POST clears former deputy of wrongdoing

Lunde’s certification will not be stripped

SANDPOINT — Idaho’s Peace Officers Standards & Training Council is upholding the certification of a former Bonner County sheriff’s deputy who alleges he was fired for blowing the whistle on corruption in the department.

The POST Council voted unanimously in February not to strip John Lunde of his law enforcement credentials, said Trish Christy, the council’s management assistant.

“He is fully cleared and a fully certified peace officer in the state of Idaho,” Christy said on Tuesday.

The POST Council is comprised of prosecutors, sheriffs, police chiefs and directors of various law enforcement agencies in the state.

The council’s action follows a unanimous recommendation from a POST hearing board that Lunde’s certification remain intact. The hearing board ruled in October 2007 there were insufficient grounds to proceed with decertification.

Christy said Bonner County Sheriff Elaine Savage’s office requested Lunde be decertified for dishonesty. The investigation began in September 2006, although Christy pointed out the probe was protracted because of limited staffing at the time.

“It’s kind of misleading because we only had one investigator at that time,” Christy said of the investigation’s duration.

Lunde, a Ponderay resident who began working for the sheriff’s office in 1995, was placed on paid leave in 2005 and dismissed five months later.

Lunde filed a lawsuit against Savage and two of her lieutenants in 2006. The suit claimed Lunde was ordered not to issue citations against members of a retired law officers group or relatives of fellow deputies. The suit further alleged grant reports were being falsified and one deputy was carrying on a sexual affair while on duty and another was misappropriating alcohol seized as evidence.

Lunde, meanwhile, was accused of lying to his superiors and investigators conducting an internal inquiry.

Lunde declined to comment on the outcome of the POST review on Tuesday. Savage has consistently stated she will not discuss matters involving Lunde.

The POST Council’s ruling was discussed last month on a talk radio program in which Savage was the guest. Bill Litsinger, host of “The Voice” program on KSPT, read from excerpts of the POST investigative report, which questioned the veracity of the polygraph examiner who tested Lunde and why Lunde was called to testify in a criminal case even though he was suspended and accused of lying.

“It’s pending litigation and I don’t discuss personnel issues,” Savage said on the show.

Litsinger also reported speaking with Christy about the POST ruling. He quoted Christy as saying Lunde would make a “good candidate for a POST ethics investigator.” Christy confirmed that she made such a remark.

“There was just absolutely no wrongdoing,” she said. “His integrity is intact.”