Investigation, protection order among county's top stories
As the clock counts down to the new year, the Daily Bee is similarly counting down the top five county stories of the year.
1. James David Russell sentenced to life in prison
Russell was arrested after the brutal murder of David Flaget, 70, in 2021. He was taken into custody Sept. 2021 after a brief standoff with police, following the discovery of Flaget’s body in Russell’s car, wrapped in plastic.
Russell pled guilty to second-degree murder in his early 2023 trial hearing, after reaching a plea deal to have the sentence reduced from first-degree murder. At first, Russell was also facing a cannibalism charge, however, that charge was dropped after prosecutors could not fully prove that Russell had ingested any part of Flaget’s body.
The Clark Fork man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in January after the judge said this sentence was the only way to protect both the public and Russell himself from further damage.
2. Darcey Smith investigation findings released
Former fair manager Darcey Smith died by suicide in October 2022 following claims that she had committed fraud at the Bonner County Fairgrounds. An investigation regarding the alleged fraud and her death, released in August, seemed to leave people with more questions rather than answers.
The 20-page report, released by Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, contended Smith misappropriated roughly $40,000 in fair funds over the course of four years. Among the incidents the report refers to as evidence of the alleged misappropriation are unclear invoices, an unauthorized PayPal account created for fair use, allegedly missing bank funds and multiple checks paid to individuals for part-time fair work.
The investigators mentioned the account balances in Smith’s family’s bank account. However, they failed to mention fishy deposits amounting to the alleged missing fair funds nor did they provide any other proof as to why the Smiths’ bank balance created reasonable suspicion.
Wheeler also criticizes the county’s clerk, comptroller, board of commissioners, and external auditor in the investigation, alleging illegal conduct on their part as the reason the alleged fraud was able to happen.
However, the investigation was inconclusive to many county residents, a few of whom claimed there wasn’t a shroud of solid evidence in the entire 20-page report. One county resident called the investigation a “vague narrative filled with ambiguous innuendos and several blatant inaccuracies.”
Bonner County Commissioner Steve Bradshaw read a statement that originally was to be released before Wheeler decided to release his own.
“[Wheeler’s statement] is full of inaccurate information and can be misleading,” Bradshaw said. “Bonner County and the fair board are looking at ways to recoup at least some of the losses as the fair runs on an extremely tight budget.”
The Attorney General’s Office was contacted for a second set of eyes on the investigation, but no further information has been provided regarding its findings.
3. IDPR RV Park grant dies in Phase II
A nearly $500,000 Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation grant for a new RV park at the Bonner County Fairgrounds died after an extension request was denied.
The grant, which was awarded in 2022, saw the first phase of the project completed at the end of last year. However, problems began arising during the second phase, earlier this year. Many county residents became unhappy with the proposed project, claiming the piece of land the RV park would sit on should be used for something else.
This contention, as well as an official statement from the Bonner County Fair Board stating they were denying the grant — which of itself has no legal repercussions — halted construction at the site, ultimately pushing the county past its deadline for phase two.
When an extension was requested from IDPR in June, it was denied for multiple reasons. The lack of movement on the project over the past few months was one of the reasons officials said they decided to deny the extension request. In addition to the absence of movement, the lack of completed bids as well as the fair board’s disapproval of the project were the other two reasons stated for the denial.
With that, the grant money was taken back and it is still unclear how the county plans to move forward with the project, if it moves forward at all.
4. Civil protection order filed against Commissioner Bradshaw
In August, a judge granted a temporary civil protection order against Commissioner Steve Bradshaw, filed by fellow Commissioner Asia Williams. The request for protection came after Williams alleged Bradshaw threatened to shoot her.
The order prohibits Bradshaw from being in the Bonner County Administration Building and from being within 100 feet of Williams. Bradshaw is not allowed to carry weapons into the building and a deputy from the sheriff’s office now sits in on every meeting to ensure Williams’s safety.
Additionally, Bradshaw gave up his position as the chair of the board and handed the reins to Commissioner Luke Omodt. The order will be in place for one year.
While further details of the protection order or the incident that caused it have not legally been shared with the public, many are speculating that Bradshaw was wrongfully accused. On the opposite side of the spectrum, many are calling for harsher penalties for Bradshaw, as they believe he is a real threat to anyone who sits in on the meetings, not just to Williams.
The topic of this protection order has had a snowball effect in the county, opening arguments to a plethora of other issues in the county, and continues to be brought up almost weekly at the commissioners’ business meetings.
5. Deputy caught filming in BOCC executive sessions
In November, it was discovered that the deputy who is ordered to sit in on commissioners’ meetings due to Commissioner Asia Williams’s civil protection order had been filming the entirety of those meetings — including executive sessions.
While Idaho’s open meeting laws don’t explicitly prohibit recording in an executive session, the distribution of that information could violate federal privacy and other laws, Commissioner Luke Omodt said.
Bonner County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Tony Riffel acknowledged that bodycam video of executive sessions exists and has been uploaded to a private server that is not available to the public. Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, who assigned Riffel to the meetings, said that neither he nor any of his staff have access to those recordings, only Lt. Riffel does.
Williams claimed the deputy was recording the meetings due to a sheriff’s office policy that states a deputy’s body camera must be on at all times. However, none of the sheriff’s office’s body camera policies state such.
Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall claimed that recording in executive sessions, and potentially spreading that recording to the public, is not illegal.
However, while Marshall said recording and sharing information made in executive session is legally allowed, he said that any public records requests made for those recordings would most likely be denied due to the confidentiality of the information contained in that recording, prompting even more questions from the public on how one is legal when the other is not.
This prompted the commissioners to vote to seek further clarification on Williams’s protection order, seeing whether a deputy is required to attend the meetings. That information has not yet been announced.