Plea resolves case against former county clerk

SANDPOINT — Former Bonner County Clerk Ann Dutson-Sater pleaded guilty Tuesday to a reduced charge in connection with her mishandling of a failed Lake Pend Oreille School District trustee recall election.

Dutson-Sater was originally charged with subornation of perjury for allowing a recall organizer to certify that he had witnessed all of the signatures being gathered when he had only seen a majority of them.

Dutson-Sater’s three-day jury trial was to start this week in 1st District Court, but was called off last week because she entered into a plea agreement which reduced the felony offense to a misdemeanor.

Dutson-Sater pleaded guilty to making a false statement as a public official by sending school board Chairman Steve Youngdahl a letter informing him that recall organizers successfully petitioned for an election.

Unbeknownst to Dutson-Sater, however, the statement was false at the time it was made. It was later determined that Dutson-Sater and her staff mistakenly allowed recall organizers to gather and submit additional signatures after some were disallowed.

Idaho law requires recall petition signatures to be submitted all at once. As a result, the recall election was called off.

But as the dust settled, Youngdahl raised questions with county commissioners about recall organizers’ conduct during the recall attempt. Youngdahl accused organizers of making material misrepresentations about his security proposal and noted discrepancies in the signature-gathering process.

Bonner County officials asked the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office to investigate Youngdahl’s accusations, which led to the criminal charge against Dutson-Sater.

Dutson-Sater called the situation a “comedy of errors which turned into a nightmare” when she was interviewed by Det. Jerry Northrup.

Working in Dutson-Sater’s favor was a lack of a prior criminal record and the fact that the recall election was never held. However, Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh said there still needed to be consequences for Dutson-Sater’s “bad judgment.”

“It is still a serious matter,” said McHugh, who recommended a suspended 30-day jail sentence, 100 hours of community service and a year of unsupervised probation.

Dutson-Sater’s defense counsel, Sandpoint attorney Bryce Powell, apportioned some of the recall missteps on a deputy clerk and noted that Dutson-Sater had received limited training from the Idaho Secretary of State after being appointed clerk in 2013.

However, Powell said Dutson-Sater admits mistakenly telling the recall backer that he could certify the signatures.

“We know that that’s incorrect and that is a mistake she regrets wholeheartedly,” said Powell.

County commissioners appointed Dutson-Sater to complete the remainder of former Clerk Marie Scott’s term in office. Dutson-Sater, the last Democrat to hold office in Bonner County, lost the position to Republican Michael Rosedale in last year’s general election.

“I feel a great deal of remorse for my part in this recall election. As a result, I did lose the election and it was a job I really loved,” said Dutson-Sater. “Since then, I’ve been passed over for several jobs that I was well qualified for due to the pending charges.”

Senior District Judge John Patrick Luster doubted that Dutson-Sater was knowingly engaged in election fraud but that prosecution of the case sent a strong message about the need to be fastidious when dealing with processes that are fundamental to democracy.

“Hopefully it will reinforce the following of procedures and the letter of the law when it comes to the election process,” Luster said.

Luster adopted the state’s sentencing recommendation, but did not impose a suspended sentence. He also granted a withheld judgment, which means no judgment of conviction is entered if Dutson-Sater successfully completes probation.