George, Utah. Under an image related to the event there was a photo of a topless woman.

This provoked amazement in the highly religious state — and not a few laughs.

"I did feel like I should probably call my wife and I would say it's a good thing that she doesn’t see pornography as a strict liability offense," says attorney Peter Richins, according to Fox News.

"The first thing the judge said when she took the bench was did anyone open their email from the bar yesterday," states attorney Greg Skordas, Fox adds.

The email went to 11,000 active attorneys, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

The incident has received nationwide coverage, 

How did it happen?

Matt Page, communications director of the Bar, said the email was done in-house, and that he personally created the image for the convention, but that no images of topless women were included at that time,” the Tribune writes.

In reporting on the episode on Tuesday, Fox showed the email but edited the image “to conceal nudity,” it said.